A Social project report on

“Problems faced in Anganwadi centre”

By
Kusuma H R
USN: 1RR23BA035
Submitted to
VISVESVARAYA TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Under the guidance of
Mrs Sowmya G
Asst Professor
Department of management studies
Rajarajeswari College of Engineering

Department of Management studies and Research centre

RAJARAJESWARI COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
#14, Ramohalli cross, Kumbalagodu, Mysore road, Bengaluru,
560074
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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The Satisfaction that accompanies the successful completion of any task would
be Incomplete without the people who have made it feasible with constant
guidance and Encouragement served as beacon light and crowned our efforts
with success. I Consider it as my privilege to express through this report a few
words of profound Gratitude and deep regards to all those who guided me in
completing this project.
I specially thank all ONLINE WEBSITES for providing me all the information
needed for the project.
I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. R BALAKRISHNA, Principal,
Rajarajeswari College of Engineering for his valuable suggestions and moral
support throughout the course.
I am thankful to Dr. Lakshmi B L, Head of the Department of Management
Studies, Rajarajeswari College of Engineering, for his constant motivation,
support and encouragement.
I sincerely thank Sowmya G, Assistant Professor, Department of Management
Studies, Rajarajeswari College of Engineering, for supporting and guiding me
as an internal Guide.
Late but not the least, it is proud privilege to express my indebtedness to my
parents and all my friends who helped me to complete the project. This was a
great learning opportunity for me and I'm highly indebted to all above people
for giving me this opportunity.

(KUSUMA H R)
(1RR23BA035)

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 DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this project (1RR22BA052) conducted at
"ANGANAWADI CENTRE KADECHUR" is record of independent work
carried out by me under the guidance of Ms. Sowmya G (Asst prof),
Department of Management Studies, Rajarajeswari College of Engineering. I
also declare that this project study is towards the partial fulfilment of university
regulations for the award of degree of Master of Administration by
Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum. I have undergone a project
for a period of one week. I further declare this project is based on the original
undertaken by me and has not been submitted for the award of any degree from
any other University / Institution" is record of independent work carried out by
me under the guidance of Ms Sowmya G Assistant Professor, Department of
Management Studies, Rajarajeswari College of Engineering.

Place: Bengaluru
Date: 13/07/2024

(KUSUMA H R)
(1RR23BA035)

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 GOVERNMENT ANGANAWADI CENTRE
BEHIND JAMIA MASJID, KADECHUR, YADGIR, KARNATAKA
585521

DATE: 13-07-2024

PROJECT COMPLETION CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Ms. Kusuma H R bearing USN NO 1RR23BA035 is a

student of Master of Business Administration for the academic year 2024-25 at
Rajarajeswari College of Engineering Bangalore, she has completed the
societal project in our school, actively participated with our children and
conducted “Activity-based pre-learning activities using a variety of
technologies”. She done this project for a period of one week from 08-07-2024
to 13-07-2024.
This is issued a partial Fulfilment of this academic program/curriculum
Her performance and conduct were found to be satisfactory and we wish her all
the best on her future endeavors

AUTHORIZED SIGNATORY:

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

SL.NO CONTENTS PG.NO

01 Executive summary 06

02 Introduction 07-09

03 Problems identified for the study 10-13

04 Discussions 14-18

05 Conclusion 19

06 Feedback 20

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Development of children is vital for the development of society. The

government of India started the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS)
in the year 1975 with an aim to provide essential services for the holistic
development and well-being of children. The ICDS program comprises of the
child development services namely supplemental nutrition, preschool education,
nutrition and health education, health check-up, referral services and
vaccinations. These services are provided to identify beneficiaries through
Anganwadi centers. The present research paper is called out from an empirical
research carried out to study the impact of Anganwadi center in the state of
Karnataka. The study was conducted in 01 Anganwadi center in the state of
Karnataka. The broad spectrum of services provided under the ICDS program
include nutrition, primary health facilities, immunization, pre-school education,
referral and health awareness so as to ensure the overall well-being of target age
groups of children, pregnant women and nursing mothers. The primary focus of
scheme is on extending essential health and well-being services to the
beneficiaries; Supplemental nutrition services impact both health and
livelihoods of the family; preschool education is essential for effective
socialization of the child, and referral services provide access to essential
medical diagnosis and treatment. These services affect the health and well-being
of the mother-child, the livelihoods of the families, besides having vital impacts

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 INTRODUCTION
Introduction about Anganwadi center:
An Anganwadi center (AWC) is the first point for contact for maternal
healthcare and early child development in India. This center should have an
Anganwadi worker/ teacher, an ASHA worker and a helper.

