Pillar: Connectivity
An Anganwadi Centre (AWC) is the ground-level service delivery unit of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), now subsumed under Saksham Anganwadi and Mission Poshan 2.0. It provides supplementary nutrition, pre-school non-formal education, nutrition and health education, immunisation (in convergence with the health department), health check-ups and referral services to children below six years, pregnant women, lactating mothers, and adolescent girls aged 14–18 in Aspirational Districts and the North-Eastern Region. Each AWC covers approximately 400–800 population in both rural and urban projects, with smaller mini-AWCs in remote hamlets. There are approximately 13.9 lakh AWCs nationally. For a young person, an Anganwadi is usually the first government institution their mother encountered and where their younger siblings now go — it is the most universal touchpoint of the welfare state.
If you have a younger sibling, a pregnant sister-in-law or friend, or a child of your own, the Anganwadi is where supplementary nutrition, routine immunisation, growth monitoring, and early childhood learning are supposed to happen. Whether the Anganwadi is functional determines whether a generation of children enters Class 1 ready to learn.
- Supplementary Nutrition (SNP): Take-home ration for pregnant women, lactating mothers, children 6 months–3 years, and severely malnourished children; hot cooked meals for children 3–6 years - Pre-school Non-Formal Education for children 3–6 years, 3–4 hours daily, using the National Curriculum Framework for Foundational Stage (2022) - Growth Monitoring — monthly weighing and height measurement; Poshan Tracker digital entry; identification of SAM (severe acute malnutrition) and MAM (moderate acute malnutrition) children for referral - Immunisation Support in convergence with the Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) and the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) on Village Health and Nutrition Days (VHNDs) - Nutrition and Health Education (NHED) sessions for mothers - Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG): Supplementary nutrition under SNP for out-of-school girls aged 14–18, restricted to Aspirational Districts and the North-Eastern Region. - Fixed monthly Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Day: mandatory at every AWC, every month, under the Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi (PBPB) initiative of Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0. Sessions of at least 2 hours bring caregivers to the AWC for thematic, academic-calendar-aligned activities — covering parent–AWW meetings, language and motor-skill talent shows, numeracy and creativity days, do-it-yourself toy workshops, early-childhood-development milestone discussions, AWC improvement days, and a year-end graduation/enrolment drive. Reporting flows through Poshan Tracker's Community Based Events module. - CMAM protocol (Community Management of Acute Malnutrition) — identification, referral, and management of severely or moderately malnourished children at the Anganwadi Centre, per the Ministry of Women and Child Development's CMAM…
Portal: poshantracker.in (backend is restricted; public-facing data on some state WCD portals). District-level public snapshots (state, district, scheme, age-group cuts) are at poshantracker.in/statistics. Also mahilakalyan.up.nic.in for UP, mpwcdmis.gov.in for MP Also: Every village / urban ward has one; ask the Sarpanch / ward member, the local ASHA, or the CDPO at the block headquarters.
For what this looks like in a particular district, start from the district courses or the English reference guide (Hindi).