Anganwadis, no haven for city children

In the low-ceiling, dingy room, there already are 10 children aged between 2 and 5 years, sleeping on mats as they wait for their mothers to pick them up. The anganwadi on Elluthukaran Street in Tiruvottiyur barely has any space left. But when the reporter enquires for new admissions, one of the teachers say they will accept students. “Yes, we can enrol them even tomorrow. But the child should finish her ablutions at home; we don’t have a toilet here,” she adds. 

On Market Lane in the same neighbourhood, another anganwadi is operating without a toilet. “My daughter was there for a while. The ayah used to bring her home in case she needed to go to the toilet. Or else, they are made to urinate just outside the centre,” adds a resident. 

On Ekambaram Pillai Street near Luz Church, 10 children sit cooped up in a dimly-lit space. With a toilet, a tiny kitchen and a goat wandering inside the premises, it literally is a fight for space. The scenes are similar at KVB Thottam, where one has to negotiate an uneven terrain leading into the narrow lane to reach the anganwadi. Inside, a group of children are huddled in a barely ventilated space. 

Within Jafferkhanpet, in Choolaipallam, a small room has as many as 20 children sweating on a sizzling summer afternoon. But when asked about new admissions, the teacher says promptly, “We can take in more. A few of these will join regular schools by the next academic year, so there would be space.” 

There indeed are a few good centres, like the anganwadi in Luz — a well-lit and colourful environment that has more than 25 children. When this reporter visited the place, a Montessori teacher was seen engaging the children with an exercise. Not very far is another good anganwadi in MK Amman Koil Street. But according to T Daisy, state secretary, Tamil Nadu Anganwadi Uzhiyar Matrum Udhaviyalar Sangam, most of these well-kept and equipped anganwadis receive help from private organisations and individuals. “In my centre in Virudhunagar, we are yet to see a proper toilet even after all these years. There is a makeshift toilet that keeps collapsing every year,” she adds. 

Officials admit that as much as 30 per cent of the anganwadi centres in the state do not have toilets or water facilities. The facilities in Chennai are better when compared to the state of the centres in the districts, they concede. R Kannan, mission director, Integrated Child Development Services, explains that the size of the building varies, depending on the building they are able to take on rent. “About 40 per cent of the centres are in rented buildings, as it is hard to locate spaces in the city. The ones without toilets are in the zones that have been recently added to the city’s purview; Tiruvottiyur till about recently was part of the Tiruvallur district project,” he points out. 

Much of the credit for the effective functioning goes to the teachers and helpers, says Chitraiselvi, president of the anganwadi teachers and workers association. “These helpers cook and take care of the child’s needs, like feeding them and taking them to the toilet. It is practically impossible, but they do it,” she says.

Every month, the centres pass on the list of essentials – rice, pulses and other grocery items – to the child development project officers (CDPOs), and Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies department delivers the products at the centres. But more often than not, Daisy points out, they spend out of their pockets. “How are we expected to manage feeding them when the reimbursements are delayed for several months” 

Workers also complain about the cumbersome procedures, the many registers to be maintained by the person in charge of the centre. “During inspection, if there is anything amiss, that person faces the music. That’s why most of them pay from their pockets,” says Daisy.

However, Kannan claims only some centres in north Chennai faced the delay. “They have been looked into and corrected. The teachers receive their reimbursements on time.” 

Dr K Shanmugavelayutham, convenor, TN-FORCES, says that correcting some basic problems can help deliver better. For instance, the allotment per child per day has not factored in the price escalation, like vegetable and tomatoes that are sold at exorbitant rates at times. And there is severe staff crunch: each supervisor covers at least 25 centres and each CDPO has close to 150 centres. “They get their supervisors to vet the bills, and the CDPOs have to get the sums cleared by the office and reimbursed. There are considerable delays at these levels, as there aren’t enough supervisors and there is a delay in sending the report to the treasury,” he adds. 

To meet the crunch, the Akshaya Patram scheme where a child brings one vegetable from home every day was introduced some years ago. “The anganwadi monitoring and support groups can help solve these problems. Now they aren’t doing an effective job. Moreover, community support is essential to help government programmes deliver better,” he says.

Anganwadi centres are part of child-care and mother-care development under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme launched in the 1980s. ICDS is aimed at eradicating malnutrition among children, ensuring pre-school education, primary health care etc. in Tamil Nadu, each anganwadi covers a population of 1,000 people. While it was started in the settlement areas for the underprivileged, it was extended to the whole population, with the number of centres varying in each area depending on the population.

I have been a teacher at this anganwadi centre in south Chennai for more than 26 years now. Joining services in 1991, I have seen the centre grow from a small makeshift room to a well-equipped room stocked with play and study materials—a part of the credit goes to me. It is Monday and a terribly busy day for me. I have just completed recording the height and weight of the children that come under my centre. 

On any given day, I am busy juggling tasks – ensuring expectant mothers are eating well and counselling them, giving them the nutritional supplement, ensuring the new mothers have got the vaccinations done, etc. I even observe the behaviour of the children in my centre. If they misbehave, I summon their parents and tell them to correct it. The funds are inadequate, and on many days, I manage with very less. I have to manage the centre with just three cylinders every year. I receive only Rs 50 for miscellaneous expenses – I buy dish wash soap, phenyl, broomstick etc., within that amount. So I have to foot some bills, but I don’t mind. At the end of it, children must be fed and classes must continue.