To the relentlessness of Anganwadi Workers and Anganwadi Helpers of South District
It is very important to eat healthy and nutritious food containing a balanced diet as this will aid in keeping various diseases at bay and boost the immunity of human body. Keeping this information in mind the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) or Aganwadi Centre of South District is providing Take Home Ration (THR) to selected beneficiaries so that they get to consume nutritious meals at the comfort of their house.
According to District Manual of ICDS this scheme was launched in 1975 and is a unique early childhood development programme, aimed at addressing malnutrition, health and also development needs of young children, pregnant and nursing mothers. ICDS consists of four(4) different components, namely:
1. Early Childhood Care Education & Development (ECCED)
2. Care & Nutrition Counselling
3. Health Services
4. Community Mobilisation Awareness, Advocacy & Information, Education and
Communication
Similarly, in South District there are a total of three hundred and thirty two (332) ICDS centres wherein a number of Anganwadi workers (AWW)and Anganwadi helpers (AWH) are toiling hard in providing the supplementary food to handpicked individuals.
Amongst, the many AWW is thirty(30) years old Prabina Sharma who has been working at Lower Namphing ICDS since the year 2015. She and her team is currently distributing THR to households consisting of children aged between six months to three years, pregnant and lactating mothers. Generally, children belonging to age group of three to six years are enrolled in these centre and they are provided with Hot cooked Meals (HCM) but due to the nationwide lockdown to combat COVID-19 these centres has been closed. So providing HCM is not possible hence the AWW are reaching out to the households of the registered pupils and delivering the foodgrains at their doorstep. The ration consist of Cereals, Pulses, Groundnut, Skimmed Milk, Sugar and Oil. Children are provided with 3.5 kg and adults with 4.5 kg. Additionally, Prabina when she is out providing the allowances she also highlights about the Aarogya Setu mobile Application which is India’s official contact tracing application for corona. When asked how did she come to know about this application Prabina said that as they are registered with Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD), Government of India (GoI) they got a link to download this application. The AWW were also appraised as to the objective and various functions of Aarogya Setu and its purpose towards fighting COVID-19, now whenever Prabina goes out for work visit she encourages the public to download this application. She has also assisted many people in downloading of this application and taught them to use this application.
The AWW also updates in a brief manner about the guidelines of COVID-19 to the rural population which includes washing hands frequently, use of sanitizer, not to spit in public and maintain basic hand and respiratory hygiene. It is highly commendable of the Anganwadi Workers and Anganwadi Helpers of the south district that they keep up with the norms of COVID-19, practise social distance while distributing THR and also continue with their role of checking the basic health and other vital needs of children and women