New Delhi: Over 2.13 lakh posts of Anganwadi workers and helpers are lying vacant across the country, and around 5,000 Anganwadi centres have not opened for even a single day in the last six months, a Rajya Sabha panel has found.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports flagged these gaps in its 379th report reviewing the action taken by the Ministry of Women and Child Development on its earlier recommendations. The report was presented on 16 June.
The committee—which had prepared the report under the chairmanship of Congress leader Digvijaya Singh—said 82,065 posts of Anganwadi workers and 1,31,244 posts of helpers are vacant, which is affecting the success of the Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 scheme. The panel is now chaired by Rajasthan Congress MP Mukul Wasnik.
In its response, the Ministry said that a letter was sent to all states and Union territories on 24 June 2025 to fill the posts.
The panel also took up the honorarium paid to these workers. An Anganwadi worker is paid Rs 4,500 a month and a helper Rs 2,250 a month, which the committee said is below the minimum wages fixed by the central government and asked for the pay to be raised. The ministry in response said they are “honorary workers” from the local community who come forward voluntarily.
The report pulled up the ministry on grounds of conflicting data. It noted that three different figures for the total number of Anganwadi centres appeared in the same set of documents, adding that data should be furnished “with due diligence and after proper vetting”.
On Manipur
The sharpest disagreement in the report is over the state of Manipur. The committee had asked the ministry to set up a separate scheme and a dedicated committee for women and children displaced by the violence. It said the state has been “reeling under an extraordinary crisis for 21 months”, with 50,000 to 60,000 people internally displaced.
The ministry declined the committee recommendations and said it already runs Mission Vatsalya, Mission Shakti and Poshan 2.0 in the state, and that “there may not be a requirement to establish a dedicated special committee”.
The committee, rejecting the reply, said reliance only on existing schemes “may not be adequate” and asked the ministry to earmark additional funds for food, breakfast, shelter, healthcare and psycho-social support in the camps. According to data placed before the panel, Manipur has 16 functional One Stop Centres which have assisted 2,059 women, while the women helpline received 37,882 calls.
88% posts in national child rights body vacant
The committee did not accept the Ministry’s replies on eight recommendations in all.
One concerned the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana under which financial assistance is provided to pregnant and lactating mothers. The committee said the National Food Security Act entitles every pregnant woman to a benefit of not less than Rs 6,000, while the scheme pays Rs 5,000 and is limited to the first child, or the second child if it is a girl. The ministry said a woman gets the rest through another scheme so that “on an average, a woman gets Rs 6,000”. The committee asked for the benefit to not just be limited to the first child.
The panel found that 88 percent of sanctioned posts in the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights are vacant. It noted that 26 of the 36 posts have been “deemed abolished” after staying unfilled for five years.
The committee also took note of “instances of direct adoptions and the sale and purchase of children from biological parents”, and asked the ministry and the Central Adoption Resource Authority to stop such cases. The ministry told the panel that letters have been written to the Ministry of Home Affairs, state police authorities, and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to look into the issue.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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