Aiming to improve child health and reclaim its position on the national nutrition index, the state government has launched a major enrolment drive across 53,000 anganwadis that offer pre-school education and free meals to children aged 3 to 6.
Health department teams have been deployed across villages to ensure every eligible child is registered. To strengthen monitoring, an AI-powered app now tracks enrolment in real time from Gandhinagar.
Officials said over 40,000 children have been enrolled in just one week. Plans are also underway to upgrade food quality in anganwadis.
The move follows troubling findings: many anganwadis stay locked when parents arrive, and families in tribal areas often don’t know such centres exist. With parents at work, children are left unattended, and many are severely malnourished.
Despite Gujarat recording over 16 lakh births annually and an estimated 78 lakh children eligible for anganwadis, only about 40 lakh are currently enrolled. Nearly 40% of children under five remain underweight or stunted.
A CAG report presented in March found a shortage of over 16,000 anganwadis. The government will now repair and upgrade existing centres and push to bring children back into the system. Senior officials have warned that welfare funds must reach the intended beneficiaries effectively.