Stepmom: Anganwadi workers to ‘adopt’ malnourished kids

“Staying with the children invariably makes one emotionally attached to them,and it pains when a child dies of malnutrition despite all our efforts. With poverty,odd jobs and half a dozen kids scrambling around on the floor,we can fully blame the mothers for not taking care of their children. So,we decided that anganwadi workers themselves play mothers and adopt severely malnourished children,” said Yamini Pandya,Integrated Child Development Scheme Officer,Vadodara City,Zone II.

In this way,nearly 800 such children in city slums will be adopted,although it will not be a legal adoption.

“The idea was mooted last year when a severely malnourished child was brought to the anganwadi. We thought he won’t live. But for three months,he was constantly monitored and fed nutritional supplements. The child showed improvement; but just when we were confident that he will survive,the mother,fed up of her drunkard husband,took the child away,” said Pandya.

She added: “After a couple of months of searching,we traced the woman,but the child’s health started failing again. The anganwadi worker of that area was asked to take special care of him. Later,when the woman returned to her in-laws,we paid her a surprise visit. We found her lying drunk and the child wandering around,uncared for. How can we expect the children to survive in this way?”