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Journalism of Courage
HANSOT: On a Wednesday morning in Dhamrad, a village about 50 kilometres from Surat, 15 children at an anganwadi are reciting a poem. The poem is rather grim, about a cat in a saari being eaten up by a crocodile. The children, however, sing cheerfully, karaoke-ing along to a TV mounted on the wall: “Magar biladi khayi gayo (The crocodile swallowed the cat)!”
“They love watching their nursery rhymes on TV, they get really excited,” laughs Daksha ben, the anganwadi caretaker. After some more rhymes, the children – aged three to six – move to their desks. which have games like Ludo and Snakes and Ladders painted on them. With the kids playing, Daksha will now supervise the cooking of their afternoon meal, of rice, daal and gram.
The Dhamrad anganwadi is different from the usual government-run childcare centres in villages. It is a ‘smart’ anganwadi, brightly painted, equipped with toys, puzzle books, and a TV set. The walls, along with birds, animals and cartoon characters, are painted with information on healthy eating and washing hands properly.
The anganwadi has been refurbished under Project SAAHAS, a collaboration between the Gujarat government; the Indrashil Kaka-Ba and Kala Budh Public Charitable Trust, which is the CSR arm of drug company Cadila Pharmaceuticals; and consulting firm Global Health Strategies Institute (GHSi). The other ‘smart’ anganwadi is in village Uthraj, also in Hansot taluka.
The new facilities at these two anganwadis are in stark contrast to their condition less than a year ago, says Daksha. “During the Covid lockdown, anganwadis were shut. When we reopened, attendance was not high, and many of the children were under-nourished. Anganwadis look after children’s education, healthcare and nutrition. Their shutting down meant our kids having a weaker start to life,” Daksha says.
Anganwadis house children aged up to six for a part of the day, when their parents are out at work, giving them basic education and two nutritious meals. They also check the children’s health and nutrition levels, along with those of adolescent girls and pregnant women, once a month.
The Covid-19 pandemic put a stop to all that. While food was still distributed door to door, the crucial health check-ups and hospital referrals could not be done. According to the National Family Health Survey 5 (2019-20), Gujarat is among the bottom five states when it comes to children under five suffering from stunted growth and wasting (low weight for height). Project SAAHAS was born amid fears that Covid-19 would exacerbate the situation.
“SAAHAS stands for Strengthening Access and Awareness of Health in Hansot. The project aims to ensure that government schemes deliver optimum last-mile health and education benefits. With anganwadis being the first line of defence against ill-health in children, we knew they would need special support after the pandemic. Thus, the two smart anganwadis were inaugurated in April,” says Dr Bharat Champaneria, trustee of the Indrashil Kaka-Ba and Kala Budh Public Charitable Trust. The trust also runs Kaka Ba Hospital, a popular charitable hospital in Hansot.
Hansot’s Taluka Development Officer (TDO), Dr. Alpana Nair, agrees on the importance of anganwadi workers in providing better healthcare. “Often, people do not readily accept government schemes meant to benefit them. For example, we ask parents of undernourished children to admit them to a government facility for two weeks. But many are reluctant. Also, Gujarat is a prosperous state, so people assume free meals must be of poor quality. They will rather have the less-nourishing food at home than the food packets we provide. Anganwadi workers play a crucial role in bridging this trust gap,” says Nair.
Spurred by this realisation, the Kaka Ba trust and the local government officials decided to collaborate to empower health workers on the ground. Consultancy firm GHSi was roped in to help with coordination.
“Project SAAHAS is streamlining health and nutrition services for children and adolescents in Hansot. We work closely with Anganwadi Workers to understand their needs and plan corresponding interventions, such as strengthening interpersonal communications and upgrading Anganwadi Centres to provide safe and conducive environments for overall development of children and adolescent” said Anuj Ghosh, senior director, Global Health Strategies Institute (GHSi).
The health checkups at anganwadis are conducted by AYUSH doctors under the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK). In Hansot, SAAHAS team members accompany the RBSK units, to make sure every eligible child from the village attends the health screening. On Wednesday, one such screening is in progress at village Malanpor. This anganwadi looks different from the ones at Dhamrad and Uthraj, more drab, with paint peeling off. The birds drawn on one wall are fading, while another bears the Tricolour and a government scheme logo.
The appearance of the anganwadi makes a big difference in attendance, says Daksha. “Children are far more enthusiastic about visiting an inviting, bright building. The anganwadi timings are 9 am to 3:30 pm, but ever since ours was redeveloped, children start lining up from 8 am onwards.”
Jignasa Patel, whose son goes to the anganwadi in Dhamrad, agrees. “My son has been enjoying his time there much more since April. I feel he is learning faster now, after the puzzle books and the TV set were brought in,” she says.
The TV is a big hit at the Uthraj anganwadi too. The TVs are not connected to any service provider, and only play the material provided by Project SAAHAS in pen drives. Pushpa Parmar, the anganwadi worker at Uthraj, says teaching is easier with this material. “Children find it easier to retain what they have seen on screen over what we tell them verbally,” Parmar says. “These new facilities are bringing more children to the anganwadi, which means more kids covered under our nutrition and healthcare net,” she adds.
Uthraj is being developed as a ‘model village’ by the Kaka Ba trust. Apart from the smart anganwadi, it has an artificial lake with boating facility, solar lights, toilets in every house, and dustbins distributed to households.
For Dr Nair, however, the success of SAAHAS is in more than “tangible facilities”. “To me, a smart institution doesn’t just mean more gadgets and more mechanical assets. It also means training individuals to be smarter, more sensitive, more efficient. This is what SAAHAS has been able to do with anganwadi workers, and that is the most valuable asset we have created in this post-pandemic world,” the TDO says.