Kunwar Abhishek Bhagat
Amravati
Chikli ICDS centre a Vital player for upliftment of the society
Anaganwari centre is playing a vital role in child care at chikli. Anaganwadi worker Shoba Metkar who is working in the same anganwadi since 1982, but she manages to serve the village with her will despite of earlier opposition to work as per the family. She said “despite of her family not supporting to work her husband always supported her for the cause. Women in the village are not expected to work, however if they are provided permission they are not permitted to move out the village.”
There are total 2 anganwadi centre in the village where the number of students are 89 one 86 respectively. To maintain records a record chart book is been issued to every anagawadi centre where records of the childrens from 0-6 yrs are recorded separately for boys and girls, pink colour register is maintained for girls and blue for the boys and childrens from 5-6 years are recorded in one consolidated register.
At the grass-root level, delivery of various services to target groups is given at the Anganwadi Centre (AWC). An AWC is managed by an honorary Anganwadi Worker (AWW) and an honorary Anganwadi Helper (AWH).
In a Monthly Progress Card (MPR) chart there are details like Name of the child, mother’s name, father’s name, address, Date of Birth , rank the child means which child in the family and caste. The MPR chart has 4 different regions where White means healthy child, Green means normal, yellow under weight, Orange mal-nourished child.
According to the MPR card there are 7 girls above 5 years and 8 boys above 5 years and children in the age group of 0-5 are 79. Children birth in2011 where 5 girls were born out which 2 were from Nomadic Tribes, 1 from SC, 1 ST and 1 OBC category.
Unatti Dhakre who was born on 11.2.2011 was 6.5 kg as the weight was after two years as her parent were not in the village but now she is a healthy child with weight of 8kg. Amazing fact in the village is that when no name kept by the parents the AWW use to write’ Balya’ for male child, and Bali for girl. Bali who born on 6/8/2011 belonged to SC category again registered her weight in 2nd month which was 3.5 kg where she is absent from the records as not in the village. Another girl Bali d/o Rekha who was born on 9/8/2011 st 2nd month 4.5kg and 3 month 5 kg and her parents now migrated for work or visit mothers place. Bali d/o Durga was born on 25/8/2011 2months her weight was 3kg and showed increase in her weight in the 4th month to 5 kg.
There were only two deaths in the village, one girl and one boy. Sharada who was born on 6.6.10 and died on 27/5/11 dead 11 months, Due to pneumonia and jaundice she was shifted to Dharni and was hospitalized but was dead . Another death was recorded of a boy Balya who died after two days of his birth, he was born on 21.5.11 dead 23.5.2011, after his birth due to toxic water entered his stomach he suffered death, he was also shifted to the hospital but was dead.
For malnourished child AWW has a VCDC scheme which means extra care is given to the malnourished child where the child is feeded sx times a day with healthy food including egg milk upma daliya lapsi etc per day.
After the 6 years of care in the anganwadi center the childrens are admitted to the primary school as age has been fixed for admission in the 1st class is 6 years.
Despite of good working condition the AWW centre the Anganwadi worker faces many problems, AWW worker Shoba Metkar said” Despite of keeping records up to date now the government now willing to rewrite the whole in a new register, as earlier we were filling it with pencil now we got instructions to fill it with pen.”
She also added “training to make entries in the chart is not provided fully, and even one cannot go out for field visit every day.”
Monthly salary of the AWW worker is 2500, she told the a hike is expected later December this year with Rs.1500 hike the salary making it to Rs. 4000 per month. She also told that she was getting 125 rs in 1982 as she was matric fail but AWW worker who were 10+2 were getting 175rs per month in 1982.
AWW worker Shoba Metkar also quoted her example by admitting her two granddaughters to the Anganwadi centre, which clearly implies of her will towards her work which created positive attitude towards various other residents of chikli. She added “people in the village have became more cautious and curious about the fluctuation in the weight of their child and also asks for the precautions to be taken.
