Bhubaneswar: Women and Child Development & Mission Shakti Department, in coordination with UNICEF, has released `Ghare Ghare Arunima`, a calendar based fun-filled list of activities for children.
This will help sustain early learnings and ensure school readiness of children while they are at home during COVID induced lockdown.
Principal secretary of WCD & MS Department Anu Garg, while dedicating the programme to the district social welfare officers (DSWOs) and child development project officers (CDPOs) through a video conference Tuesday maintained that it is important for families to keep young children engaged in meaningful activities at home.
Garg hoped that the calendar of activities will keep them stimulated and improve their psychosocial wellbeing. It will also strengthen the bond amongst the members of the family and spread happiness at home.
This programme stresses on reaching out to parents for keeping the children engaged in a host of activities such as action songs, dance, painting, storytelling/ listening etc based on the prescribed theme of the month that is insects and reptiles.
It also focuses on the practice of good habits such as hand washing, hygiene, sanitation, social distancing etc. to prevent infection. Further, children are to be initiated to household chores such as folding clothes and watering plants etc.
Given the challenges of the lockdown and social distancing measures, the calendar of activities will be shared digitally with parents by the anganwadi workers, the department said.
The decision was taken in view of closure of anganwadi centres amid COVID-19 outbreak. There is a need for engaging and stimulating 16,13,775 anganwadi children (3-6 years) across 72,587 centres of the state, who are mostly indoors, the department added.
