Seva Mandir’s Balwadi Programme

Objectives

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  To assess Seva Mandir’s performance, both qualitatively and quantitatively, vis-à-vis the results mentioned in the proposal, focusing especially on the impact on children, their parents and siblings and the communities with whom Seva Mandir works, to see if their lives have changed and in what ways.
  
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  To assess the extent to which Seva Mandir has been able to help communities take greater ownership of the intervention
  
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  To look at the status and functioning of Integrated Child development Services (ICDS) supported Anganwadi centres (AWWs). While this review is not of the external context, the review team should make a quick assessment of the same to locate the need and impact of Seva Mandir’s work in the context.
  
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  To study the budget and expenditure made and advise as to whether the funds have been spent appropriately.
  

The evaluation should bring out both the achievements of Seva Mandir and also what has not been achieved and why.

The following steps were taken to carry out the study:

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  A desk review of materials sent by Seva Mandir in advance
  
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  Two field-visits of four days each by two teams of two members each. The separate visits were carried out because of inability to find common dates for all team members. Dr. Singh served as the common denominator for both the visits and collected in the process quantitative data from a larger sample of Balwadis than would otherwise have been possible.
  
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  Two meetings with sanchalikas, one at Badgaon and the other at Kherwara were organized. About 20 sanchalikas participated in each meeting. In addition, Dr. Kirti attended a block level meeting at Kotra as participant observer on 7^th September.
  
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  Debriefing sessions at the end of each visit served as an opportunity to reflect on findings and clarify doubts
  
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  Content analysis of the minutes of block level meetings for Badgaon was carried out to get an idea of the nature of issues discussed and the kind of decisions taken.
  
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  Individual reports of the three members were collated together to bring out an integrated report
  
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  A joint presentation of the findings was made to Seva Mandir and Paul Hamlyn Foundation
  

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  Centers are located at the hamlet (Fala) level rather than at the village level and an attempt is made to avoid overlap with Anganwadi centers of the ICDS
  
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  Each Balwadi is run in a rented premise or community hall whose location should be central so that parents can bring the children to the center easily.
  
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  A trained Sanchalika runs each Balwadi and is supported by a dedicated team from Seva Mandir, under the project. Majority of Sanchalikas come from the same village/ fala where they work.
  
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  On an average 20-25 children have been enrolled per center. However, on any given day the actual attendance may vary from 10 to 25, the average being 18.
  
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  The center is operated as a day care facility for children from 1 to 5 years of age. Usually it opens at about 9 in the morning and closes at 4 in the afternoon. The villagers decide the timings of the center according to their convenience.
  
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  The center provides supplementary nutrition to the children in the form of a cooked meal and two pre-cooked snacks amounting to 462 calories and 17-20 gms of protein per day. In addition they are provided one teaspoon of Mannoll (herbal preparation) as iron supplement.
  
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  The center provides preschool education to children where various games, poetry, music, arts and crafts etc are used to attract the children as well as to enable their cognitive development. The values of discipline, cooperation and sharing are inculcated.
  
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  Children are also taught the importance of practicing hygiene. A few common aliments may be treated at the center itself. For more complicated ailments the parents are referred to medical facilities in the vicinity. (Immunisation is not an integral part of the services provided by the center as it is supposed to be covered by other agencies/ programmes)
  
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  Sanchalikas seek the parents’ involvement by reaching out to them through home visits and organizing periodic meetings.
  
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  The Gram Vikas Samiti of the village oversees the smooth functioning of the Balwadi and monitors its activities. It also pays the salary of the Sanchalika.
  
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  Parents pay a contribution of Rs. 5/month, which is deposited with the GVS and utilized annually to purchase clothes etc, which are distributed among the children of the Balwadi.
  
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  Sanchalikas make an effort to enroll children coming out of the Balwadis to NFEs or public/ private schools that may be available in the vicinity.
  

C. Action research, documentation and wider dissemination of learning’s and experiences to influence the bigger system.

D Activating FORCES network for involving/promoting policies, guidelines and strategies on ECCD.

E Collaboration with district ICDS to monitor the presence of AWWs & the quality of services provided at 20 AWCs in 14 panchayats of Jhadol block.

