Anganwadi and ASHA workers
Also called: Anganwadi worker, ASHA, Accredited Social Health Activist · Topic: Human Capital: Education, Health and Demographic Dividend · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Anganwadi workers and ASHAs are frontline workers. They are the people through whom welfare schemes reach each village and urban slum. They are local women.
An Anganwadi worker runs the anganwadi, a village centre for child care under the ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services). There she gives extra food to young children and to pregnant and breastfeeding women, weighs children to track their growth, and runs pre-school learning.
An ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) is a village health worker under the National Health Mission. She links families to the health system. She pushes for vaccination, helps women reach hospitals for safe delivery, and spreads health awareness.
Together they build human capital where it starts: in a child's nutrition, health and early learning.
Example
In a village, the Anganwadi worker weighs a two-year-old and finds the child is underweight, with weight too low for the child's age. The ASHA then makes sure the child gets vaccinated and the mother gets health advice. This matters because NFHS-5 (2019-21) found 35.5% of children under 5 stunted. Their work under Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 is tracked in real time through the Poshan Tracker app. Schemes outside health and nutrition also use them. For example, the Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan (2020), a drug de-addiction campaign, reaches villages through them.
Don't confuse with
- Anganwadi worker vs ASHA: The Anganwadi worker works mainly on nutrition, child care and early education (ICDS, under the Women and Child Development ministry). The ASHA works mainly on health, linking families to health services (National Health Mission, under the Health ministry).