Fifty-eight of the 33,115 anganwadis in the State have been graded ‘D,’ the lowest rating, by the Women and Child Development department. The grading is aimed at improving the quality of services rendered by anganwadis. While 18,474 anganwadis have been rated ‘A,’ 12,801 have got ‘B’ grade, and 1,782 have managed a ‘C.’ Fifty-five of the 58 anganwadis that were rated ‘D’ are in Thiruvananthapuram district. The remaining three are in Idukki, Ernakulam, and Thrissur districts. The grading, intended to enhance the number of beneficiaries and improve the monitoring mechanism, was done as per revised guidelines issued by the government in 2020. Each anganwadi is scored on 26 factors such as basic infrastructure; efficiency of anganwadi worker/helper; quality of pre-school education; cleanliness, including that in kitchen and toilet; health and nutrition education; maintenance of registers; house visits; public participation in community-based events, setting up of anganwadi level monitoring and supervisory committee; vulnerability mapping of children and so on. Anganwadis that score in the 75-100 range get A grade, while 50-74 marks get a B, 36-49 marks a C, and scores below 35 fetch D grade. The department intends that at least 10% of the anganwadis in the State improve their rating each year. Anganwadi workers and supervisor of an anganwadi that consistently gets the ‘D’ grade will be given one mark as negative marking by the committee awarding the marks. Anganwadis that bag the C and D grades should be upgraded by regular interventions, as per a department circular. Women and Child Development Department officials say that after data submitted by programme officers in April was consolidated, a review meeting was held in June and directions issued to improve the anganwadis that got the D rating. It was also directed that a review in October would upgrade all 58 anganwadis that came under D category and at least 50% of the 1,782 C grade anganwadis would be raised to A or B grades. Thiruvananthapuram district apparently has taken steps to improve its anganwadi ratings and claims that none currently falls in the D category. This will be confirmed, say the officials.
