BS RAWAT
NEW DELHI : The Delhi government will develop “modern anganwadi hub centres” like high-end playschools for children from economically disadvantaged families, says Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Mr Kejriwal was speaking at a mega-programme organised to distribute smartphones to all workers in an effort to digitise all operations of the Anganwadi sector in Delhi.

The Chief Minister said, “Now an Early Childhood Care Curriculum is being introduced so that Anganwadis provide the kind of care and education that is provided at the expensive playschools. Even the poor will have access to the facilities that the rich do. Anganwadis will now be developed into playschools."

Speaking about the smartphones being provided to the 10,000 workers, Mr Kejriwal said, "We are providing you high end phones, ones that ministers, IAS officers use. You don't have to worry about the data charges either, the government will take care of it."

"Earlier you would have to maintain 11 or 12 registers monthly at each Anganwadi. Now using this smartphone, you will be able to enter everything into our database and the government will directly have access to that information," the Chief Minister said.

Stressing his government's commitment to the welfare of Anganwadi workers, the chief minister said, "We could have hiked your salary then as per the norm by 10 or 20%, which was also what you had demanded. Instead we had hiked your wages by 100%. Delhi's Anganwadi workers may now be the highest paid in the country."

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said, "Across the world it has been acknowledged that 80% of children's brain development takes place by the age of 6. But India has continued to neglect early childhood care. Delhi's Anganwadi reforms are an effort to change that, and build a model for the country."