A brief report

On PROJECT AaNGAN

An initiative to transform Anganwadi Centers into Interactive and Child

Friendly Learning Space

In

Chatra District, Jharkhand

District Administration,

Chatra

Introduction

‘Chatra’ District is situated in the Northern region of

Jharkhand. Earlier it was a subdivision of Hazaribagh district

and later was created as a district in 1991. Chatra is

surrounded by District Gaya in north, Hazaribag in East, Palamu

in West and by Latehar in South West. The District is located at

24012'16" N 54052'37"E.

The economy of the people primarily revolves around

agriculture, forest, animal husbandry and minerals. Around 60%

of the total gross area of the district is covered by forest. The

district is rich in Coal and coal extraction of Rs 4 billion (approx.)

happens in the district every year. ‘Amrapali’, ‘Magadh’,

‘Ashoka’, ‘Piparwar’ and ‘Purnadih’’ are the major industries

involved in the coal extraction. Revenue in form of District

Mineral Funds (DMF) is one of the major fund available with the

District Administration.

Chatra has witnessed a very serious phase of extremists' violence by number of banned Left Wing Extremist Organization. However with the continuous Co-ordinated efforts in recent past by the District Administration, has successfully able to control on a large extent, the red tide of the naxal wave. Due to slow pace of development over many decades, Chatra has been identified as an Aspirational District, by NITI Aayog, Govt. of India. Special focus will be given to the District Administration by the Central govt. and State govt. ‘Health & Nutrition’, ‘Education’, ‘Agriculture & Water Resources’, ‘Financial Inclusion & Skill Development’, and ‘Basic Infrastructure’ are the prime areas of focus.

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) in Chatra

The table below depicts the complete present scenario of the Integrated Child Development Services available in Chatra district:

No. of Operational AWCs

Number of Anganwadi Centers (AWCs)/Mini AWCs running from

Govt. Building

Rented Building

Others

1124

909

169

35

Anganwadi services in Chatra district has been available from quite a long time, and it has been able to cater the needs to many with the limited resources it has, in its baggage as a part of the Central Government‘s supplementary Nutrition programme under its Integrated Child Development Scheme . But, a tour down the district will make anyone realize

that, the majority of these centers have buildings which are dilapidated and unhygienic structures where only State backed services are provided to the children between 0-6 years of age (depends on the availability of funds and resources as well).

Anganwadi Centers have a lot of importance in terms of rural context, as this is the first interface of the child in terms of preschool learning, nutrition and health. But, with the dilapidated and unhygienic AWC structures in the district, the retention of children in the centers became a major issue of concern. The parents of the children developed a passive thought of sending their children to the centers, as they believed that no learning takes place in such an unhygienic structure. Interestingly, the children were also quite disinclined towards going to these centers. These incidents forced the District Administration to give serious thoughts about the issue, and after series of brainstorming, the District Administration initiated the “Project Aangan” in Chatra district.

Project Aangan

This initiative was officially launched on 01st October, 2018 by the District Administration, Chatra. The broad vision of this initiative is to transform the Anganwadi centers of the district into interactive and child friendly learning space, where the children are provided with the utmost facilities available within the reach of the district administration and bestow the best form of preschool learning, like any preschool of urban area, to the remotest village of Chatra district.

A total of 40 Anganwadi centers are selected for redevelopment and up gradation under this initiative from DMFT (District Mineral Funds) in Tandwa and Simariya blocks of Chatra district. These 40 Anganwadi centers have been provided with all the basic facilities which any modern day private play school of urban area has, like Integrated Learning materials (ILM), ICT (Information and Communications Technology) enabled teaching and learning, toys, vinyl floors, well decorated and painted walls, uniforms for children, nutritious and healthy food, and most importantly a complete child friendly environment, where the tiny tots gets ample opportunity to enjoy their early phase of education.

The Time-Cost details for this whole initiative can be summarized in the table below:

Sl.no. Name of the head Value 1 Fund type DMFT

2 Block names shortlisted for this initiative Tandawa Block

Simariya Block

3 Total no. AWC shortlisted 40

4 Starting Date of Project 28.07.2018

5 Completion Date of Project 01.10.2018

6 Time Taken 2 months and 3 days

7 Fund sanctioned of infrastructural redevelopment and civil work for each

shortlisted building

85, 000 /-

8 Fund allotted for providing essential amenities inside each center

1, 22, 300 /-

9 Total cost of each center for transforming into Model AWC

2, 07, 300 /-

10 Total sanctioned fund for transforming 40 AWCs into Model AWCs

82, 92, 000 /-

Apart from the civil construction work for redevelopment of AWCs, the details of the basic amenities provided to each center are mentioned in the table below:

