Community Managed Anganwadi: Sustainable Solution to Malnutrition

Salidana village is perched on a mountain with hutments of Korku tribes dotting the uneven and contoured slopes. Khalwa block of Khandwa district, in which Salidana village falls, is still counted as one of the blocks of Madhya Pradesh with high concentration of malnourished children. The gravity of malnutrition of Salidana is compounded by each passing year due to the lackadaisical functioning of government service delivery systems, widespread livelihood insecurity and heavy distress migration.

Villagers of Salidana are indeed aware of the benefits of having an Anganwadi which could provide nutrition support to village children. But, the spirited efforts of villagers yielded no result as their requests in the past only fell on the deaf ears of the indifferent administration. People of Salidana countered the callousness of administration with innovation and persistence and that too, in an impressive way.

The village, entirely inhabited by Korku tribe, decided to start an informal Anganwadi on its own in the courtyard of a house in 2006. Incidentally, the etymological meaning of Anganwadi is ‘a garden in the courtyard’. Pramilla, an VIII standard pass-out, volunteered to take care of the children and the villagers chipped in with food, small amounts of cash, and contribution of labour. Even after the commencement of informal anganwadi in the village, the community continued to pressurise the local panchayat to recognise the anganwadi as a formal institution and provide resources for nutritional and education support of village children. In the year 2009, the anganwadi was given the recognition of sub-centre and in July 2012, Pramila was appointed as the anganwadi worker. These successes were only the beginning.

One would readily agree that Salidana has one of the best Anganwadis of the state. As a general trend, children normally shy away from going to Anganwadis but in Salidana children just would not leave the anganwadi even after 3 pm. Mr. Prakash, of Spandan Samaj Seva Samiti which helped the community to start the Anganwadi, says that children will stay in anganwadi only if there is a playful environment. “Anganwadi is an efficient mechanism for addressing malnutrition. But these institutions no longer provide enjoyable environment to children where learning and nutrition support are available for them”, Mr. Prakash said.

Salidana anganwadi now has a stock of toys, learning materials and clothes. All the children who attend the Anganwadi get adequate supply of learning materials and two pairs of clothes which were made available by Goonj, a national level network which collects dresses from cities across India and distributes them in impoverished rural areas. The anganwadi also has sufficient supply of essential medicines for treating common sores and bruises which otherwise go untreated in the villages.

At exactly 1 pm, the attendant of the anganwadi comes trudging along with a head-load of vegetable curry and pancakes from the main anganwadi which is nearly two kilometres away. Since Salidana village has fewer than the required number of children for an anganwadi, lunch for the children is prepared at the main Anganwadi and it is brought to Salidana by the attendant. Once the attendant brings the food supply for the children, Pramila goes out to the small veranda followed by the toddlers in a disciplined row. Children stretch out their hands and Pramila washes their hands with soap. The toddlers walk back into the class and sit cross-legged on the rolled out carpets. Pramila occupies one end of the carpet watching over the distribution of lunch to the children. Once the children begin the lunch, Pramila begins narrating the story of a wild crow in Korku dialect. Pramila believes storytelling during lunch time has a lot of benefits. “Children will take food without persuasion and they will not hurry through the lunch if they hear a story” Pramila says.

Only 12 children attended the Anganwadi on a rainy day in August. Even though there are around 50 children in Salidana, all the others migrated with their parents to places as far as Aurangabad in Maharashtra, around 700 km away from Khandwa. Korku tribals migrate frequently for several months at a stretch in search of wage labour. “The migrated tribals will return after the cropping season and the anganwadi will have full attendance of 40-45”, said Pramilla.

Spandan’s workers closely monitor the growth parameters of the children of the village especially those attending the Anganwadi. Children who require nutrition support are put on a rigorous care regimen so that they do not become malnourished. “Anganwadis fail because of the indifference of Anganwadi worker which often happens because of the lack of interest and participation of the community in the management of Anganwadi. If the community starts asserting its rights, Anganwadis will become functional and malnutrition could be defeated”, Mr. Prakash said.

Saju MK, Caritas India, Madhya Pradesh