Bhubaneswar: Odisha Deputy Chief Minister Pravati Parida Wednesday launched a fortnightly campaign aimed at strengthening anganwadi centres across the state.
Parida unveiled the ‘Aasa Jiba Anganwadi’ campaign, which will run from August 1-15, while inaugurating a state-level capacity building workshop for Child Development Project Officers (CDPOs) here.
He appealed to people to visit their nearest anganwadi centres, assess cleanliness, infrastructure and functioning, and share the feedback for improvement in services.
The campaign aligns with the World Breastfeeding Week (August 1-7) and aims to foster community ownership of early childhood development, officials said.
“The strength of our child development efforts lies in the capability of the CDPOs at the grassroots level,” Parida said.
She emphasised that Odisha’s vision of becoming a malnutrition-free state by 2036 depends on empowering frontline leaders, and CDPOs play a central role in this transformation.
During the occasion, she also launched the ‘Anganwadi Welfare and Service Oversight Monitoring Everywhere (AWESOME)’ app – a digital tool designed to strengthen infrastructure monitoring and service delivery at anganwadi centres.
Chief Secretary Manoj Ahuja, speaking at the event, asked the CDPOs to adopt people-centric strategies, noting the central role of health, nutrition and early childhood education in the ‘Vision Odisha 2036′ framework.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was also signed between the Women & Child Development Department and the National Institute of Public Cooperation & Child Development (NIPCCD) to ensure continuous training and capacity building of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) officers and staff in Odisha.
PTI
