Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the given questions.
Every morning, three-year-old Kanishka comes to Padma’s home, groggy-eyed, her hair all messy. Padma gathers her in her arms, combs her hair, and feeds her breakfast in case she’s not eaten. She then walks Kanishka to the anganwadi centre near her home in Sriperumbudur Thandalam village, about 40 kilometres from Chennai. Padma is a teacher at the centre. “Around six children get dropped off at my home every morning.
The anganwadi centre is open from 8.30 am to 4 pm. It is not part of Padma’s job description to work beyond those hours, but she still does. “Many parents in the village work long hours, starting their day very early, coming back home late at night,”. “They need someone to take care of their children in their absence.” Some of the parents are migrant workers from Odisha and Uttar Pradesh; some work in the Government’s 100 days employment scheme, while a few others do odd jobs.
To begin with, Padma keeps the doors of her house open for parents who leave early for work. “They just give me a shout out, drop their children at my doorstep and rush for work,” she says. Once the centre is closed at 4 pm, she takes home the children whose parents don’t turn up to pick them up on time. “I’ve bought toys for them and they play at home till their parents return from work,”. At the anganwadi centre, she’s busy through the day, teaching 25 children aged between two and five the alphabet, names of fruit and vegetables. “I spend ₹350 every month from my pocket to buy things such as educational charts for them,” she says. Sundari ensures her centre is not mortal in terms of facilities, and that her children are well-fed. “I play ball with them, make them recite the Thirukkural. I enjoy what I do,” she says.
Among her biggest successes, is the fact that the little ones come to the centre without any fear. “It warms my heart to see that they are happy here,” she says. Padma’s job has taken over her life. “So much so that when someone asks me how many children I have, I hesitate for a moment. In my mind, I have 25,”.Besides performing the functions of the child welfare centre these functionaries also help in empowering the local women, adolescent girls and mothers of the children visiting the Anganwadi Centres. This paper examines the role of the ICDS centres i.e. the Anganwadi Centres in empowering women at the rural and urban slums level in Haryana. The findings of the study are based on the interviews conducted by the researcher with the Anganwadi Workers.