These centers have prerequisites defined by the government which are as

follows:
Ideal use/space requirements of an Anganwadi: As per the ICDS guidelines,
the minimum size required to build an Anganwadi center is 600 sq.ft

A model Anganwadi should ideally have:

• A large hall for study/sleep area
• Kitchen with ample storage (preferably a separate storage space)
• Bathing area to promote cleanliness
• A toilet for staff and children (while maintaining good health and hygiene)
• Examination room/nursing area for mothers
• Outdoor play area with playsets with the importance of a compound wall
• Residence area for Anganwadi workers/helpers based on the proximity
to work and to promote efficiency

Basic Amenities
• Own supply of water
• Reliable grid connection- a continuous energy source
• Regular cleaning facilities

Educational Tools
• Interactive Learning Tools (Physical)
• Learning charts, toys, blocks
• Books

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Introduction about the social project:

Societal projects can encompass a wide range of areas, such as education,

healthcare, poverty alleviation, environmental conservation, community
development, human rights, and more. The primary objective is to bring about
long-term improvements in the well-being and quality of life for individuals and
communities they often aim to address systemic issues and promote sustainable
solutions that benefit society as a whole. Societal projects are driven by the
belief that collaboration and collective action are necessary to tackle complex
social problems.

It is based upon the philosophy that the project team is one part of an integrated
Whole, and that valuable, relevant and unique abilities and knowledge exist
within the larger organization. They often on the participation and engagement
of diverse stakeholders, including individuals, civil society organizations,
businesses, and governments. By combining efforts and resources, societal
projects strive to create a positive impact and contribute to the betterment of
society. Successful societal projects often require careful planning, effective
coordination, and the involvement of experts and professionals from different
fields. They may also rely on innovative approaches, technology, and data-
driven strategies to maximize their impact.

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Introduction about the problems identified:

Government run Anganwadi’s are facing a huge drop in enrolment due to lack
of good facilities and slow acceptance of technology in comparison to the
privately run Anganwadi’s or Montessori schools. The most common activities
organized at an Anganwadi center are morning prayers, songs and free
conversation. But lack of teaching aids and play material are considered as
major constraints in organizing pre-school education successfully. Research has
indicated that the infrastructure that the Anganwadi has access to, like a
building to run the center, water, sanitation and access to power, are the major
factors which contribute to the success of the Anganwadi. The majority of these
centers operate in remote village areas and cater to the children and women
from these villages.

Operating in remote areas, these centers have no access or have unreliable

access to the grid.

As per the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), the percentage of

children in the government run Anganwadi’s has dropped from 89.9% in 2014
to 71.3% in 2016. The report says that poor curriculum and poor teaching
techniques have led to disinterest and lack of motivation in both the children
and their parents. Although private Anganwadi’s charge a certain area variable
fee, the parents with weak economic backgrounds still prefer to admit their
children there, given the availability of better facilities which include digital
education tools.

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 PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED FOR THE STUDY
INFRASTRUCTURE:
The location and condition of the building directly affects the number of
beneficiaries who would be coming to the centers. Poor and inadequate
infrastructure can create many challenges in the delivery of ICDS services, can
create hazards and health problems for Anganwadi children and can result in the
loss of beneficiaries. A total of 62.5% of the buildings were built before 1995
which are in a bad shape and require renovation.
AWCs usually operate out of a separate rented building, school or own
building. The buildings are usually in a pukka space and however often need
repair. Due to the crunch of funds, this becomes neglected. According to the
survey results, 39.1% of the AWCs receive funds only once in two months.
66.5% of the AWCs also lack compound walls and open well-crafted playing
spaces for the children. Poor and inadequate infrastructure can create many
challenges in the delivery of ICDS services, can create safety hazards and health
problems for the Anganwadi children and can cause a loss of beneficiaries.
Lack of space, often leads to doubling of activity space as kitchen. Though
feeding is one of the important activities at AWCs, most of the AWCs don’t
have a separate kitchen with proper ventilation. Nor do they have a separate
storage room for groceries. Some of these AWCs don’t have access to all
required kitchen equipment’s as well. The lack of space especially in urban area
is attributed to increasing rent and a fixed rent amount by the Govt. Most of the
time AWC workers have to pay from their already meagre salaries. AWCs are
located in rural villages and wards in urban slum areas, covering a population of
800. The communities are expected to organize a space, though for about a third
of Anganwadi’s, the government pays rent: recently upgraded to Rs 750 for
rural and tribal projects, and Rs 3,000 for urban projects, if the room is at least
500 square feet in size.
However finding such a big space at current rates is almost impossible. This
does not include rent for electricity and water connection.

