Over 39,000 anganwadis in Odisha dont have toilets: Union minister Smriti Irani

More than 39,000 anganwadi centres (AWCs) in the state do not have toilets, Union minister of Women and child developmentSmriti Iranitold the Lok Sabha.

The government has set up AWCs in the state to provide supplementary Nutrition, non-formal pre-Education, Health, education, immunisation, health check-up and referral Services.

Altogether 72,587 AWCs are operational in the state. While all these centres have drinking water facilities, 39,859 of these AWCs do not have toilets. As on March 31 this year, 10.05 lakh AWCs have toilet facilities out of 13.87 lakh operational AWCs.

In 2018-19, more than Rs 6.87 crore have been released by theCentreto Odisha towards payment of rent of AWCs. This rent amount was Rs 6.46 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 8.79 crore in 2020-21.