BHOPAL (Madhya Pradesh): Anganwadis reopened to a poor turnout of children on Thursday after a gap of 18 days. The Anganwadi workers told Free Press that the parents were reluctant to send their children to centres as they were not vaccinated.
The Anganwadis were closed on January 15 to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. There are 1,872 Anganwadis in Bhopal district and 97,135 in the state.
Anganwadi worker at Dhobhi Ghat centre, Bhopal, Nasreen, said 20 of the 96 children enrolled in her centre turned up on Thursday. The children aged between 6 months and six years are enrolled but mainly those in the age group of 3-6 years turned up,î she added. On normal days, 35 children come to Anganwadis, she said.
The children who turned up were told about body parts and some other activities were conducted. Cooked meals were not served as they have already distributed packets of ready-to-cook food to children.
Jyoti Pawar, incharge of Anganwadis in Hoshangabad district, said parents were reluctant to send their children to centres as younger children were yet to be vaccinated. ìWe called the children to take their weight. They came with their parents and went back with them,î she said.
Hazra Quazmi, who is incharge of an Anganwadi Centre near the Vidhan Sabha, said state governmentís order did not make it clear whether children should be called. ìOnly five children came to the centre today,î she remarked. Hazra is also the leader of the Anganwadi workers in the state.
Varsha Mishra, a worker at Meera Nagar Anganwadi Centre, said 27 children came. After prayers, a PT session was conducted. They were later introduced to English alphabets and numbers. They also played with the toys.
Anita Ganguliya, worker at the Anganwadi Centre in Lahori village in Shajapur district, said 25 children came to her centre. The children played kho-kho and hide and seek.
70,000 Anganwadi workers to get smart phones; CM to virtually distribute phones in Sehore dist today
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will virtually distribute 1,465 smart phones to Anganwadi workers in Sehore district under Poshan Abhiyan from Mantralaya on Friday at 1.15 pm.
Smart phones will be distributed at district level to 69,316 Anganwadi workers and 2,429 supervisors of remaining 36 districts. The Poshan Abhiyan is being conducted by Women and Child Development Department for 97,135 Anganwadi and Mini Anganwadi centres approved under 453 Integrated Child Development Project in all 52 districts of the state.
Information and Communication Technology based real time monitoring is done through mobile based nutrition tracker application. In the past, smart phones were distributed to 27,817 Anganwadi workers of 16 districts and tablets to 972 supervisors.
Daily information on services provided by Anganwadi workers in Anganwadi centres is entered using the nutrition tracker application from smart phones. Monitoring of information is done daily at block, district and state level. By using nutrition tracker on smart phone by Anganwadi workers, the work of maintenance of registers gets reduced on a daily basis. Through the same application, Rs 2000 per month are being paid to all Anganwadi workers.
An amount of Rs 500 will be given to Anganwadi workers and Rs 250 to Anganwadi assistants as incentive on filling the information as per the prescribed criteria in the application.
