Vedanta Adopts 3056 Anganwadi Centres

Rajasthan government, Hindustan Zinc (a Vedanta Group company) and Vedanta Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) to adopt 3056 Anganwadi centres in five districts of Rajasthan – Udaipur, Chittorgarh, Bhilwara, Rajsamand and Ajmer for five years. This adoption will benefit more than 90,000 underprivileged children in the age group of 3-6 years and will contribute significantly towards their overall development that would include nutrition, education and primary health.

As part of further strengthening of these Anganwadi centres, Hindustan Zinc and Vedanta Foundation would also convert 1000 Anganwadi centres into model Anganwadis. This project would also be spread across a period of five years, and in each year 200 Anganwadis would be converted into model Anganwadis. In these selected model Anganwadi centres, Hindustan Zinc and Vedanta Foundation will carry out repair and renovation of the building, construction of child friendly toilets, story painting on inside wall, provide water filters, daris and swings. Uniform will also be provided to all the enrolled children.

All the Anganwadi centres will get clean drinking water, new utensils and smokeless chulha for the kitchen. Supplementing morning breakfast, poha and groundnut will be provided.

Pavan Kaushik, head of corporate communication, Hindustan Zinc, informed, “Our focus is on overall growth and development of these rural children. Colorful books and charts, toys and other pre-school educational material will be provided by the company to encourage interactive play-way method. Hindustan Zinc will also provide special training on pre-school education to the Anganwadi workers of the all these Centers and to our own field coordinators for better coordination, understanding and learning.”

As per the new WHO guideline, adopted at all selected Anganwadi centers, digital weighing scale and hygiene up-keep items like hair oil, talcum powder, hand wash shop, phenyl and detergent will be provided.

Special emphasis will be given to health & hygiene and weight measurement of these children. Vedanta Group has a strong focus towards care for the underprivileged children. Anil Agarwal, chairman – Vedanta Group has set his vision to make India a child malnourished free nation. Since 2008 the group has been associated and supported about 14,000 child care centers in Rajasthan, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha reaching about 500,000 rural children for their nutrition, health and education.