MOHD MAJID MALIK
BHADERWAH, Mar 13: Some Anganwadi Centers in Bhaderwah do not follow the guidelines, neither in terms of operation nor its objectives.Most of the time, little Champs , despite their long hard trek, return empty handed as the Anganwadi worker and helper are not present to cater to these innocent beneficiaries. Reasons (read excuses) vary predictably, the Anganwadi worker's grandmother has expired (for the tenth time in a year, if anyone cares to count) or is unwell (yet again); ration supply is not available; parents are not sending their children to the center... the list is diverse.
These Anganwari Kendras, set up under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) launched in 1975 by the Central Government to fight the issue of malnutrition, aims at the holistic development of children below the age of six years, expectant and nursing mothers and adolescent girls. This involves providing a package of services comprising supplementary nutrition, immunization, health check-ups, referral services, pre-school education and nutrition and health education.
The ICDS is aimed particularly at the most vulnerable sections of the population and in disadvantaged areas such as backward rural areas, tribal tracts and urban slums.As per the 2001 Census, the population of children under the age of six in India was around 160 million, approximately 15 per cent of India's total population. A vast majority of these children live in an economic and social environment which impedes their physical and mental development. These conditions include poor environmental sanitation, disease, infection and inadequate access to primary healthcare. In states like Jammu and Kashmir where, besides these socio-economic factors, conflict plays a major role in affecting the physical and mental health of children, such schemes have a larger responsibility to perform.
The good-intentioned format makes ICDS one of the world's largest community-based child development programmes. Unfortunately, the scheme, even after almost four decades, has not been able to achieve its desired results in Bhaderwah , good intentions have not been translated into good results. Reflected by the current situation of the Anganwari Centers in Bhaderwah area , one can estimate how little these centers are contributing to the 'holistic development' of tender minds. Mirroring the situation in Bhaderwah faces the same situation in its Anganwadi Centers. According to Naseer Mehboob Padder RTI activist , a local from Bhaderwah town , "The Anganwadi center in some area that holds a population of approximately three hundred never gets to see its worker as she lives outside Bhaderwah . The only time we see the doors unlocked is when the center receives rations, supposedly intended for intended beneficiaries."When the Superintendent of the Social Welfare Department was contacted regarding the situation they stated that they have sent a team for inquiry - drawing further criticism from locals who allege that on the day of the visit by the inquiry team, the helper rounds up the children and stages a fully operational center before the visitors. This continues for a couple of days, after which the lock on the center returns on the third day. And so it continues. A local resident, on condition of anonymity, informed that the center has not functioned since the last visit by the inquiry team. A similar situation was witnessed in the Mohalla Khakhal of Bhaderwah where the Anganwari Center was found to be locked till noon.On further questioning regarding the improper functioning of the centers , the CDPO Bhaderwah washed his hands of the responsibility, blaming it entirely on the worker who, when contacted on the phone, questioned the right of the caller to ask his such questions! Anganwadi Community Development Project Officers, expected to make the villagers aware of the importance of nutritious food in the growth of the child since the time it is conceived, brazenly shirk their responsibility, jeopardizing the future of not merely a family but of the entire society they are answerable to. RTI activist alleged that he week information about the various issues from CDPO Bhadewrah but he provided the half information and remained missing from office the reason best known to him. Kashmir's Baramulla district. Believe it or not, the officials working for the implementation of the central sponsored scheme are the real beneficiaries of the funds received for poor masses.
If the sources within the department have to be believed, fake entries of beneficiaries are being made only to swindle huge amount of public money, alleged Mohan Singh Baloria a local of Bhaderwah . Ironically, only Anganwari helpers in whose residential houses the centers are being run were present, while the workers remain absent and some times they go absconding for months together, he alleged . Ask any Anganwari helper present at the center that were are beneficiaries and worker, they will just pick up the register to show the roll of beneficiaries and expenditure of nutrition, alleged Mohd Hussain . In some ICDS centers the signboard reads, `Well come to Anganwari Center ' but when the door of the room was opened to check out the beneficiaries getting nutrition there was none except a chair and table , alleged Jalees Fatima .When the concerned officer was contacted to understand the other side of the picture, he took a diplomatic stance, saying that they would be able to fight the problem if they have the support of the people ; completely avoiding, in effect, the role his team should have played in proper implementation of this ambitious scheme. There are many Social Welfare Officers in Jammu and Kashmir are following corrupt practices such as selling off the ration meant for Anganwari Kendras and providing low quality ration to these people |
