Faulty phones, fund paucity for data packs: Maharashtra Anganwadi workers grapple with lack of digital infrastructure

However, women from the community recruited by the government as Anganwadi workers and helpers have been struggling to implement this scheme on the ground. As of July 2023, Maharashtra had over 1,10,000 Anganwadi centres and according to reports, over 90 per cent of them have been shut ever since the strike by Anganwadi workers and helpers began on December 3.

Over 1,08,745 Anganwadi workers and 56,331 helpers have been on strike demanding the status of government employees entitled to living wage instead of an honorarium, pension and other employment benefits, adequate and regular rent arrangements for the centres, among other things.

While the government has been quick to push back, terminating the service of approximately 200 workers in Amravati and some in Pune, there is a severe lack of infrastructural support from the government, especially since the push for ‘Digital India’ which made digital record keeping and sharing essential to this scheme.

While the Anganwadi workers have been subjected to several training, workshops and upskilling programmes, Anganwadi supervisors and officials still expect the workers to maintain both the registers and online records because of the glaring gaps in a digital shift.

Choice between faulty devices and personal phones

“Women have increasingly become familiar with using smartphones and we have to regularly upload pictures and videos along with data. But the problem is with the devices, not us,” said Rekha Gaikwad, an Anganwadi helper in Pune who works with the Anganwadi Karmachari Sabha.

In 2018, the Centre made available a Panasonic phone to Anganwadi workers but the phone was either not compatible with the Poshan Tracker app or malfunctioned.

Sunanda Salve, an Anganwadi worker in Lohiya Nagar, said, “Many of us bought smartphones with our own money or on loans and EMIs because we do not want the children and the work to suffer. There is pressure from seniors to arrange for a device yourself but then if the phone breaks down or has any issues, you have to bear the costs yourself. Many women depend on this work, so they do it anyway.”

A petition by the Anganwadi worker groups stated that the handsets provided by the government were malfunctioning and beyond warranty and did not allow entry or correction of data in the Poshan Tracker app. In April 2023, the Bombay High Court directed the state to make 1.3 lakh mobile phones available to Anganwadi workers as replacements, but workers say they are yet to get them.

Another big challenge is that the application is in English instead of Marathi. While some updates have been made now with some Marathi translations, the app is yet to be made available completely in Marathi.

One-way transparency and accountability

On the one hand, the workers are routinely asked to furnish different kinds of data at odd times of the day; on the other, they are sometimes unable to access the previously uploaded data.

Salve said, “Just this week, a notice was sent at 10 pm to furnish data before 10 am the next morning– when are you supposed to do it as a married woman with responsibilities of the home as well? Sometimes our family members get angry over us consistently using the phone at home.”

She added, “In the earlier version of the application, if you clicked on a child’s name, you could see all the information about that child and household, but now that is not visible anymore. There are several glitches like that.”