Eleventh Five Year Plan

Towards Women’s Agency and Child Rights 211Box 6.14Balwadis and Phoolwaris:Focussing on Under ThreesSewa Mandir in Udaipur has been running Balwadis foryoung children under three. For a meagre monthly fee,often Rs 5, poor tribal women leave their children at theBalwadis. The centres run from 6–8 hours; timings aredecided by the community. Often other women from thecommunity chip in to help the worker take care of thechildren.In the tribal hinterlands of Bilaspur in Chattisgarh, theJSS has started Phoolwaris. Two to three women from thecommunity volunteer to take care of children below agethree. The community provides them with premises. Sareesare made into slings, where the little ones are lulled tosleep by the workers. They have neat little kerchiefs pinnedto their front and are fed by the volunteers with loveand affection. The doctors who run the programme areconfident that this is the way to fight malnutrition.The programme also enables the poor tribal women tocarry on with their work so that the family does not loseincome.districts of the country. The Village Health Sanitationand Nutrition Committee will be funded for providingat least three meals per child per day at thesecrèches. It will also be provided money for crècheworkers. From appointment of crèche workers, tocrèche timings and constitution of meals, everythingwill be left to the Village Committee. They will evenbe allowed to collect a small user fee, if the villagePanchayat agrees. The Committee will be responsiblefor ensuring that the health workers visit the crècheon a monthly basis for immunization and healthcheck-ups of children. Continuation of the schemein the village will depend on the performance of thevillage crèches. In areas where the new programme isnot introduced, children under three will continueto get THRs and will be provided home-based carethrough the ASHA.6.121 PSE for children in the 3–6 years age group isanother important issue. The approach paper to theEleventh Plan had suggested that this component betaken up under SSA to streamline the functioning ofICDS centres. There are varying opinions on thisbut the basic proposal that children will get preschooleducation must be implemented.6.122 The final target group under the ICDS is adolescentgirls. It is extremely important to reach out tothis segment of the population to break the cycle ofill-health. As of now, however, this group is mostneglected. In addition to SNP, and IFA tablets, thesegirls require proper counselling. The ANM andAWW will conduct a monthly meeting to educate andcounsel this group.Training, Monitoring, and Surveillance6.123 Recruiting a second AWW or converging theASHA and ANM alone will not make the AWCs effective.During the Eleventh Plan, the AWW and helper,along with the ASHA, will receive on-going trainingin child care, health, nutrition, and hygiene.6.124 The ICDS centres will collect a host of data thatcan provide valuable insights into the State of healthand nutrition in the villages. If collected properly andchecked regularly (through random sampling) this datacan also indicate the performance of the AWCs. DLHSwill be used to gauge the impact of ICDS and other interventions.Based on this information, a performanceappraisal system for AWCs will be worked out. WellperformingAWCs will be incentivized. Efficient AWWsand helpers will be encouraged by providing monetaryincentives and by getting promotions to senior postsof supervisors, etc. Social audits by NGOs and byVillage Level Committees will be encouraged. At thesame time, a system of concurrent third party evaluationthrough professional bodies will be established.Financial Allocation6.125 In the Eleventh Plan, allocation of resourcesunder ICDS has been increased substantially to notjust expand coverage but to ensure availability of adequateinfrastructure. For the proper functioning ofan ICDS centre, it should be housed in a building witha kitchen, have baby-friendly toilet, drinking water facilities,and with adequate space for children to play.Availability of toys, utensils, weighing machine, mats,and IFA tablets might be ensured in the Eleventh Plan.Every AWC will be provided with a flexi-fund administeredby the Village Committee.6.126 Finally, NGOs and even corporate houses willbe encouraged to adopt local anganwadi centres and