Sl. No. Name of the amenity Value 1. Toys (i) Rock n Scoot Speedy 01 (ii) Jumbo Stallion Ride On 01 (iii) Boat Rocker 01 (iv) Slider (Giraffe Slide) 01 (v) Alphabet (English) Wooden Blocks Toy – 12 blocks (vi) Alphabet (Hindi) Wooden Blocks Toy - 12 blocks (vii) Alphabet (1 to 100) Wooden Blocks Toy- 12 blocks (viii) Swing for Kids 1

2. Water Filter 1

3. Wardrobe 1

4. Music System 1

5. T.V 1

6. Desk and Bench (for children) 05

7. White Board 01

8. Marker pen 02

9. Duster 01

10. Plate 40

11. Glass 40

12. Spoon 40

13. Cooking Utensils 03

14. Table 01

15. Chair 02

16. Gas Stove 01

17. Dustbin 01

18. Liquid Hand wash 01

19. Towel (Small) 06

20. Comb 04

21. Nail Cutter 04

22. Wall Mirror 01

23. Uniform dress 40

24. Shoes 40

25. Socks 40

26. ID card (for children) 40

27. Bag 40

28. Water Bottle 40

29. Belt 40

All the above mentioned amenities has been provided to all the shortlisted AWCs and

maintenance and replenishment is being provided by the DMFT fund. The vision of this

initiative is to bring in the facilities available in the preprimary schools of urban areas to the

Anganwadi centers of remote villages, as well as to check the malnutrition, stunting and

underweight conditions of the children. This initiative is started on pilot basis and will be

replicated in other AWCs of different blocks as well.

Impact Assessment

An impact assessment study will be carried out on regular intervals, in the

aforementioned broad indicators and the progress will be checked on the parameters under

these indicators

• Better IQ level

• Retention rate of Children

• Increase in Attendance Learning Outcome

• Low rate of Malnourishment, Stunting and Under weight cases among children

Health Parameters

Sustainability of the Model

There are four key factors that ensure sustainability of this Project Aangan model, which in

return impact the learning outcome and ensure quality: Increase in retention of Children,

Acceptance from parental side, Quality work by AWW and Governance & Management.

L̥

• Budget and Funds

• Targeted intervention and

schemes

• Timely opening the center

• Timely disburshing all the 6 services

• Taking onus in the work

• Sending their children regularly

to the AWC

• Involving in the happenings of AWC

• Feeling of pride for

the center

• Increase in Daily Attendance

• Involvememt and participation in daily

activities

• Lower rate of diseases Increase in

Retention of Children

Acceptance from Parental

Side

Governance & Management

Quality Work by AWW

Some Glimpse of Inaugural Launch

“Project Aangan” is an

initiative of District Administration,

Chatra to develop Model Anganwadi

centers in Chatra district.

A total of 40 Aganwadi centers are

selected for redevelopment under this

initiative from DMFT (District Mineral

Funds) in Tandwa and Simariya blocks of

Chatra district.

These 40 Aganwadi centers have all the

basic facilities which any modern day

private play schools of urban area has,

like Integrated Learning materials (ILM),

ICT (Information and Communications

Technology) enabled teaching and

learning, toys, vinyl floors, well decorated

walls, uniforms for children, nutritious

and healthy food and most importantly a

complete child friendly environment,

where tiny tots gets ample opportunity to

enjoy their early phase of education.

The broad vision of this initiative is to

bring in the facilities available in the

preprimary schools of urban areas to the

Aganwadi centers of remote villages.

This initiative is started on pilot basis and

will be replicated in other blocks as well.

Mr. Jitendra Kumar Singh, IAS of 2008

batch from J&K cadre, joined Jharkhand

Cadre in December 2017. He took over his

duties as the Deputy Commissioner of Chatra

district in February 2018. It was his vision and

leadership, which made the idea of

constructing Model AWCs in Chatra district a

reality. He personally took interest in the

issue of remodeling AWCs, and after multiple

consultations and discussions with the

concerned departments, finally the initiative

became a reality on 01.10.2018.

While addressing the media on the day of

inaugural launch, he said, “Aganwadi Center

is an important institution for development of

children, as this is the first interface of

children from rural areas in terms of learning,

nutrition and health. It is very important to

create a quality space, where children can

enjoy their early phase of education like any

other private play school of urban areas.

Presently we have constructed 40 Model

Aganwadi Centers and in future we will

replicate this to other centers also”