'Nutrition monitoring software helping in monitoring anganwadi staff's work'
New Delhi, June 25: The Integrated Child Development Services-Common Application Software (ICDS-CAS), introduced for the 'Poshan Abhiyaan' (nutrition scheme has helped to track proper functioning of anganwadi workers, an official said here on Monday.
"We found that the anganwadi centres do not remain open all the days and with this software, we can keep a track on the functioning of the centres. It is a more systematic pattern and has brought in changes in operation of the scheme," said Women and Child Development Secretary Rakesh Srivastava.
Smartphones with the ICDS-CAS software, provided to the anganwadi workers and lady supervisors, will ensure assigned service delivery and prompts for intervention, he said.
"This data is then made available in near real time supervisory staff from sector, block, district, state to national level through a dashboard for monitoring," he added.
According to the ministry, 95 lakh plus have been registered as beneficiaries under the scheme which is functioning in 57 districts of seven states - Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
The ‘Poshan Abhiyaan' primarily aim to bring down stunting of the children in the age group of 0-6 years from 38.4 per cent to 25 per cent by the year 2022. All 36 states and union territories, and 718 districts will be covered in a phased manner by 2020.
The ministry will also organise a seminar on Thursday on use of technology for steering the programme.
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Waqf Bill anti-secular, will snatch rights of Muslims: Mamata Banerjee
Kolkata (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday described the Waqf (Amendment) Bill as “anti-secular”, claiming that it would snatch the rights of Muslims.
Banerjee, speaking in the assembly, also said the Centre did not consult with states over the matter.
“The bill is anti-federal and anti-secular; it is a deliberate attempt to malign a particular section. It will snatch the rights of Muslims... The Centre did not consult with us on the Waqf Bill,” she said.
The chief minister added that “if any religion was attacked”, she would wholeheartedly condemn it.
Opposition parties have stridently criticised the amendments proposed by the bill in the existing Waqf Act, alleging that they violate the religious rights of Muslims.
The ruling BJP has asserted that the amendments will bring transparency in the functioning of the Waqf boards and make them accountable.
A parliamentary committee has been constituted to scrutinise the contentious bill.
