Anganwadi Workers: A Few Drops from the Mighty Fountainhead

 **2003**

The Midday Meal Scheme announced by the Central Government is one of those rare pronouncements which leaves, in contrast to the mammoth aspirations outlined on the official papers, a mark of its being rather minuscule on the plane of reality.

Aimed at a noble cause—to provide, under the care of female Anganwadi workers, some morsels of nutrition to children of poor sections—or is it to lure them to the confinement of school, which cannot otherwise be expected to fall into their mouths?

So, beginning from such a mammoth goal, it inevitably trickles down, as is to be expected from a young democratic system, to a visible channel which surprisingly bubbles with life, hopes and aspirations.

So a few toddlers and the Anganwadi workers, who themselves are poor with almost hungry children, get the benefit.

These ladies get a paltry monthly allotment of twelve hundred rupees, but the spare grains, biscuits, dry cakes, puffed rice and some fruits, which inevitably fall into their kitty, compensate for the paltry salary.

Two handicapped ladies from our locality, one differently abled by a leg and the other by a hand, have got the job in the *chaupal* of the locality.

They now wear dresses to the best of their attiring sense, sensibility and economic capability.

Fresh in the job, they do their duty with a sweet urgency and, with equal felicity, save much of the provisions for their own households.

I don't blame them, or rather don't want to, or even shouldn't, because conventionally abled persons run on the crutches of corruption to earn added incentives.

So when the unhandicapped pretend to be handicapped and clutch at the crutches of corruption, we shouldn't become too critical of these two relatively unfortunate ladies, in the physical sense, for earning a few nutritious morsels for their children.

And it being the case throughout India, spanning almost all the Anganwadi workers of all abilities, it makes a rather heartening scenario that the scheme, on paper intended to reach crores, is at least a reality for thousands of households, mostly very poor and needy.

It is thus heartening to note that some drops of real water are reaching the fag end of the channel after starting from the mightily bubbling fountainhead of ministries in Delhi.