How many Anganwadi workers have you met?” When I posed this question to the APPI (Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives) team in Odisha—one that has been set up to help the state government improve nutrition outcomes for its children, the answer was “not many.”  Most of them had seen these Anganwadi women only in training centres.To my mind, knowledge that was high-level and top-down was going to be inadequate if we, as a foundation, were planning to devise programming that would impact the lives of millions of children in Odisha.Instead, we thought, what if we went in and spent time on the ground, inside the system, and with the frontline Anganwadi workers (AWWs)—the primary agents of change when it comes to nutrition. Would our worldview change? Could we watch and learn ground-up, and see what emerged as possible (and probably, better) ideas for nutrition-related programmes in the state?The Anganwadi system forms the backbone of the country’s ICDSWith a workforce of 1.4 million women and a 2018-19 budget allocation of Rs16,335 crore, the Anganwadi (AW) system forms the backbone of the country’s Integrated Child Development Services Scheme (ICDS)—the world’s largest community-based programme for child development. The state of Odisha itself has more than 130,000 Anganwadi workers (AWW) and AW helpers (AWH).This is a cadre made up entirely of women: the AWWs, the helpers, supervisors, and district Child Development Protection Officers (CDPO). Yet at a state and national level, the AWW is an abstraction: the women are just faceless numbers, or at best cogs in the wheel that keep the ICDS running. There isn’t enough information or interest in understanding what makes them tick, what their lives and work look like, and what can be done to motivate and galvanise our largest cadre of barefoot workers.Muniguda block in Odisha—where we spent 20 days as a result of our decision to spend time in the field—has 174 Anganwadi workers and 174 Anganwadi helpers. It’s easy to recognise these women—AWWs wear a red saree with a yellow border while the helpers’ sarees are blue with white borders.If you are in the block, you can see the women through the day—going into the centre, going back home. Some take buses, for some, their husbands drop them to the centres, some walk the long distances while yet others come from next door.