Mother who lost her 3 days old baby
A Girl in Aangan Wadi CenterYesterday was one of the important days of my professional life, I have no regret in confession that I have always had inclination towards livelihood intervention but never realized that other thematic issues like health and education are also having some sense in and need same treatment for the development of community.
The day broke like any other day and dawn was beautiful, I was not feeling well as these days it is regular phenomenon, I don’t know why the morning is not brining freshness to me. But I was thinking that there is something new would be happening today, so realizing it I wake up and getting ready for field. The reason for this enthusiasm was assignment of health interventions I was suppose to take for my region. Vehicle was waiting outside my gate and I was on time like another day. Got back to vehicle and off to the field, later my technical manager accompanied me which was also an opportunity for me to discuss her experiences as she had varied experiences working in partnership with Government on health related issues.
We were on the way and I was getting back my energy which was lost when I was awake, there were some good conversation with her about the present status of health in India as a whole and particularly in Gujarat. We discussed how health is important for human development as well as in contribution of family expenditure reduction. It is really crystal clear that if a person who is earning bread and butter for family from everyday labour s/he has to keep herself healthy for the sake of keeping her family feeding. If a person is not healthy or somehow not able to go for earning then certainly it is going to affect her family and this will lead to starvation because this is well known fact that poor have not been very skilled in the management of finance.
The day was going on and within an hour we reached to a block where some of NGOs officials were waiting for us to join the tour. We greeted each other and moves towards ICDS office where one Supervisor was waiting for us. She was all set with her data and reports to talk about centers running in the block. While talking to her we got to know that she overloaded with work due to assignment of almost four times of work against her duty and the reason is absence of human resource which contribute to low performance of this scheme. On the way she told us many things about AWC running in the village. She informed that there is center running in the village but in many of the centers structures are not in real shape as they have been distorted by anti-social elements of the village. The villagers are also not taking steps against them because of absence of ownership of those structures.
At last we reached to a village. It was economically and socially backward village of the block and having not proper access to reach through public transport though we had our own vehicle so it was not a problem for us. We have world’s one of the largest program called ICDS which is feeding the rural children through 0.75 million centers and managing such massive structure is itself a Herculean task. It is not that this was my first time I was visiting any AWC but this period was something special as I was there with some focus and objective. We have this program in a great sweep in the state and also proven some good results also with time and space. AWC center a bit ok in the structure and space for the children but still the condition of children was not upto the mark may be the reason of my biasness of comparing them with well off children of our society. This is something which I don’t understand that why there is suffering for them what wrong they have done so that they are not getting even the basic necessity of life and on the other side some children are having obesity because of over eating. The condition children were not good and they were stunned to see us. I must appreciate the approach of my senior over there who made them comfortable through her conversation. But there was a question in mind that there is system established, government is spending money in the scheme, even the AWC is set up in the village as per the need of the community but still our future is not being fed properly.
The day broke like any other day and dawn was beautiful, I was not feeling well as these days it is regular phenomenon, I don’t know why the morning is not brining freshness to me. But I was thinking that there is something new would be happening today, so realizing it I wake up and getting ready for field. The reason for this enthusiasm was assignment of health interventions I was suppose to take for my region. Vehicle was waiting outside my gate and I was on time like another day. Got back to vehicle and off to the field, later my technical manager accompanied me which was also an opportunity for me to discuss her experiences as she had varied experiences working in partnership with Government on health related issues.
We were on the way and I was getting back my energy which was lost when I was awake, there were some good conversation with her about the present status of health in India as a whole and particularly in Gujarat. We discussed how health is important for human development as well as in contribution of family expenditure reduction. It is really crystal clear that if a person who is earning bread and butter for family from everyday labour s/he has to keep herself healthy for the sake of keeping her family feeding. If a person is not healthy or somehow not able to go for earning then certainly it is going to affect her family and this will lead to starvation because this is well known fact that poor have not been very skilled in the management of finance.
The day was going on and within an hour we reached to a block where some of NGOs officials were waiting for us to join the tour. We greeted each other and moves towards ICDS office where one Supervisor was waiting for us. She was all set with her data and reports to talk about centers running in the block. While talking to her we got to know that she overloaded with work due to assignment of almost four times of work against her duty and the reason is absence of human resource which contribute to low performance of this scheme. On the way she told us many things about AWC running in the village. She informed that there is center running in the village but in many of the centers structures are not in real shape as they have been distorted by anti-social elements of the village. The villagers are also not taking steps against them because of absence of ownership of those structures.
At last we reached to a village. It was economically and socially backward village of the block and having not proper access to reach through public transport though we had our own vehicle so it was not a problem for us. We have world’s one of the largest program called ICDS which is feeding the rural children through 0.75 million centers and managing such massive structure is itself a Herculean task. It is not that this was my first time I was visiting any AWC but this period was something special as I was there with some focus and objective. We have this program in a great sweep in the state and also proven some good results also with time and space. AWC center a bit ok in the structure and space for the children but still the condition of children was not upto the mark may be the reason of my biasness of comparing them with well off children of our society. This is something which I don’t understand that why there is suffering for them what wrong they have done so that they are not getting even the basic necessity of life and on the other side some children are having obesity because of over eating. The condition children were not good and they were stunned to see us. I must appreciate the approach of my senior over there who made them comfortable through her conversation. But there was a question in mind that there is system established, government is spending money in the scheme, even the AWC is set up in the village as per the need of the community but still our future is not being fed properly.
Then we got the news that in the village one infant died just after three days of her birth. We decided to move to that house and when we discuss then we came to know that the reason of death was not natural but the ignorance of mother in taking care of herself during pregnancy as well as the doctor who delivered the baby. Mother and child were discharged from the hospital after 3 hours of delivery and when the baby was pre mature delivered. So what should I say whether it is failure of system or the ignorance of mother who was not knowing that how to take care during pregnancy. We talked her and the family and tell them about importance of AWC and getting services from there. I think here the need of NGO to work on because they have to bridge the gap and complement the activities of government and also advocate the issues rose from community. They should aware the community about the services which are offered from government for the welfare of villagers. Many times I have personally felt that they are not even a clue what are the welfare schemes for them and other who are on the higher get the benefit and those who are most behind in the race of development don’t get a bit of it.
Then we moved to other village where Nutrition and Health day was being celebrated. But what saw there that the turn up of the villagers was very low and when we asked this to Health worker then she said villagers are giving proper response for services and also there is no smooth coordination between AWW and she. But here again the question raised in my mind if there in no coordination established then the local leader should come out with the solution and make necessary actions but still the community is not so mobilized to understand the importance of health. So again the issue of ignorance. It was also a consideration on the village that AWC center was on the mercy of worker of the center and not on the need of the community.
After my whole visit I realized and concluded to some of the points:
System should be strengthening for the delivery mechanism because for the program like ICDS it must be solid and fool proof.
NGO should be instrumental in awareness generation of community specially their rights and welfare schemes of government,
There should not be over burdened staff in the system because it hampers the whole system and also weaken their working,
Finally but the most important point we have to put some professional approach in development sector because this is where we lack…
There are many points which have been left while writing but this is for sure this visit added values to my life and approach of working towards social cause…..
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