Rajkot Zila Panchayat is striving to ensure that young students in the district’s villages have a golden childhood – ‘Sunehra Bachpan’. The goal is to get more students to attend school by checking the dropout rate.
REJUVENATING ANGANWADIS
The district had 1265 Anganwadis, but scarcely any students attended the schools because of their dilapidated condition. With broken windows, flaky paint, and dark stained walls, no kid seemed interested to visit these Anganwadis.
“In this campaign, we have taken the responsibility for completely transforming the derelict Anganwadis,” IAS officer Dev Choudhary, DDO Rajkot, said in an exclusive conversation with Indian Masterminds.
In the first phase of the project, the officer selected around 50 abandoned Anganwadis and initiated their face-uplifting work. In the second phase, Mr Chaudhury is making smart Anganwadis. He selected three Anganwadis in 11 blocks of the district and is revamping them. The project saw an expenditure of around 2 Lakh rupees per smart Anganwadi.
“We put up informative paintings related to preschool education and age-wise learning toys. We also provided television and included board games, poetry books, and digital story books, as well required for proper pre-school education and learning,” he said.
CURRENT WORK
The Zila Panchayat is currently trying to create and implement 30 additional smart Anganwadis. To come up with their ideas and prints, they have employed artists and designers, transforming the structures into stunning works of art that might appeal to children.
“We’re not just beautifying it cosmetically; we’re also adding educational mottos, prints, graphics, and drawings to the walls so that even a child playing in the hallways during free time could learn something new by simply observing the surroundings,” he told Indian Masterminds.
The administration has also installed CCTV cameras all around the Anganwadis which keep the children in check and eliminate rowdy behaviour as they know they are being watched.
“This prevents absenteeism of staff. They now arrive at school on time, and they don’t leave before the end of the school day,” shared Mr. Choudhary.
FUTURE PLANS
The DDO will now focus on children’s nutrition to ensure their proper growth. “We are further planning to involve not only the Anganwadi staff but also the student’s parents in the project so that all of them could reap its benefits.”
The officer will also plan exposure events so that Anganwadi kids can attend public schools and engage in conversations with students in grades 1 through 5. This will provide them with the right exposure to school life and activities and better prepare them for the years ahead when they start attending classes.
