BS RAWAT
NEW DELHI: Women and Child Development Minister Mrs Maneka Gandhi on January 7, 2018, conferred National Awards in New Delhi on 97 Anganwadi workers from across the country for their exceptional achievements for the year 2017-18.

The national award is given to motivate the Anganwadi workers and recognize their exemplary services in the field of child development under the Integrated Child Development Services Scheme.

Mrs Gandhi urged that Anganwadi workers should focus on their prime duty of timely feeding of the children and nourishing them.

The minister said that resources worth crores of rupees have been wasted in the past which could have been utilized to support various child nutrition-related schemes. Ms Gandhi called upon Anganwadi workers to be vigilant and report any such malpractice.

From this year, the cash prize under this national award has been doubled from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000. The state level award carries a cash prize of Rs 10,000.