Anganwadi centres in Bangarpet fail to meet objectives

Though the Centre has set up anganwadi centres everywhere, the Taluk Panchayat has failed to provide the basic amenities. It may said that these centres are virtually non-existent for the people.

The teachers at the anganwadi centres have no proper training, thereby they are not able to teach the basics to the children in a scientific manner. The teachers have not been able to teach the children proper pronunciation of words or the identification or use of household articles of daily use.

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 The children have no spoons to eat their food, soap for hand wash or even dolls to play with. Of the 515 anganwadi centres in the taluk, only 231 have buildings of their own. The others are functioning out of temples, school buildings, community halls or Gram Panchayat buildings.

Many are functioning out of dilapidated buildings, endangering the lives of the children. As much as 85 per cent of the buildings where the anganwadi centres are functioning have no proper ventilation, water or toilet facilities.  

All these drawbacks have led to an increase in the dropout rate in these anganwadi centres. The dropout rate have decreased by 30 per cent in the last two years. The learning rate struggles to reach 25 per cent. The anganwadi centres have only become places for working couple to leave their children during daytime.

Many absentees
In many anganwadi centres, the number of children present is much less than than the number enrolled. There are allegations that private bakeries prepare ‘besan laddu’ from energy food supplied top these anganwadi centres.

It is hence that parents send their children to the day care centres and playhomes in the urban areas. Job insecurity is a major problem facing the teachers at the anganwadi centres, said Nagaraj, president of the community association. Though their honorarium has been hiked, it is yet to be implemented. Also, their working hours have been increased.

“Besides, books for the children and the training programmes for teachers, we are giving many facilities. We spend Rs 4 per day per child at the anganwadi centres. An amount of Rs 1,000 is given annually per anganwadi centre for buying toys. We spend Rs 30 lakh a month for anganwadi centres in the taluk. If there are no results to see, it is not the problem of the taluk alone, but of the entire State,” said Eeraswamy, taluk child development officer.