Balasore: Anganwadi centres aimed at imparting pre-school education to children and implementing supplementary nutrition and immunization programmes for kids and mothers have failed to achieve their purpose in this district as most of the centres are plagued by lack of infrastructure.
According to sources, over 3,000 Anganwadi centres in the district do not have buildings of their own. Social activists and conscious citizens have cast their doubts over the successful implementation of the programme.
Scores of Anganwadi centres run from schools premises while many others run from dilapidated structures, reports said.
The problem has been attributed to the lack of a proper monitoring system. According to official reports, 3,129 of the 4,080 Anganwadi centres in the district do not have buildings of their own. Most of these centres run from either from extra rooms of a school, or school verandahs or from clubs in a miserable condition. As many as 951 centres have their own buildings while 219 are housed in old buildings.
Social activists say Anganwadi centres should have been given priority in tribal pockets of the district as tribal children are more prone to malnutrition.
According to data available from the district social welfare office, 616 children were found malnourished in June with Jaleswar block reporting the highest number of 117 cases. Bhograi block reported 12 cases of malnutrition; Bahanaga 30; Balasore 70; Balasore-II 13; Baliapal 18; and Basta 47. Similarly, 32 children were found undernourished in Khaira; 84 in Nilagiri; 13 in Oupada; 46 in Remuna; 28 in Simulia; 20 in Soro and 25 in Balasore municipality area.
According to the women and child development department, there are 2,32,660 children below 6 years of age in the district.
The department claimed that only 616 children below 6 years were affected by malnutrition, but it is alleged that the figure could be many times more, if the miserable condition of Patharapada is take into consideration.
Recently, the administration found many children of the Mankidia tribe at Patharapada in Gadasahi panchayat under Oupada block malnourished, days after the sorry state of Nagada village in Jajpur district came to fore. The district receives over `32 core per annum for management of Anganwadi centres, but the way the centres are functioning it has cast serious doubts over the proper utilization of the funds.
It is alleged funds are misappropriated in the names of ghost children enrolled in several Anganwadis. District social welfare officer Asteria Kerketa said the district administration has been apprised of the infrastructure shortcoming of many Anganwadi centres.
“The infant mortality and malnutrition rates are much lower in Balasore as compared to other districts,” Kerketa added. PNN