1. 
   The project visualized having 178 centers covering 3800 children by the end of September 2009. The total number of centers had exceeded this target in September 2008 itself and by Sept.’09 there were 199 centers with a total enrolment of 4487 children. New centers were opened mainly in Kotra block where the status of children is especially poor. Some non-functional centers were also closed down. The block-wise break up of centers is provided in Table 2, Annexure 1.
   
2. 
   The total number of girls enrolled is higher than that of boys with the ratio of girls to boys, being1.04. As shown in Table 2, Annexure 1, the girl to boy ratio is favourable for girls in all blocks except Kherwara.
   
3. 
   Most of the centers have been performing well on different dimensions such as nutrition, games, cognitive development, hygiene, etc (although there was some scope for improvement in all). Therefore parents are happy to send their children to the Balwadis. The children too are very happy to attend and imbibe a lot from the Sanchalika and other children. The average attendance has increased from 12 to 18. In contrast, the Anganwadis are mostly non-functional and poorly attended. The people have developed an apathetic attitude towards Anganwadi and the entire Government machinery behind it.
   
4. 
   Seva Mandir’s efforts to persuade parents to send their children to schools or NFEs run by it have paid off with as many as 2500 children being enrolled during the last three years, i.e. the project period. An internal study recently concluded shows that initial retention of the children in these schools / NFEs has been quite high at more than 80%.
   
5. 
   Although the community values the services provided by the Balwadis, there is an apparent lack of involvement as demonstrated in poor participation in meetings and poor payment of the nominal fees (see Table 3, Annexure 1). In a couple of instances when Balwadi was closed down due to apparent lack of participation the community members came back to Seva Mandir and pleaded that these should be resumed. The review team made an effort to explore this aspect of the programme and came to the conclusion that pre-occupation with livelihood and food security, lack of understanding about ECCD and poor facilitation of the meetings may be among the main reasons for this community response.
   
6. 
   The capacity building of Sanchalikas through trainings and bi-monthly meetings has been progressing as per schedule. New Sanchalikas undergo an internship of 15 days under an experienced Sanchalika before taking independent charge. Cross learning is facilitated in block level meetings as well as by visiting Balwadis run by high performing Sanchalikas. The grading system of Sanchalikas is in operation and is well understood by them.
   
7. 
   During September ’08, 24 youth associated with YRCs were organized and trained to use traditional methods of communication (kawad and puppets) for raising awareness on ECCD. The youth performed in 51 villages. A follow up training was provided to them in Jan ’09 to further improve the performance and impact.
   
8. 
   The project has had a positive impact on mothers, who are able to attend to their livelihoods and domestic work. Elder siblings are potentially free to attend school, although in the blocks that were studied by Seva Mandir, they continue to remain out of school due to cultural reasons and/or economic compulsions. The access to and quality of education are also issues that affect enrollment and retention of girls in school.
   
9. 
   Visitors, in particular Members of the Planning Commission have appreciated Seva Mandir’s Balwadi model.
   
10. 
    Seva Mandir has been appointed as the Co-convener of the Rajasthan Chapter of FORCES network in December ’08. In its capacity as Co-convener it has initiated a study on child-care services under NREG Scheme. Findings were disseminated with partners and the media during May ’09.
    

Regular attendance is a key factor in achieving improved nutritional, health and cognitive status. The table below shows the attendance of the centers visited by the review team on the given day. The average attendance of 18 matches perfectly with the average attendance reported for all the balwadis in the six-monthly report.

Name of Balwadi	Block	Children	Male	Female
Rawa	Girwa	21	8	13
Amiwara	Jhadol	18	4	14
Bada Bheelwara	Jhadol	21	10	11
Madala(Dara fala)	Jhadol	19	11	8
Malaria	Badgaon	17	6	11
Mada	Badgaon	13	3	10
DholiGhati	Badgaon	21	13	8
Naya khera	Badgaon	18	12	6
Champayoton ki bhagal	Badgaon	16	11	5
Dama fala	Kherwara	19	10	9
Rawla fala	Kherwara	15	7	8
Total		180	83	97
Average		18	8.3	9/7

It is worth mentioning that an earlier study on “Socio-economic Status of (Rural) Udaipur District, Southern Rajasthan” (Sept 2004) by Andre Ling, Working Paper Series, Seva Mandir, serves as an excellent benchmark study for many of the above studies since it covers most of the themes. The review team has referred to this as the “benchmark study” wherever quoted.

3. 
   Impact of Balwadi on Status of Children
   

The storage of food items was in poor condition at two centers.