Anganwadi (Community-assisted Kindergarten) under Department of Women and Child Development, Kerala

College of Architecture Trivandrum - Kerala Technological University (KTU)

Project idea

Anganwadi is a comprehensive support system for children, adolescent girls and pregnant women in the community. The end user being the mother and child makes the spaces follow a crucial typology.

The following resources for the functioning of anganwadi are provided by the state government.

1. Employing the teacher (trainer) – Teachers are trained after an extensive induction program.
2. Cooking – Supply and food materials
3. Supplying nutritious food – The program essentially consist of supplying nutritious food to the child, mother and adolescent girls following a recommended frequency is financially supported by government. All children are provided with mid-day meal at Centre and food material for the rest of the day will be supplied to the mothers.
4. Medicines and medical camps – The health department of the government used to conduct medical camps for children, lactating mothers, pregnant mothers and adolescent girls.
5. Learning equipment – The department supplies learning equipment, toys and other fixtures for the physical and mental development.

Objective

Main objective is to bring three generations of community together. The proposed anganwadi models can be termed as “Smart Anganwadi” as it considers all the three user groups of different age and combine their activities in a single built space (Multi-community space), thereby increases the richness of spaces.

User 1: Children

The objective is:

• To promote proper early childhood development
• To shape their young minds to develop basic-skills and habits, through explorative learning.

User 2: Pregnant women

An anganwadi is the first point of contact for maternal healthcare for 1000 days = 270 days (pregnancy period) + 365 days +365 days (child development period) and mother’s physical health to regain.

The objective is:

• To create separate and private spaces for better mother care activities like consultation and counselling.
• To create spaces to carry out medical checkup of women and children.
• To provide prenatal care to pregnant mothers in a private enclosure.

User 3: Adolescent girls

The objective is:

• To provide counseling and awareness for adolescent girls about their development to become mothers.
• To provide proper nutrition for them.

Location

Kerala is in tropics with hot humid climate. Kerala has an average annual rainfall of 3107mm with 120-140 rainy days per year. Maximum temperature is 37 °C and minimum is 19.8°C and that is assured 70% - 90% throughout. Mostly anganwadis are located in rural and poverty stricken urban area where accessibility is a problem. The design is based on the above factors.The proposed design has been conceived keeping in mind the varying site nature; ranging from 404.68 sq.m to 60.702 sq.m.

Project description

Origin of anganwadi

In 1975 by the Government of India, as a part of the integrated child Development services started this program. The aim is to combat child hunger and malnutrition. Anganwadi means “courtyard shelter” in Indian languages.

General notion about Anganwadi

It is developed as a provision for the public health care system presently faces a lot of issues of legal and societal nature. Henceforth, they made an attempt to remove the general notion that anganwadi are mere feeding centers and to transform them into centers which can play a vital role in nurturing the physical and mental abilities of children. The Kerala state Women and Child development Department hence proposed that an improvised anganwadi be designed and implemented as a part of the department’s integrated child development program.

The proposed anganwadi

The improvised anganwadi prototypes were conceived with a focus on overall child development. The proposed design has been conceived keeping in mind the varying site nature; ranging from 404.68 sq.mto 60.702 sq.m. The facilities would comprise a study room, restroom, dining room, kitchen, storeroom, multipurpose hall and a small garden; all proposed in an attempt to foster the overall physical and mental capabilities of the children.

Concept

The main idea behind the project is;
“Built knowledge through exploration”
i.e. Observe, Built and Consolidate

Design Development

Provide opportunity for child to explore and to see colors of leaves, plants, flowers, butterflies and small birds.
To promote and encourage creativity and imaginative play, sensory and language skills by providing different spaces with different textures. It helps child to develop their emotional, language, physical development and creativity. Sand pit is provided in the play area which helps in overcoming fear of accidents and helps to reduce the fear of heights and falling in the jungle gym. A vegetable garden is provided. Eating harvested crops and seeing and touching small living things, children feel the joy of living and they nurture their ability to live. Colored strip walls are provided which helps children to develop pattern recognition, memory and observing new information instead of plain walls.

Technical information

The available materials used for the project are

• Natural stone, cut natural lateritic stone, burnt bricks, mud and wood.

Construction techniques used are:

• 200mm wide CBRI brick bond that saves 7% of material and increases an equal amount of space.
• Treated country wood/Jungle wood is used where it is available.
• The use of cement in making the building is reduced by 20-25% with respect to conventional construction.
• In rural area roof tiling is with country made clay tiles.
• In urban area low cost mild steel tubes and insulated panels are used for making roof structures.

Co-authors

Ambu C Mohan, Pooja H Panicker