Bells will ring for the first time in all the 1,984 Anganwadi centres in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan on the pattern of schools. The daily schedule of these centres, providing basic health care to combat child hunger and malnutrition, will also be divided into periods through regular time tables.
State Women and Child Development Department's Deputy Director Sompal Singh distributed bells and wall-clocks, donated by a voluntary group, to some of the Anganwadi centres in Bharatpur on Wednesday. Dr. Singh said the daily schedule will comprise eight periods of 30 minutes each.
To mark a period's completion and beginning of the next, bells will be ringed just like in the regular schools. Dr. Singh said the wall-clocks, to be used in all Anganwadi centres and the project offices, will help in maintaining punctuality.
Bharatpur-based Lupin Foundation has donated bells and wall-clocks for all the Anganwadi centres. Lupin Foundation's Executive Director Sita Ram Gupta said this would be the first initiative of its kind in the State to start school-like activities at these centres, which primarily deal with supplementary nutrition and non-formal pre-school education.
The division of daily schedule into periods would take care of all activities, including morning prayers, physical workout, midday meals, linguistic knowledge, creative activities, mental exercise and playing with toys, said Mr. Gupta.
A large number of Anganwadi workers and women invigilators and the District Integrated Child Development Project Officer were present on the occasion. Anganwadi centres are already providing immunisation, health check-up and referral services in convergence with the public health system.
