By quashing a 2006 Government Order which approved the appointment of thousands of anganwadi workers recommended by MLAs and other politicians in the State, the Karnataka High Court has sent a clear message to the government not to meddle with social welfare projects just to gain political mileage. It has sent an equally clear message to the Centre that the latter must oversee the proper functioning of its national programmes, wherever they are based.

 The anganwadis are catalysts for promoting the integrated child development services in the country. Their role in protecting and maintaing children’s health and welfare can hardly be underestimated. They are the very core of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme. 

Launched by the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) in 1974 as one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive proposals, this unique scheme was designed essentially as a people’s programme for the welfare of children and their mothers by delivering to them a package of vital services that were indispensible to their very survival.

Five components

These services had five important components that included supplementary nutrition for infants and lactating mothers, immunisation of the same infants against common childhood diseases, their regular health check-up including referral medical services, pre-school education for them upto five years and lastly, family welfare education for expectant and nursing mothers.

 This wide-ranging package was to be delivered to the beneficiaries in all States and Union territories by the Centre through the anganwadis which were certainly not meant to be avenues of employment. Nor were they meant to be misused by those in power to offer jobs to people. If the Centre or the State Governments refuse to understand this simple concept, the relevance of the ICDS is hopelessly lost.

UNICEF had seen the effective working of such projects in other countries where the poorest citizens could be trained and helped to deliver such essential services to their own children. One example is the Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) which was accepted and implemented whole heartedly by the most deprived sections of society for the simple reason that it saved the lives of their children.

Similarly, if the ICDS programme is implemented properly, there is no reason to believe that it will not succeed. If young mothers in urban slums and rural pockets were enthused to run the anganwadis – not so much for money as for the benefits that would flow to their children – the programme would have been a thumping success in India.

 Is there a mother who would steal that glass of milk or that slice of bread and deny nourishment to her own child by siphoning off the foodpackets for money?
The Centre has spent thousands of crores on the ICDS scheme. Yet, with rare exceptions here and there, the country’s anganwadis are in poor shape with sub-standard care, inadequate nutrition and abysmal healthcare facilities.

Restore ideals

In Karnataka, a large portion of the State Government's allocation goes to pay salaries to the workers or to buy unwanted equipment. The main cause for all these aberrations being the appointment of tens of thousands of “workers” by politicians – workers who have no commitment or love for the job they are doing. The High Court order has not come a day too soon.

The UNICEF dreamt of a homely place like a temple, school or shed in villages and urban slums where the poorest folks could bring their children with their mothers to eat some nourishing food, get some basic medicare and learn the three Rs, Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic.

These places were meant to be havens of comfort, learning and well being. But, like many dreams, this one also has turned sour with politicians and middlemen taking over and converting what should have been an ideal programme into a circus of bribery, nepotism and corrupt practices. The ICDS will succeed only if the ideals with which it was started are restored.