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Anganwadis in Kerala asked to woo more children

Only 31 percent of the anganwadis under the scanner had drinking water facilities and only 58 percent of them had power.

Thiruvananthapuram: The Social Justice Department has directed the 32,000-odd anganwadis in the state to increase their intake of children from the next academic year. The directive has been issued in the wake of reports that children in anganwadis has been dropping dramatically over the years. In the last academic year alone, the number of children in the state’s anganwadis had fallen by a disturbing 40,000.

The department has now asked each of the anganwadis to enroll at least two more children than their last year’s intake. Poor infrastructure in anganwadis has been identified as reason behind the “considerable fall” in the enrollment of children in anganwadis. The department has also asked anganwadis to “utilize to the maximum” the panchayat non-road maintenance fund for improving the infrastructure.

The internal report, which came out in October last year, had found that the infrastructure facilities in anganwadis had not improved even 17 years after the local bodies were asked to take on the responsibility of running the anganwadis. The assessment was carried out in 5072 anganwadis in 81 local bodies in the state. Of this, 2245 anganwadis or 44 percent were functioning out of rented houses. “Only buildings that have toilets and drinking water supply should be taken on rent. But the assessment found that the majority of the rented buildings lacked basic facilities,” the report said.

Only 31 percent of the anganwadis under the scanner had drinking water facilities and only 58 percent of them had power. In 83 percent of anganwadis, it was found that there were no baby-friendly toilets. There are a number of anganwadis where the children share toilets with the building owner’s family. The pathetic conditions prevailing in anganwadis have prompted parents to stop sending children to these crèches, the report says.

“Only less than one-third of the total child population in the state depend on ‘anganwadis’. The dependence is far less in the case of pregnant and lactating mothers,” said V S Venu, the ICDS state project director.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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