VRISHANK MAHATME
Welcome to the anganwadi: Navigate the garbage first and then land on stagnant water
The anganwadi at Indiranagar in Chimbel, was poorly housed with no proper ventilation and lacked basic amenities. The garbage pile as we mentioned, is the centrepiece of the Anganwadi.
The drainage water overflows and settles in the school veranda. Team Herald also discovered that the surrounding of the pre-school was major breeding ground for the mosquitoes as drainage water had been stagnant in the school premises for a long time and could emerge as an extremely dangerous situation as kids might get affected by Malaria.
A child who accompanied Team Herald to the school said that throwing of garbage is an everyday scheme here no matter how much you clean it.
“This is one of the worst anganwadis. The conditions here pose serious health risks and I have told the parents to not blame us if their child faces health issues.
But there is an ironical twist to the tale. The parents and the neighbouring people are the ones who litter by throwing all the garbage here. I always used to complain to the panchayat but after every cleaning operation, the dirt came back” said the anganwadi in-charge on the basis of anonymity
…..And then there were three
The anganwadi in-charge summed up the situation. She said that most of the parents now do not want send in their kids and we now have only 3 kids who come here and because of this the government is planning to shut it down. At night, young boys often climb up the roof top and are seen drinking and smoking. We have closed all the windows because of the garbage and drainage odour.
“No teacher wants to get posted here because of such conditions, the situation in this anganwadi is completely different”, she said
A DIFFERENT CLEAN STORY IN TALEIGO, MERCES & CAMRABHAT
Further as our team went to the check the anganwadis in nearby places such as Taleigao, Merces and Camrabhat, an altogether different scenario emerged as all the anganwadis were in a much better condition with a sizeable enrolment. But most of them were in rented places.
The anganwadi in Camrabhat was one of the most modern after it had been shifted to the Government School from a small hut kind of structure.
