Gyan parkash Dungarpur, Rajasthan: Rekha Limbat is a confident and cheerful young married lady who is the Anganwadi Worker (AWW) in the Taralafala village of Bicchhiwada block in Dungarpur. This is where the Anganwadi Centre (AWC) or pre-school under the government’s Integrated Child Development Services is also situated. Appointed as the first AWW in Taralafala, Rekha is among the few in her community who has a Bachelor of Education degree, a professional degree beyond the academic bachelor’s degree which accords her as a highly educated woman in her village.
Earlier, children from Taralafala had to attend a far-off Centre situated in Gamdi which is some distance away. Now with the AWC opening in Taralfala itself, the children find it convenient to attend the pre-school in the vicinity. On her part, Rekha finds motivation in her work as an Anganwadi Worker owing to her love for children and her strong desire to work for them. So, since her appointment, Rekha has been a conscientious worker actively engaged in different creative ways of conducting her activities.
The Government of Rajasthan through the Department of Women and Child Development organizes various training programmes from time to time to build capacities and mentor AWWs. This enables AWWs to be able to perform their responsibilities in work diligently and effectively, However, all was not comfortable and convenient for Rekha towards the beginning when she commenced work as an Anganwadi Worker and she faced many challenges at the community level.
When children attended the AWC located in Gamdi village, they were not in the habit of attending the pre-school regularly owing to the distance. Hence when the AWC in Taralafala was established, this practice could not be modified overnight, and it took a while for Rekha to gradually overcome the challenge of bringing children regularly to the Taralafala AWC. Those days were not easy reminisces Rekha today. However, she did not lose hope and continued to work with dedication and perseverance. She even organized various community events, conducted home visits and counseled families with appropriate information on health, nutrition and education of the children.
In 2018, Rekha learnt about UNICEF’s community level initiatives on Early Childhood Education. That opened up another chapter for Rekha and she gladly utilized the opportunity for grooming herself through the intense training that was provided on the concept of early childhood development with special focus on education. The training included an understanding on the five domains of child development and focused on the importance they hold in a child’s holistic development in the age groups of 3 to 6 years. As part of this training, AWWs were encouraged to learn how to use the parenting cards developed by UNICEF and were in turn, motivated to use these cards to orient parents on creating a learning environment at home. Rekha too was inspired and she was able to motivate caregivers of children to conduct domain specific activities at home so that development of children can be accelerated.
Rekha shared the pictorial representation of activities through cards which helped her attract attention of caregivers and this also resulted in improving their orientation towards their children’s learning. Gradually as she gained confidence in using cards, she would take lead during sector meetings and even led discussions on these activities for encouraging learning environment at home for children between 3 to 6 years of age.
Rekha continues to visit homes like before as this encourages caregivers and helps to forge and consolidate her bonding with the community. Along with field workers, Rekha visited all the homes under her AWC to encourage caregivers. She has started conducting activities at the AWC with more enthusiasm as she is now aware of the impact these activities have. These new inputs are supplemented by the regular home visits and discussions with parents that encouraged them to send their children regularly to the centers which has led to a considerable increase in attendance.
In addition, another key feature that has been added to the initiative is the initiation of the Parent-Angawadi Meetings (PAMs) which has now been regularized at the village. This has been possible because of the involvement of parents at their own homes with children contributing to their development. Rekha also orients caregivers with simple activities which they can easily do with their children and help them achieve developmental milestones.
“I want to work more sincerely for children in the community and improve their educational status. I want my Anganwadi to be known as a learning centre where children grow and thrive rather than just a place for getting food”, says Rekha.
