Upparnuagaon Anganwadi Centre Gets A Makeover

Upparnuagaon Anganwadi Centre Gets A Makeover

Previous Next

Geetanjali Ghadei has been an Anganwadi worker for the last 20 years at the Upparnuagaon village in M Rampur block in Odisha’s Kalahandi district. In the last few years, her Anganwadi centre was in need of some major repair. The walls had started chipping, the paint had faded away, the toilet (mostly shut) had no water connection and the kitchen was covered in black, grimy soot.

In fact, this centre was shifted to this building from an older building, a few 100 metres away, when the ceiling had started leaking and there was a risk of it collapsing.      

Today the one room-one kitchen-one toilet building, on the main road, dons a new look. It is freshly painted, the walls are repaired, the toilet has a new water connection and the kitchen has lost most of its grime and soot. The room now has alphabets and numbers—in English, Hindi and Odia—in colourful circles across the walls and paintings of animals and cartoon characters.

The difference in the ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures of the Anganwadi Centre is stark. Geetanjali says that children are happier and more regular. “They are eager to come to the centre”. The centre has about 10 children from the village and it runs between 9 am and 12 noon. She added that earlier toilet did not have a water supply but now not only does it have water supply and it is repaired with new tiles, there are two separate toilets for boys and girls. The 25 feet by 22 feet room at the centre where children and pregnant and lactating mothers come, the latter for their monthly ration (chatua and eggs), has a small store room stocked with the supplies.

The Anganwadi centre has a new attraction now. A hand washing station has been built just outside the centre. The hand washing station, built to the height of the children, has helped inculcate a basic hygiene habit in the children. “The children wash their hands before and after their meals, after they use the toilet, and before they enter the centre first thing in the morning. This is very important since the one hand pump across the road was broken and the overhead tank had burst a few months ago,” said Geetanjali.     

Koibati Dharua says that her grandchildren are very happy coming to the centre. She is particularly happy at the hand washing station. She smiles as she points to the wall art and says “even if the Anganwadi worker has to go away for a little while, the children can learn on their own”.

The centre was repaired and renovated under Project Utthan—an Oxfam India-HDFC Bank’s HRDP initiative. “We wrote to the Women and Child Development department for the renovation of these Anganwadi centres. Our priority was WASH hence we have focussed on setting up hand washing stations in all the schools we have worked,” says Gurukalyan Nayak, Project Officer. Four Anganwadi Centres have been renovated and repaired as of now.

The community has also committed to the upkeep of the centre. In fact they were so happy with the makeover that they are requesting the team to even clean the drain in front of the centre. “The expectations are high but it also reflects that the community is becoming more aware about the need for hygiene and sanitation,” adds Nayak. A little over Rs 1.25 lakh was spent on the renovations. The overhead water tank has also been repaired.

On Geentanjali’s observation that perhaps the numbers should have been painted in serial order instead of randomly, Nayak explains that this was done to help children brainstorm and learn better. In fact, a music system complete with a mic is going to be the next addition to the Centre. In one of the other centre’s, the team have observed children become more confident and enjoying singing and reciting poems on the mic.

📢Oxfam India is now on Telegram. Click here to join our Telegram channel and stay tuned to the latest updates and insights on social and development issues.