New Delhi: As India continues to wait for Covid vaccines for children amid reports that a next possible wave of the pandemic could affect the minor population more severely, the Delhi government has
decided put to use its network of 10,000 Anganwadi centres and over 20,000 social workers — which has direct access to over 5 lakh people.
The most important and challenging goal for the Anganwadi network now is to spread awareness of Covid-appropriate behaviour and convince the adults in each family to get vaccinated.
Officials said that the Delhi government's Women and Child Development department had started this 'Samvad' series with its Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) cadre through which field functionaries are trained to reach out to families and children and educate them Covid appropriate behaviour, about the vaccination process and also how they can keep themselves as well as their children safe from COVID-19.
"Our priority is to educate different communities which are impacted by the Anganwadi network and the Saheli Samanvay Kendra (SSK) hub centres by making women in the community more aware," one official said.
Rashmi Singh, Special Secretary-cum-Director of Social Welfare, in the WCD department said the main focus is on door-to-door education of socio-economically weaker families by making use of fortnightly distribution of dry ration to doorsteps of such families as per ICDS norms.
The most important task is to convince communities and the women in these communities to take the vaccines as many are hesitant. These workers regularly meet them, educate them about the importance of vaccines which will curb COVID-19 and also ensure that their children will be safe if parents are vaccinated. "On their phones, they are provided with creativity designed audio-video messages," the official said. Every 15 days, Anganwadi workers meet families while going door-to-door to distribute rations. During these visits, the field functionaries were asked to ensure that families see or hear the audio-video messages for more information. "Anganwadis act like a bridge for dissemination of information to families for their general well-being," an official added.
Singh further said, during training, the workers are imparted with skills on how best to educate children about precautions they should take during this pandemic. When they meet women in the community, they also suggest nutritional guidelines for their families and children.
While the most obvious danger is of infection, another challenge for the Anganwadi workers has emerged to be convincing the families to accept the dry ration. "At the time of pandemic, some families are also hesitant to take rations as they fear it might act as a carrier of contagious disease. Workers have to convince them to take rations from them as it is totally safe," another official said.
As for data regarding children orphaned by the second wave of the pandemic in the last few months, the WCD department is working on collating data from a multitude of sources that include but are not limited to the Delhi Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) and Child Welfare Committees (CWCs). Data from the DCPCR had recently shown that around 42 children were orphaned by the virus whereas the CWCs data had identified 15 such children. However, there are also many cases where the children are not registered with the CWCs as part of the public childcare system and the work to identify these children is also on.