More than 60,000 Anganwadi teachers in the state are going tech-savvy as the state government is providing them smartphones which will be part of their daily work.
Under the Poshan Abhiyan scheme of the Union government, it is compulsory to update everyday activities at anganwadis on Common Application Service (CAS), a national portal, using mobile phones. Though the funds were allocated three years ago, the procurement of mobile phones was delayed for various reasons.
However, the state’s women and child development department has finally procured smartphones and handed over them to taluk-level officials. The phones will in turn be distributed to anganwadi teachers after a training programme which starts on Wednesday.
The department officials said the smartphones will be used to update health check-up details of children, height, weight, growth, immunisation status etc.
“Uploading these details on the common website will help the authorities concerned at the national level to track the malnutrition among kids across the nation,” an official said.
Not just updating the details of the kids, the teachers even have to mark their attendance using mobile devices. Considering the network issues in rural parts, the department has gathered the details of networks available and procured the SIM cards accordingly. It has spent around Rs 65 crore for the purchase of mobile phones and SIM cards, of which 60% was provided by the Union government.
“All these years, the teachers used to maintain 32 different registers. With the introduction of the smartphones, that is going to end and everything will be done through mobile phones,” the official said.
K A Dayananda, Director, department of women and child development department, said that the teachers would get mobile phones in the next three-four days.
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