United Way of Bengaluru signs MoU with WCD dept for strengthening Anganwadis

Bengaluru: United Way Bengaluru (UWBe) and the Women and Child Development (WCD) Department, Government of Karnataka on Thursday announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), as a step towards ensuring quality early childhood care and development among children up to 6 years and improving quality services across Anganwadi Centres in Karnataka.

UWBe will work with all 66361 Anganwadi centers that are functioning in Karnataka. The partnership will benefit around 40 lakh children (21.16 lakh children between 06 months to 03 years and 18.67 lakh children between 03 years and 06 years) enrolled in these 66361 Anganwadi centres.

In this collaboration, United Way of Bengaluru, will be implementing its flagship initiative 'Born Learning Campaign', a program towards early childhood care and development implemented across Anganwadi Centres. This initiative will cater to selected Anganwadi Centres across 25 districts in Karnataka and will focus on four pillars – improving nutrition and health services in the Anganwadi Centres; enhancing the capacity of Anganwadi workers to provide quality pre-school experience to children at Anganwadi Centres for them to be school ready; creating a conducive learning environment, and promotion of quality learning opportunities among children in the Anganwadi Centres. The developments will be in line with the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India.

Talking about the collaboration, Government of Karnataka, Director, WCD, Priyanka Mary Francis said, "We are focused on equipping Anganwadi Centres that need immediate attention (as per the grading system) to help them become safe and child-friendly; equipping ICDS functionaries with teaching skills as per National Early Childhood Care & Education guidelines; creating a significant impact on the health, well-being and developmental domains of children that will benefit communities at large."

Sharing his thoughts, Executive Director, UWBe, Rajesh Krishnan said, "The first few years of life are the foundation towards healthy growth and development of children. We are happy that this collaboration will help to go a long way in improving the overall health and development outcomes of children, especially from humble backgrounds, and build a cadre of skilled Anganwadi workers."

The collaboration is strongly aligned with the New Education Policy (NEP), 2020.

The focus is on strengthening early childhood care and development, creating a safe and conducive learning environment at Anganwadi Centres; and promoting healthy and wholesome development among children.