CHANDIGARH: Over 5,600 anganwadi centres (AWC) that provide basic healthcare in rural areas do not have functional toilets and drinking water facilities in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
Anganwadi centres render six services — supplementary nutrition, pre-school non-formal education, nutrition and health education, immunization, health check-up, and referral services to targeted beneficiaries who include children below six years of age, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
As per data submitted by the Union ministry of women and child development, over 10% of functional AWCs in Haryana and 9.28% in Punjab are working without a toilet.
The info has been given in reply to a question by Dr Kanimozhi Nvn Somu, a Rajya Sabha member representing Tamil Nadu.
Of the total 25,962 centres in Haryana, 2,613 do not have toilets and 300 are without drinking water facilities. Neighbouring Punjab has a total of 27,304 AWCs, of which 2,536 lack toilet facilities. In Himachal Pradesh, 155 centres are operating without toilets and 45 without water facilities.
The ministry informed the house that steps were being taken for the development of infrastructure at AWCs. Under Centre’s Swachhta Action Plan, Rs 10,000 per (AWC) is provided for drinking water facilities, while Rs 12,000 per centre for toilet facilities. Also, grants are sanctioned for the purchase of water filters, furniture, and other equipment. For efficient service delivery, anganwadi workers are also being provided with smartphones, said the reply.
All the centres in Haryana and Punjab have pucca, or bick and mortar, buildings. In Haryana, 20,063 centres have been provided space in government buildings, while 5,899 are operating from rented buildings. In Punjab, 24,378 centres are functioning from government buildings and 2,926 from rented spaces. In Himachal, 1,788 out of 18,925 centres are providing services from semi-pucca structures.
In the past, the Punjab Human Rights Commission had directed the Punjab department of social security and women and child development for ensuring that the buildings of AWCs are spacious, have proper light and ventilation and are child-friendly. As per the instructions, these centres were to be located in the buildings, the land for which was to be provided by the panchayats/community free of cost. The construction expenditure was to be borne by the Centre and state in the ratio of 60:40.
