Even as anganwadi and pre-school centres across the State have come under scanner in the wake of the recent mishap at Suansia village of Nayagarh district, the condition and environment of several such institutions in Cuttack City have raised concern.
A field report by the Women and Child Development (WCD) Department has revealed that many Early Child Care and Education (ECCE) centres are functioning under physical environments that are not only non-conducive but also pose serious threat to safety of children.
The report states that at least four or five anganwadi centres, run by the WCD Department, are precariously perched on open drains at Patapola, Makarabag and Meria Bazaar areas. These centres raise fears of recurrence of incidents like death of a four-year-old girl at an ECCE centre at Sutahat last year.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has registered a case on a complaint filed by Committee for Legal Aid to Poor (CLAP) and sought an action take report (ATR) on provisioning proper physical environment at ECCE and anganwadi centres.
Director, Social Welfare, Sujata R Karthikeyan has sought the ATR from the Cuttack Collector in this connection while citing instances of the four anganwadi centres. The centres have bridges without support system on open drains as the sole connectivity. The small children have to cross the bridges to approach them.
There could be serious consequences at the slightest of carelessness. A permanent solution to the issues should be worked out to ensure total safety of the children, Karthikeyan has stressed while seeking the ATR within a week.
In September last year, Ankita Nayak, enrolled with Abha Learning Centre, had fallen into an open drain and lost her life. The WCD Department’s report on the ECCE centre observed that the school was located on one end of a drain and children had to walk on a wooden bridge to reach it. There was no escort with the child when the accident occurred, the report pointed out.
There are around 253 anganwadi centres in the City with as high as 90 per cent of them functioning from rented houses. Of the 139 centres under City I wing only 14 have own buildings while of the 114 under City-II wing only one functions from its own premises.
The district administration has conducted comprehensive verification of condition of the structures and taken note of the physical environment and initiated corrective measures, officials said.
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