Department Organizations Department for Women, Children, Disabled and Senior Citizens

An implementation of ICDS has resulted in improvement of the nutritional status of women and children in the state, the desired goals have not been achieved. .The percentage of low birth weight babies, underweight children (<3 years) and pregnant women who are anaemic is still high. As a result, reduction of Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) continues to be a challenge.

The main objective of the department is to formulate policies and initiatives, strengthen governance and provide budgetary support to:

• Achieve the desired targets for reducing malnutrition, infant and maternal mortality
• Deliver nutrition and ICDS services effectively with optimum utilization of resources to improve nutrition status of pregnant and lactating women and children under 6 years
• Ensure protection of children and women in difficult circumstances particularly by providing institutional services and handling legal/ empowerment issues relating to them
• Ensure that the needs of disabled and senior citizens are met especially in the area of education, employment, access and social security

The main functions of the Women Development, Child Welfare and Disabled Welfare Department are:

• Support Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) under a variety of programmes in order to facilitate and strengthen their role in empowering women through education and training
• Enable women to realize their hidden and unexplored strengths, build their self esteem and improve their living conditions
• Help women attain financial freedom and economic independence
• Implement Supplementary Nutrition Programmes to provide nutrition to pregnant women, lactating mothers and children
• Promote adoption of family planning norms
• Encourage enrolment of girls in schools
• 7Reduce school dropouts among girls

• Protection of Women
• Protection of Children
• Disabled & Sr. Citizens
• Juvenile Welfare

A. STATE LEVEL :

The Department is headed by Commissioner / Director at the State Head Quarters who is assisted by Joint Directors, Deputy Directors, Assistant Directors, Accounts setup and various sections handling different subjects of Women Development and Child Welfare.

B. REGIONAL OFFICES:

There are Six Regional Joint Directors / Regional Deputy Directors with Headquarters at Visakhapatnam, Eluru, Ongole, Kurnool, Warangal and Hyderabad who are overall incharge of supervision for implementation of various welfare programmes for Women and Children in their respective zones. The jurisdiction of each Region extends from three to six Districts.

C. PROJECT DIRECTORS OFFICE:

At the District Level, Project Director, Women and Child Development Agency (Dy. Director Level) is over all in charge of ICDS Projects, Institutions of the Department and Departmental Activities. She is assisted by Asst. Project Officer to look after the Institutions, and programmes meant for protection of children and women.

D. PROJECTS:

In each erstwhile Block one ICDS Project is functioning. The Project is headed by the CDPO. The CDPO is in charge of implementation of all ICDS Services, Social and Empowerment issues of Women and Children in 3 to 4 Mandals in the Project area. She is assisted by 5 to 8 Supervisors depending on no. of AWCs sanctioned in the Project. 406 ICDS Projects are functioning in the State

E. SECTOR:

Supervisor is over all incharge of the sector which basically comprises of about 25 Anganwadi centers. The Supervisors provides supportive supervision to the AWWs in implementation of all the ICDS services. Supervisors Grade-I are appointed through direct recruitment (30%) and the remaining by promotion from Supervisors Grade-II. The Supervisors Grade-II are recruited from among eligible AWWs and other honorarium workers through a written exam

F. ANGANWADI CENTER (AWC):

The Anganwadi Center is the basic unit from where the services are provided to the stakeholders. Main AWC is set up for a population between 400-800 and a Mini AWC for a population of 150-400 in Rural /Urban areas and in the Tribal/Hilly and difficult areas a Main and Mini AWCs are setup for population between 300-800 and 150-300 respectively. The Main Anganwadi centres in the state are supported by the Anganwadi worker and Anganwadi Helper, and the Mini Anganwadi center with one Anganwadi worker who are primary ICDS service providers

G. STRENGTHENING MONITORING SYSTEMS:

To strengthen monitoring systems and to use IT as an effective monitoring tool, Monthly Progress Reports (MPRs) 1 to 11 were designed for online submission mostly by the CDPOs. MPR 9 and 10 are the online reports of revised MIS of ICDS as designed by GOI. Order was placed with APTS to provide computers to all the CDPO Offices. Software was developed by NIC which was consistent with MCTS data of Health department and piloted in Manchal mandal of Ranga Reddy district. A NGO network named Andhra Pradesh Alliance for Child Rights (APACR) with the help of UNICEF support undertook concurrent monitoring of AWCs. The network of NGOs collected data from 1000 AWCs in 22 districts. The report will help the department to take appropriate action for efficient delivery of ICDS services. Impact study for Anna Amrutha Hastham(AAH) was entrusted to UNICEF and to Home Science College, Hyderabad. Further NIN was entrusted to carry out:

• Assessment of diet and nutrition status of Pregnant and lactating women and children below 6 years and to repeat the study every 5 years.
• Evaluation of impact of AAH on nutrition status of Pregnant and lactating women and their newborns and to repeat the study every 3 years.