Social project on a community: Anganwadi

After visiting several communities, I took “anganwadi” as the community under social project.

Anganwadi is a childcare and mother care center sponsored by government of india. In hindi, the word anganwadi means “courtyard shelter”. It was introduced to government of india on 1975 to fight against child malnutrition.

I took the anganwadi located in the village kudasan near gandhinagar. There are three centers in that village. The number of anganwadi in a village depends up on the population of the village.
It mainly focuses to the children (age group 0-6) and pregnant women who fall under below poverty line. The anganwadi is open from 10.00am to 4.00pm.There is a worker and a helper in the particular anganwadi. Around 30-35 children are there. The worker, surya ben who comes from the nearby village maintains the record of each kid. She checks the weight of small kids with help of a weighing machine given by the government and maintains the record which has to be submitted to government on monthly basis. There is supply of flours from government which is used to prepare food at anganwadi and served to kids and pregnant ladies. Also there is supply of nutritious chocolates to kids. To fight with cold and fever they have medicines supplied from government.(I have few samples of the chocolates which i will show in the class. The only line I am able to read is “ISO 9001 & HACCP CERTIFIED CO.”. Language was a barrier for me, but the simple gestures, linking the objects to the action and expression of the community worker explained all nicely. There were few miscommunications, as a result of which I end up my second visit at wrong time. )

The community involves kids (age group 0-6), pregnant ladies, a worker and a helper. Surya ben who is the anganwadi worker had a twenty days training before coming to the center. She is welcoming and very enthusiastic in nature. The center was clean but not very welcoming for small kids. It has a store room and a 12ftX 15 ft room. At one corner of the room they prepare food. The helper usually does that and the other portion of the room is with a black board, a table and a chair. There is a carpet on ground for kids. There were toys but broken and dirty ones. Surya ben takes the attendance, checks their weight and teaches the kids (counting, colours, different animals, pre-school subjects). Kids play inside the room and also at the veranda of the aganwadi. Small kids, below 3 years generally take food, play and sleep over there.

This is the information from my visit to the place; I am yet to get information from unicef on their participation in anganwadi model. The scenario will be much clear after getting information from different souces. I am still working on it in detail and will share it all with you.