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WATER AND SANITATION:
The sanitation condition in AWCs in most Anganwadi’s in the country is in a
dismal condition. Most of them don’t have an operating toilet. Children either
use the grounds or makeshift toilets. According to the owners of the rented
spaces, with limited water supply, they find it difficult to maintain the hygiene
if so many people use it. From our research, only 37.5% of the buildings had a
separate toilet facility. According to studies conducted, the correlation between
the lack of toilets and or unsanitary toilets and school dropout rates (especially
girls) in India is very high. Very few AWCs in the country have their own tap
connection. They are mostly dependent on the well or water from nearby
public services point. Sometimes the water is procured from neighbors as well.
Presence of safe storages for drinking water is another issue. Usually the
drinking water is stored in plastic cans with no prior provision of filtration.
However, 70.8% of the surveyed AWCs in Karnataka had their own tap
connection but lacked good sanitary storage of it.

WITHIN THE CLASS:

It will often be noticed in AWCs, classrooms with missing basic furniture such
as chairs, tables and blackboards. Learning tools available are not replaced on
time and get torn and worn out. Weighing machines which is an essential
instrument for preparing growth charts and monitor health of children is also
absent in most of the AWCs, let alone the weighing machine for adults.

ENERGY ACCESS:
AWCs especially in rural areas struggle with proper access to grid connection.
This leaves the staff and children without constantly functioning lights and
fans. The conditions is worse in areas with hot climate. The research indicates
that 54.2% of the Anganwadi’s have access to electricity but are susceptible to
power cuts and 41.7% of them had no access to grid connection. None of the
Anganwadi’s had access to any alternate source of power. Lack of energy
access also blocks the possibility of adding any digital interventions in these
AWCs.

UNDERPAID AND OVERWORKED STAFF:

Anganwadi workers are responsible for providing a number of vital services
including pre-school education, supplementary nutrition, nutrition counselling,
growth monitoring, and so on. Anganwadi’s are part of the ICDS, a centrally-
sponsored scheme whose norms are set by the Government of India and costs
are currently shared on a 60:40 basis (Centre: States). Although AWWs/Hs
perform some of the most important services at the frontline level, the central
Government has always maintained that they are voluntary workers and
therefore what they are paid is an honorarium and not a salary. Besides their

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Daily duty at the centers, the Anganwadi workers and ASHAs are burdened
with tasks that include surveying for government schemes, for diseases like
swine flu and malaria, election duty, pulse polio camps, municipal corporation
camps and mass marriage ceremonies.

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 DISCUSSION
Proposed Possible Solutions:
DIGITISING EDUCATION
The first few years of a child’s life are the most integral period for the
following:
1. Nutritional security
2. Curiosity Building
3. Social awareness
4. Confidence
5. Sensory and motor skills
6. Interest in learning
7. A positive self-image

The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Program is focused on:
 2 to 3 years
Proper health care and nutrition
 3 to 4 years
Well-rounded early learning
 4 to 6 years
School readiness

The initiatives focused through this program focuses on age group from 3-6
years, where the child is introduced to the learning environment and is
eventually made school ready. As per the researches done (mentioned in the
CG Slate Program), the current issues in the ECCE are:

1. Inconsistency in teacher quality: Huge difference between what has been

planned and what is actually being implemented on the field due to the
inconsistency of execution and delivery via teachers and Anganwadi workers.

2. Inconsistency in content delivery: Given the complexity, diversity and size of

our country, any solution that needs to be designed should involve the use of
Contextual ICT solutions with a focus on local culture and language.

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This raises a few concerns, viz.:

1. Anganwadi’s lacking “play way” methods: As per observations, it is found

that the Anganwadi workers mostly involve themselves in the routine tasks
like taking attendance and feeding children. Thus the Anganwadi centers have
been running with minimal play and learning material added to the issue in
competency of workers.

2. Inadequate quality of delivery: In spite of the expansion of the ICDS program

with many Anganwadi centers coming up, the coverage of children for ECCE is
still low.

