Occupational Stress and Burnout Among Anganwadi Workers in India: A Narrative Review Through the Job Demands–Resources Lens

Abstract

Anganwadi workers (AWWs) are the frontline functionaries of India’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme, delivering supplementary nutrition, immunisation support, preschool education, growth monitoring, and maternal and child health services at the village level. Despite their centrality to public health and early childhood development, AWWs work under conditions widely associated with chronic occupational stress: heavy and expanding task loads, growing administrative and digital documentation demands, low honoraria paid under an “honorary worker” classification rather than formal employment, weak infrastructure, and limited recognition. This narrative review synthesises peer-reviewed and grey literature on the occupational and psychosocial burdens faced by AWWs and evaluates the findings using the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, which is augmented by role strain theory. Across studies, the majority of AWWs experience moderate-to-severe occupational stress, and similar burnout has been found in the larger community health worker (CHW) profession. According to the review, AWW stress is largely caused by a structural imbalance between increasing job demands and consistently inadequate resources, which is exacerbated by the gendered devaluation of care labor. The recommendations revolve around decreasing demands, improving resources, and altering the work status of AWWs. The review is conceptual; it does not include primary data and is constrained by the heterogeneity and primarily cross-sectional nature of the underlying research.