The Centre today announced that the restructuring and strengthening of Aanganwadis under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) will be carried out on a mission mode to provide holistic development services to Women and Children. Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Women and Child Development Minister, Mrs. Krishna Tirath said, the Aanganwadis will be transformed into vibrant Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centres to be the first Village outpost for Health, Nutrition and early Education. Mrs. Tirath said, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has cleared her Ministry's proposal sanctioning 14 lakh Aanganwadis with a budget allocation of one lakh, twenty three thousand, five.

Mrs. Krishna Tirath said, for the first time the construction of Anganwadi Centres (AWC) have been approved and two lakh AWC buildings are proposed to be built in all States and Union Territories. She said, the minimum working hours of AWCs are proposed to be increased to six hours, with flexibility for the states to decide. New component introduced in the scheme include creche facilities in 5% of AWCs on an experimental basis, additional nutrition counsellors in select areas, facilities for children with special needs and Sneha Shivirs for under nourished children.

Mrs. Tirath also said that the States have been told that ten per cent of the Aanganwadis can be given to be run by the NGO's. She said, better convergence with MGNAREGA scheme and the schemes of the Rural Development Ministry is also envisaged for the welfare of women and children. She said, restructured and strengthened ICDS will be rolled out in a phased manner in three years, begining with the 200 high burden districts from 1st December this year. Additional 200 districts and special category states would be added in 2013-14 and the remaning 243 districts in 2014-15.

Mrs. Tirath said, considering the genuine difficulties being faced by the States, the cost norms for Supplementary Nurtrition Program have been revised from Rs.4 to Rs.6 for Children of 6 to 72 months, from Rs.6 to Rs.9 for severely underweight children of 6 to 72 months, and from Rs.5 to Rs.7 for pregnant women and lactating mothers. Mrs.Tirath said, the Mission mode implementation of the ICDS would provide greater flexibility and would ensure effective service delivery and implementation.