After wriggling through the treacherous roads, we finally reached our destination. A small sleepy village in the lap of Garo hills. Across the playground, there was a abandoned one-room structure, that's what it looked like. There was another dilapidated structure along that room which supposedly was the toilet. Must have been some old office, I thought, they moved somewhere else it seems. To my surprise, the Nokma (Village Headman) tells me that I have got it all wrong. That was an operational Anganwadi Center (AWC).
"Where are the kids? And the Anganwadi worker?", I asked, while still in shock. The Nokma smiled at my ignorance and then patiently explained me how things worked in this part of the country. "There isn't much in the center except for the regular Supplementary Nutrition food that they regularly receive. The kids come in the morning to eat that whenever the stock is present. Rest days, you won't see anyone here. There aren't many troys, books or learning material. What they have is too less for the number of children around. The walls are dilapidated and not hygienic. The people now want to send their kids to private playschools, at least those who can afford. The private ones are of course far off. Such people are a handful though. It is a difficult proposition".
As we traveled through the entire civil sub division, hopping from one Anganwadi Center to another, the words of that Nokma kept getting emboldened. More or less, that was the fate of all the Anganwadi Centers. If you think about it, they are the primary interface for the children of rural areas with the world of learning, nutrition and health. And with the present infrastructural condition, how are we supposed to inculcate in them a desire to learn. A desire that's quintessential in these early stages as they would soon be ready for the realm of school education. Talking to several personnel involved in ICDS (Interegrated Child Development Scheme), it became clear that the resources were constrained. And with provision of supplementary logistics, they would perform much better. They all wanted to.
There are hundreds of such Anganwadi centers across my sub-division. It would not be possible to upgrade them all to Model Centers. So, I thought if we could make one of them as a Model Center, which would have all the necessary resources and facilities, we could see the response of the local children and people. With positive results, we would then put forward a case to the respective department for facilitating an upgrade of more such Anganwadi Centers. Ergo, we zeroed down one center which was closer to the head quarters for better monitoring, Dilsigre Anganwadi Center. I initiated a crowd funding campaign on Milaap.org but this time the response was not much as was the case for the campaign about solar lanterns. Perhaps people don't connect to Anganwadis, even I didn't when I was unaware of their state and the colossal importance they hold.
Then we tried some community participation approach where we did some meetings to convince the local people about the relevance of this initiative. Some of them pitched in in whatever way they can. Some people from outside Meghalaya also did their bit in contributing whatever way they could. We did a tinny bit from our office side too. Collectively we were able to realize our dream. We had upgraded the Dilsigre AWC as we wanted. We repaired the structures, painted them and got a talented local artist to wall paint the entire structure. We got toys for the kids, learning books and story books, cushions, carpet, water filter, containers for food storage and many other things.
On the day of inauguration, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the entire village was present. They had made all the arrangements by themselves. They presented songs and several dance performances. You could feel it, the bliss in the air. They wanted to continue the celebrations beyond the schedule. Why would I object to that. The children from the center were so happy to get so many toys. Several simply sat in awe of the beautiful and educative wall paintings did by the artist. A moment of extreme joy for all of us.
Several days after when I visited the center, I saw them enjoying and learning. Reciting poems and singing songs. I wish if all of the centers could be upgraded like this. All it needs is community participation and a little help from those who are privileged. The entire cost of such an upgrade is only 1,00,000 INR. For those interested to contribute and upgrade an Anganwadi center, please write to me at tembe.swapnil@gmail.com or give a call on +91 8527345879. I am hoping to upgrade many more Anganwadis like this, do I have your support ?
"Where are the kids? And the Anganwadi worker?", I asked, while still in shock. The Nokma smiled at my ignorance and then patiently explained me how things worked in this part of the country. "There isn't much in the center except for the regular Supplementary Nutrition food that they regularly receive. The kids come in the morning to eat that whenever the stock is present. Rest days, you won't see anyone here. There aren't many troys, books or learning material. What they have is too less for the number of children around. The walls are dilapidated and not hygienic. The people now want to send their kids to private playschools, at least those who can afford. The private ones are of course far off. Such people are a handful though. It is a difficult proposition".
As we traveled through the entire civil sub division, hopping from one Anganwadi Center to another, the words of that Nokma kept getting emboldened. More or less, that was the fate of all the Anganwadi Centers. If you think about it, they are the primary interface for the children of rural areas with the world of learning, nutrition and health. And with the present infrastructural condition, how are we supposed to inculcate in them a desire to learn. A desire that's quintessential in these early stages as they would soon be ready for the realm of school education. Talking to several personnel involved in ICDS (Interegrated Child Development Scheme), it became clear that the resources were constrained. And with provision of supplementary logistics, they would perform much better. They all wanted to.
There are hundreds of such Anganwadi centers across my sub-division. It would not be possible to upgrade them all to Model Centers. So, I thought if we could make one of them as a Model Center, which would have all the necessary resources and facilities, we could see the response of the local children and people. With positive results, we would then put forward a case to the respective department for facilitating an upgrade of more such Anganwadi Centers. Ergo, we zeroed down one center which was closer to the head quarters for better monitoring, Dilsigre Anganwadi Center. I initiated a crowd funding campaign on Milaap.org but this time the response was not much as was the case for the campaign about solar lanterns. Perhaps people don't connect to Anganwadis, even I didn't when I was unaware of their state and the colossal importance they hold.
Then we tried some community participation approach where we did some meetings to convince the local people about the relevance of this initiative. Some of them pitched in in whatever way they can. Some people from outside Meghalaya also did their bit in contributing whatever way they could. We did a tinny bit from our office side too. Collectively we were able to realize our dream. We had upgraded the Dilsigre AWC as we wanted. We repaired the structures, painted them and got a talented local artist to wall paint the entire structure. We got toys for the kids, learning books and story books, cushions, carpet, water filter, containers for food storage and many other things.
On the day of inauguration, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the entire village was present. They had made all the arrangements by themselves. They presented songs and several dance performances. You could feel it, the bliss in the air. They wanted to continue the celebrations beyond the schedule. Why would I object to that. The children from the center were so happy to get so many toys. Several simply sat in awe of the beautiful and educative wall paintings did by the artist. A moment of extreme joy for all of us.
Several days after when I visited the center, I saw them enjoying and learning. Reciting poems and singing songs. I wish if all of the centers could be upgraded like this. All it needs is community participation and a little help from those who are privileged. The entire cost of such an upgrade is only 1,00,000 INR. For those interested to contribute and upgrade an Anganwadi center, please write to me at tembe.swapnil@gmail.com or give a call on +91 8527345879. I am hoping to upgrade many more Anganwadis like this, do I have your support ?
P.S. The link to the last post in this series is given below
P.S. 2 A short clip made by Green Hub on this is available on Youtube. CLICK HERE to see.
P.S.3 A news article in BetterIndia , CLICK HERE.
P.S.4 A news article in Telegraph, CLICK HERE.
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