Knowledge assessment and socio-demographic profile of Anganwadi workers in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh

Introduction

Women and children constitute approximately 67.70% of the total population of India as per the 2011 census. Often called the backbone of the society, women take care of the nutrition and education of the family members and ensure that they have all the necessities. Women also provide supplementary income to rural households by working in agricultural and animal husbandry jobs and other small industries. Children are the future of the nation. However, they face several challenges such as malnutrition, absence of education, and healthcare which restrict their growth and development. The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) has initiated several programs and schemes to provide protection and development to children and women of India. Healthy women and children are essential for a healthy society. There are several other schemes of the MoWCD such as Anganwadi Services (Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services) (ICDS), POSHAN Abhiyaan, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, Scheme for Adolescent Girls, National Creche Scheme, and Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, which also focus on the holistic development of children, especially pregnant women and lactating girls, and adolescent girls. These schemes improve the nutrition and healthcare of the beneficiaries and ensure the right to education. Anganwadi workers are instrumental in the Women and Child Development programs of India. Children under the age of 6, expectant and nursing mothers rely on these workers for their health, nutrition and education. This study will assess the knowledge of Anganwadi workers on their functions in the center. This will help to ascertain the implementation of the ICDS scheme. The results of the study will provide information on the health and pre-school education services offered by the ICDS, across the country. The study is constrained by the shortage of time and finance, therefore it is limited to one district of Uttar Pradesh. Objectives 1. To study the socio-economic condition of Anganwadi workers in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh. 2. To evaluate the knowledge of Anganwadi workers about their roles as defined in the ICDS.

Methodology

This study was conducted in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh. A descriptive research design along with a purposive sampling method was employed. A total of 90 Anganwadi workers from Muradnagar and Razapur blocks were selected for the study. To avoid a communication gap, www.extensionjournal.com the interview schedule was first prepared in English and then translated to Hindi. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews conducted at various Anganwadi centers and Block meetings. The data was analyzed using statistical tools such as frequency and percentage, mean and standard deviation, rank order and correlation coefficient. Data analysis was done using MS EXCEL, and the results were validated using SPSS. [6] , Andey et al. (2019) [2] , More and Mallah (2022) [16] , Nair & Hallad (2024) [18] , Jaguri et al. (2025) [11] , and Das et al. (2025) [5] have also reported similar findings in their studies.

Results and Discussion

Education

The level of formal education attainment of Anganwadi workers was used to assess their level of education. From the findings of this study (Table 2), the highest percentage (33.34%) of Anganwadi workers attained a high school education, followed by those who attained an intermediate education (32.22%). Those who attained a graduation education (13.33%), a post graduate education (12.22%), and a middle school education (8.89%) were also observed. The prevailing situation was attributed to the fact that the minimum education qualification for Anganwadi worker recruitment was attainment of the fifth class. Shilpa et al.

(2014) [26] , Hemamalini (2018) [10] , Joshi (2018) [13] , Nagaraja et al. (2019) [17] , Sujatha and Brunda (2020) [28] , More and Mallah (2022) [16] , Preeti et al. (2025) [19] reported similar findings in their studies. Das et al. (2025) [5] reported opposite findings, which could be attributed to the different locations of their studies.

Family Size

The size of the family refers to the number of persons comprising a single household at the time of the study. From the results presented in Table 3, the largest percentage (62.22%) of the respondents was from a medium family size of 4 to 6 members, while 22.22% of the respondents was from a large family size of more than 6 members, and 15.56% was from a small family size of up to 3 members. Jain et al. (2020) [12] reported similar findings in their study. [29] and Meshram et al. (2020) [15] in their study. [30] , Ranjan et al. (2019) [23] , More and Mallah (2022) [16] reported similar findings in their studies. Andey (2019) [2] , Reddy (2020) [25] , Nair (2024) [18] reported in their studies that the majority of AWWs had experience of more than 10 years. [14] , Dash and Priyadarshini (2018) [6] , and Sujatha and Brunda (2020) [28] reported similar findings in their studies. Rathore et al. (2015) [24] and Gotarkar et al. (2018) [9] in their study reported that the Anganwadi workers had basic or refresher training, and other trainings that were topic-specific and in the minority.

Achievement Motivation

This was measured by the desire to engage in behaviors that lead to personal excellence. The survey found that 98.89% of the respondents believed that when participating in a group effort, one should strive to be superior to the other group members. It could be that in a low reward situation, the workers were focused on assisting the women and children of the village. From table 7, the majority of the respondents (72.22%) had a medium level of achievement motivation, while 16.67% had a high level, and 11.11% had a low level. Bhagat (2021) [3] reports similar findings in her study. Pandey et al. (2024) [20] found that the majority of AWWs had a high motivation level, while a slightly lesser number had a medium level motivation.

Knowledge assessment of Anganwadi workers: 2.1. Knowledge of Anganwadi workers regarding their roles as per ICDS

To measure this variable, 36 knowledge indicators were constructed based on 6 domains of ICDS services. The results are provided in figures 1 and2. [22] reported similar findings, which corroborate this study.

Comparison of knowledge regarding different ICDS services provided at Anganwadi centres

Degree of their overall knowledge regarding their roles as per ICDS provisions

According to the results in table 9, the majority of the respondents had a medium level of overall knowledge regarding their roles as per the provisions of ICDS, which was 72.22% followed by 16.67% having a high level and 11.11% having a low level of overall knowledge regarding their roles as per ICDS provisions. Bhattarai et al. (2017) [4] also reported similar findings in their study.

Relationship between knowledge regarding their roles and independent variables related to socioeconomical profile of the workers

This was analyzed using Pearson correlation co-efficient and the results of the analysis are in table 10. All the variables showed a positive and significant correlation with knowledge level except for achievement motivation. This might be because the other variables like age, education, family members, experience and training enhance the skills and knowledge necessary to take care of women and children, while achievement motivation does not influence that. Dubey and Chouhan (2014) [7] and Akshatha and Sankangoudar (2019) [1] also reported similar findings, except for family size. Akshatha and Sankangoudar (2019) [1] also reported a family size influence in the opposite direction.

Conclusion

The findings suggest that most respondents had a medium level of overall knowledge about their job roles under ICDS. This implies that there is a need for more regular monitoring and training to enhance their knowledge. Improved communication" between ANM and ASHA workers and Anganwadi workers at the center will help increase their knowledge of healthcare services.

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