Suggested solution:

1. An efficient TV+Tab or Tab set with appropriate content for learning to be

used as an alternative. The same set can be used to play content for health
awareness/learning tools for the community as the Anganwadi centers
double up as community centers in most places.

2. To facilitate these interventions, appropriate teacher trainings to be

provided on both technical and educational content fronts.

3. Solar system loads to be designed to account for these efficient TVs &
Tabs and meeting the energy gap needs in an Anganwadi center.

The solution is designed to cater to regional needs, it is open to local language

Customisation and is independent from data connectivity

A few of the estimated outcomes are:

1. Increase in learning effectiveness: Observations from the pilots done

shows an improvement in the effectiveness of learning. This can be backed
based on tracking the games played and time spent on the same and the
response of children to particular game assessment.

2. Curbing malnutrition via attendance: An observed increase in attendance

thereby is estimated to result in significant improvement of nutrition levels for
children.

3. Concept pick-up: Children will able to understand Basic English words, solve
Simple arithmetic and will have improvement in motor skills due to the
pedagogy-based design of interactive and motion sensor based games

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BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Anganwadi buildings should be sustainable learning spaces for children for a

holistic growth and to make sure they are school-ready. According to the early
study 62.5% of the buildings were built before 1998 and would need to undergo
testing for structural stability, preferably undergo reconstruction. All new
buildings should have ample natural light and ventilation considering passive
cooling techniques for maximum thermal comfort of children.

Suggested Solutions:

a) For affordable and reliable natural light and ventilation - Aerolite; an acrylic
sheet which facilitates natural light and ventilation could be easily installed in
these centers. This can be installed in pukka, semi-pukka and kuccha structures.

b) To make the space more creative, interactive and educational for children, all
Buildings could pertain to the Anganwadi guidelines of BALA (Building as
Learning Aid). This approach to building an Anganwadi includes using the
built environment of the space as learning tools for children. It has been
incorporated by the government in many Anganwadi centers and has proven to
be an effective integrated learning method. The built elements can be part of the
floor, wall, windows, doors, ceiling, platform, furniture and outdoors.

c) Paintings of pictorial stories inculcating basic knowledge of colors,

alphabets, numbers, animals etc. for children – External facades with awareness
paintings for women/caretakers about health and hygiene.

d) Since most of the Anganwadi’s do not have separate toilet spaces, new
separate spaces should be designed to be inclusive, child-friendly and fun. This
will also lead to practice of using toilets at an early stage.

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ENERGY ACCESS

Appropriate basic energy access i.e. a solar energy system can be intervened
within the Anganwadi with poor quality grid connections or no grid connection.
Based on natural ventilation of the system, a suggested solar system can consist
of:
- One light + one fan + exhaust fan
- For Anganwadi that act as community spaces post working hours, loads can be
designed to include more lights and fans as per the requirement
- TV and audio system for audio-visual learning tools or health awareness have
to have a separate system design for their judicious use.

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 CONCLUSION
The performance of AWCs and maternal and child health services delivered by
AWCs still needs improvement. The findings help in providing some insight
into the existing infrastructural situation and quality of services. Basic amenities
like space for storage, kitchen and toilet and playing area for the children should
be there in all the Anganwadi’s.

Increased focus should be on providing services other than supplementary

nutrition to adolescents. Pregnant and lactating mothers should be followed up
to confirm whether they have been registered at any health center and have
received the requisite number of IFA and TT doses. We need to look forward
for a holistic approach involving various departments.

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 FEEDBACK
The study has shown that the services to be provided at the Anganwadi centers
are affected the health of the beneficiary group. Under supplemental nutrition
service, children are given breakfast and lunch on 300 days of the year to cater
the nutritional needs of children. Pre-school education is given for the child's
cognitive development in the Anganwadi center, which contributes to the well-
being of the child. The pre-school service enhanced the qualities of cooperation,
tolerance, respect, leadership qualities etc. Vaccinations are administered to
prevent the diseases of children. The beneficiary group is made aware of health
and physical hygiene under nutrition and health education. Children's physical
development is examined at primary health care centers under ICDS. Services
like health check, balanced food, pre-school education and immunization are
provided for free at the Anganwadi centers, which reduces the family economic
burden of the beneficiary group. These services affect the health and well-being
of the mother-child, the livelihoods of the families, besides having vital impacts
on social health.

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