Anganwadi centres welcome kids in Dakshina Kannada

Children returned to Anganwadi centres in Mangaluru after a gap of one-and-a-half years on Monday. All the 2,108 centres were sanitised to welcome the kids. Further, all the workers and assistants have been vaccinated in the district, the Women and Child Development department Deputy Director Papabovi told DH.

Children were asked to sit at a distance of one metre from each other.

The Anganwadi centres remained open till 12 noon and only packaged food was given to the children which they were not allowed to eat within the premises. "We will review the situation for 15 days before taking a call on serving nutritious food," said the officer.

The Anganwadi centres have 1.80 lakh beneficiaries and there are 4,200 Anganwadi workers/assistants in the district.

A few Anganwadi centres had arranged a grand welcome for the children by showering flower petals on them. However, the attendance at a few Anganwadi centres was poor on the first day.

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Only three children reached the Anganwadi centre in the Government School of Gandhinagar.

Aruna, an Anganwadi worker at Beeriga in Puttur said there was 100% attendance. “As there are 30 children enrolled at the centre, we have asked all the 12 children, who are five-year-old, to attend the Anganwadi centre daily. The younger children will be asked to attend the centre on alternate days.”

Mangalore North MLA Dr Bharath Shetty welcomed the children at an Anganwadi centre in Krishnanagara of Marakada Ward and later interacted with the kids. He even asked the children to attend the Anganwadi centre daily and also asked what they did all these days back at home.

Even Kindergarten schools were reopened for the children. The school premises were filled with LKG and UKG children accompanying their parents.

To ensure that the learning process continues hassle-free when the Anganwadi centres remained closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the kids were studying online.

Anganwadi workers had created a WhatsApp group and had enrolled mothers of children admitted in each Anganwadi jurisdiction. Anganwadi workers were uploading one topic to the group every week. Mothers of the children were guided on how to teach.

Makkala Jagruthi Samsthe had implemented the concept of teaching at home for children with the help of mothers. Further, to ensure that children do not suffer malnutrition, the food ingredients to prepare nutritious food were distributed to the houses of each child during the lockdown period by the Anganwadi workers.

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