Volume : VII, Issue : VI, June - 2017

Quality of Infrastructure of Anganwadi Centres in a Rural Area of West Bengal: An Evaluation Study.

Sembagamuthu Sembiah, Aparajita Dasgupta, Bobby Paul, Lina Bandyopadhyay, Bijit Biswas, Ayon Ghosh

Abstract :

 Introduction: Anganwadi centres (AWCs) act as the focal point of providing comprehensive services to both children and women under Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), which is now recognised as one of the world‘s largest programmes for early childhood development. Objectives: To evaluate various aspects of AWCs such as physical infrastructure, logistics, manpower and services provided at AWCs. Methods: A cross–sectional study was conducted in 23 ICDS centres in Sep– Oct 2016, in service area of Rural Health Unit and Training Center, Singur with the help of a predesigned, pretested and structured questionnaire and a checklist. Results: This study revealed that the AWCs were not satisfactory in terms of infrastructure and materials. Only 39% of the centres were being operated in their own building, 21.8% did not have a signboard, 34.8% had improper ventilation, 39.1% had inadequate ventilation, 65.2% did not have any separate kitchen. Only 56.5% had toilet facility. On the day of data collection attendance of the registered beneficiaries were 52%, 44.8% and 28.4% among 3–4, 4–5 and 5–6 years of age respectively. Not a single adolescent received any service. Non–enhancement of honorarium even after years of service was a very important reason for dissatisfaction among these field level health staff. Conclusion: This study provides an insight into the existing situation which is found to be far from satisfactory. Immediate steps should be taken to improve the working ambience of all ICDS centres at large.

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Article: Download PDF   DOI : 10.36106/ijar  

Cite This Article:

Sembagamuthu Sembiah, Aparajita Dasgupta, Bobby Paul, Lina Bandyopadhyay, Bijit Biswas, Ayon Ghosh, Quality of Infrastructure of Anganwadi Centres in a Rural Area of West Bengal: An Evaluation Study., INDIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH : Volume‾7 | Issue‾6 | June‾2017

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