In the villages of Uttar Pradesh’s Naugarh block in Chandauli district, surrounded by forests on all sides, Internet connectivity is still patchy in several areas. While anganwadi workers received new mobile phones this month from the government, accompanied with expectations of conducting a chunk of their work online, connectivity issues were not taken into consideration, they said.

During a meeting at Amdaha village, anganwadi workers from other villages in the block, including Marwatiya, Deori Kalan, and Baghi, said spotty Internet connectivity is adding to the woes of workers already saddled with unmanageable workloads.

“Sometimes the Poshan Tracker app does not register the faces of beneficiaries due to network issues and we cannot give them the ration they are entitled to,” a 50-year old worker said.

Last year, the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) mandated facial recognition authentication for beneficiaries comprising pregnant and lactating mothers as well as children up to the age of six. The Hindu reached out to the WCD Ministry with a detailed set of questions but has not received any response till the time of going to press.

Moreover, not everyone is equipped to deal with technology equally, the workers said. One of the younger workers in the block, in her 20s, said many of the older workers call her for help while they are at work but she is hardly able to resolve the issues herself. “The Poshan app keeps getting updated every few days... but if the workers do not understand the features, how would they coordinate with others?” she said.

They also pointed out that they are unable to use WhatsApp because it is not loaded on the phones, which only have apps such as Poshan, a GPS tracker app, and other State scheme-specific apps.“We have to take our photos on the GPS tracker, which will show our face and our location. Then we send that to our our supervisors via WhatsApp group,” said another worker.

Several others told The Hindu that to keep one phone for WhatsApp and another for Poshan Tracker app is impossible as they would have to shell out double the money for Internet recharge.

Stumbling block

The workers pointed out that they are part of various groups where they coordinate with each other and officials such as the ‘ICDS Naugrah Daily’ group, ‘Anganwadi homework group’, among others.

Their supervisor, Saroj Giri, acknowledged the technological challenges. “Many of the workers are elderly and are still learning how to navigate the phones. They need WhatsApp too because some of the work comes online and we have to share it with them. We have to follow the government’s directions,” the supervisor said.