By IANS,
New Delhi : Over fifty percent Anganwadi centres providing basic child development services across the country exist without toilets, the Rajya Sabha was informed Thursday.
“There were 13,17,008 Anganwadi centres (AWCs) and mini-AWC functioning in the country as on June 30. Of these, 6,35,869 (48.28 percent) are reported to have toilet facilities and 66.11 percent have drinking facilities within premises,” Krishna Tirath, women and child development minister, told Rajya Sabha in a written reply to a question.
Of over 13 lakh such centres in India, 51.72 percent are without toilet facilities within the premises.
The centres are meant to provide basic services to children under the women and child development ministry’s Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).
The services under ICDS at AWC include supplementary nutrition, immunization, health check-up, referral services, non-formal pre-school education, and nutrition and health education.