*Damanpreet Kaur, Manjula Thakur, Amarjeet Singh and Sushma Kumari Saini

Integrated child development scheme (ICDS) was launched in 1975 in India [1]. The ICDS services, which include supplementary nutrition, preschool education, immunization, health check-ups, health education and referral services, are delivered by Anganwadi worker. In view of the increased burden on them, the performance of Anganwadi worker has been under scrutiny. We conducted this cross-sectional exploratory study to assess the performance of Anganwadi workers in selected Anganwadi centers of a North Indian city. Permission from Social Welfare Department and ethical approval from Institute Ethical Committee were obtained.

Fourteen Anganwadi workers and 100 ICDS beneficiaries were chosen as a sample of convenience. Tools used for data collection were performance appraisal checklist to appraise the performance of Anganwadi workers, and interview schedule to assess the satisfaction level of ICDS beneficiaries. Observation and interview were the techniques used for data collection. A total of 24 observations were made from selected Anganwadi centers. Beneficiaries were interviewed in their houses. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 16.0.

TABLE I	Performance of Anganwadi Workers  in Different Activities of ICDS  (N= 14)  

Performance of the Anganwadi workers is presented in Table I. They were good in rapport building and record maintenance. All the Anganwadi workers performed poorly in area mapping, and ten of them were poor in home visits. Majority (85) of beneficiaries were satisfied with the services provided by Anganwadi workers. Satisfaction level was highest with referral services, preschool education and services for adolescents (Table II).

TABLE II	Satisfaction Level of Beneficiaries with Services Provided by Anganwadi Workers (N= 100)   

The performance of Anganwadi workers was rated as poor only in two of the activities: home visiting and area mapping. This might be due to lack of time available with the workers as more time was spent in other activities. In Maharashtra, the maximum monthly time spent by Anganwadi workers was for preschool education (48 hours), followed by record keeping (30 hours) and home visits (29.7 hours) [2]. About half of AWWs were rated as good in growth monitoring but half of them performed average. Earlier study from Punjab also showed that Anganwadi workers’ performance was poor in weighing [2]. Another study conducted in Maharashtra showed that majority of beneficiaries were fairly satisfied with the services provided by Anganwadi workers [3].

The performance of Anganwadi workers in field-based activities should be emphasized, and in-service education activities should be planned to improve their performance in deficient areas.

1. National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development. Handbook for Anganwadi workers; 2006. Available from: http://nipccd.nic.in/syllabi/eaw.pdf. Accessed February 10, 2015.

2. National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development. Research on ICDS An Overview Volume 2; 2009. Available from: http://nipccd.nic.in/reports/icdsvol2.pdf. Accessed February 11, 2015.

3. Gulabrao JA. A sociological study of Anganwadis in Sangli city of Maharashtra state 2013. Available from: http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10603/8595/6/15%20topic%207.pdf. Accessed February 10, 2015.