Before the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown was announced on March 24, at least 96 children from a slum in Trombay, Mumbai, would visit Sangeet...
Before the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown was announced on March 24, at least 96 children from a slum in Trombay, Mumbai, would visit Sangeeta Kamble’s anganwadi centre every day.
Even though the centre is run from the cramped home of a slum resident, Kamble tried her best to juggle all the duties of an anganwadi worker: providing hot meals and dry rations to children below six, measuring their height and weight regularly, scheduling mandatory vaccinations for them and serving as their pre-school teacher.
Since the lockdown began, however, the anganwadi has been shut and Kamble and her assistant have been “working from home”. For them, this has involved making regular calls to the children’s parents, watching half their slum empty out as migrant families returned to their villages, and trying in vain to arrange for nutritious rations for those who remained. Even though manufacturers of these nutritious “take-home rations” for children were supposed to continue their supply to anganwadis, Kamble claims all the anganwadis in her area did not receive any.
Kamble still calls as many parents as she can, asking after the health of the children and reminding them to get them vaccinated at rural health centres whenever they get the chance. But...
