COVID PUSH FOR ENROLMENT AT ANGANWADIS IN DELHI

NEW DELHI: After losing her livelihood following the imposition of the lockdown announced by the Delhi government in April to contain the fourth wave of Covid-19 in the city, Uma Singh, a domestic help, was left with no means to arrange nutritious food for her two children until she managed to enrol them in an anganwadi centre last month with the help of a civil society organisation.

The resident of northeast Delhi’s Yamuna Vihar said, “My son is three and my daughter is just one. None of them are enrolled in a school yet; otherwise they would have got dry ration from there. Some NGO people visited our locality last month to distribute food. When I told them about my issue, they put me in touch with an anganwadi worker who later helped me enrol my kids in a centre.” Singh, 28, is a single mother and lives with her parents.

Like Uma, several thousand people have enrolled their kids in the city’s anganwadis after losing their source of income amid the pandemic. According to a recent survey conducted by the Delhi government, 247,293 children and pregnant/lactating women have enrolled in anganwadi centres across the Capital amid the lockdown enforced by the Delhi government in April. The trend, experts said, shows that the income of families has been more severely hit this time compared to the last lockdown.

These anganwadi centres, part of the central government’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), provide supplementary nutritious meals to children up to age six as well as pregnant and lactating women. They also provide pre-school education, health education, immunisation and medical check-ups for the children.

While the city’s 10,700 anganwadi centres have been shut since March, the Delhi government’s department of women and child development (WCD) has been providing children and pregnant/lactating women supplementary nutrition through door-to-door services each fortnight.

Government data seen by HT showed that in March last year, 534,741 children and women were enrolled in the ICDS programme, which increased to 782,034 (46.24%) by April this year. The latest survey report also stated that the coverage of supplementary nutritional diets also increased by 68% from the last lockdown.