Anganwari centres in Amritsar face fund crunch

Neha Saini

Amritsar, April 3

Anganwari centres that were established to render services in pre-school learning, health education, nutrition, immunisation and referral services have become a picture of neglect.

According to the DEO (Elementary) office and District Programme Office, of the 1,859 anganwari centres functional in Amritsar, 1,274 are being run from government elementary schools in respective areas, while 585 centres are operating from rented accommodations. Of these 585 centres, 213 do not have toilets. Only recently, funds were allotted to complete construction of toilets in 36 centres.

‘Merge these with elementary schools’

• DEO (Elementary) Rajesh Kumar said the anganwari centres functioning from govt elementary schools, had been given upgraded facilities
• “The anganwaris in schools are sharing our resources, including playgrounds, toilets and other facilities,” he said
• He said anganwaris should be merged with pre-primary classes as far as providing Integrated Child Development Services were concerned as it would save funds

The centres have been catering to lactating mothers, pregnant women and providing Integrated Child Development Services, including immunisation programme, providing nutritional diet and imparting pre-school informal learning. However, the lack of funds and accountability of government nodal agencies have resulted in several infrastructural gaps.

District Programme Officer Manjinder Singh said they had received funds for Supplementary Nutritional Programme (SNP) and more funds were expected to be released to build toilets. “We have received Rs 800 per centre under the SNP and a fraction of funds for providing uniforms to anganwari workers. The lack of adequate funds for infrastructure has prompted us to shift a majority of centres to local elementary schools.”

Manjinder Singh said Rs 2,500 allowance was given to centres operational at rented accommodations. However, the ground reality seems to be different. An anganwari worker, who works at the Inderpuri centre in Kot Khalsa, said, “We do not receive rent every month, instead Rs 700-800 is given to us after two or three months to run the facility. With this amount, we can only afford to rent a single room. We have to spend money from our own pockets to pay the rent for a place that has a toilet.”