Minister says final decision will be taken after discussing the proposal with Chief Minister
In addition to the nutrition supplement given to children in Anganwadi centres across the State, the government is also considering a proposal to extend the mid-day meal scheme to them.
Minister for Woman Development and Child Welfare Sunitha Laxma Reddy disclosed this after releasing a book on Integrated Child Development Services authored by retired IAS officer K. R. Vengugopal here on Monday.
The proposal was already discussed with the School Education Minister for implementing mid-day meal scheme to 80,481 children in the main centres and 10,826 children in smaller centres under 387 ICDA projects, she said. A final decision would be taken after discussing the proposal with the Chief Minister.
Another proposal under active consideration of the government was to extend the timings of the Anganwadi centres till 4 p.m. and turn them into Balwadi centres. At present, the timings of the Anganwadi centres are from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
She said measures were being taken to remove irregularities and improve services in providing education, health and nutritious food for children through Anganwadi centres properly and in time and give boost to woman and child welfare programmes.
The department after consulting with Medical and Health Department would initiate steps to provide better food and health services for the pregnant women in the centres.
State ranked fifth
The State was ranked fifth in implementation of Anganwadi services and their target was to bring it to the top position in the country, Ms. Reddy said.
Keywords: Anganwadi centres, mid-day meals, Andhra Pradesh
there is no denying the fact that anganwadis can be very useful in serving the village by keeping child under their care and let rural women to have adequate time for their economic persuits. it will be a farsighted decision to extend the time of anganwadis and provide midday meal also. however during my study of anganwadis, i have found a number of discrepancies in the functioning of said institution which ranges from shortage of food, dismal attendance of beneficiary, poor way of engaging the children and creating their interest to dismal pre school education. peoples' interest or involvement is also lacking which is crucial to any community care programme.
anganwadi workers should be trained to involve children in the various activities to ensure their attendance. apart from food children are expected to be introduced with formal education in non fomal ways. it need to explore varius ways to achieve the same.
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