India CSR founder and CEO Rusen Kumar welcomed the finance minister’s announcement that two lakh anganwadis across the country will be upgraded with better infrastructure, audio-visual aids, and an improved environment for early child development.
“Anganwadi centres have been playing a critical role in pre-school education in rural India. This new scheme will help in tackling the problem of malnutrition prevalent among rural children. It will also improve the education and learning ability of children.”, he said.
The finance minister, in her budget speech, announced that two lakh anganwadis will be upgraded under the Saksham Anganwadis scheme.
The budget allocated for Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0 (Umbrella ICDS – Anganwadi Services, Poshan Abhiyan, Scheme for Adolescent Girls) was Rs 20,263 crore, a small increase from Rs 20,105 crore in 2021-22.
The Union budget allocated to the Women and Child Development Ministry stood at Rs 25,172.28 crore in 2022-23, a slight increase of 3 percent from Rs 24,435 crore that was given in 2021-22.
“We are also happy with the revamping of Mission Poshan 2.0 to fight malnutrition with greater vigor.”, Rusen Kumar, Founder & CEO, India CSR said.
Presenting the Budget for 2022-23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said recognising the importance of ‘Nari Shakti’ as the harbinger of India’s bright future and for women-led development during the ‘Amrit Kaal’, the government has comprehensively revamped the schemes of the Ministry of Women & Child Development.
Accordingly, Mission Shakti, Mission Vatsalya, Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 were launched recently to provide integrated benefits to women and children.
The budget allocated for Mission Shakti (Mission for Protection and Empowerment for Women) was Rs 3,184 crore in 2022-23, increased from Rs 3,109 crore in 2021-22.
For Mission VATSALYA (Child Protection Services and Child Welfare Services), the budget allocated was Rs 1,472 crore, an increase from Rs 900 crore in 2021-22.
The budget allocation for autonomous bodies dropped from Rs 188 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 152 crore in 2022-23. These autonomous bodies include – Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA), the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and the National Commission for Women.
Anganwadi, which is known as a rural child care centre, was introduced in 1975.
