As many as 200 schools in the city have nursery sections with a strength of 10,111 students and across the areas, there are 91 anganwadi centres, sharing the campus with Corporation schools, with a strength of 3,309 children. The anganwadis operated under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme offer holistic physical, psychosocial, cognitive and emotional development of children under the age of six years. They also address the nutritional and health aspects of a child’s wellbeing.

With diminishing significance of anganwadis due to lure of continuing education in the Corporation schools as they have facilities till Class 12, there is a need to allocate the centres in areas where they are needed the most, especially in the resettlements, said K Shanmugavelayutham, convenor, TN-FORCES (Forum for Creche and Childcare Services). “There is not much convergence between the Education Department of the Corporation and the ICDS programme,” he added. 

Places like Kannagi Nagar and Chemmenchery have a deficit of these centres, pointed out Vanessa Peter, policy researcher. “Moreover, the schools and centres should be complementary, not duplicating the functions, especially in a city where there is a large section of resettled children who are deprived of the benefits of ICDS schemes.” She also added that anganwadis have an advantage over schools as they can be located closer to areas where they are needed, while nursery sections in schools can only be operated in the given infrastructure or existing buildings.

However, P Kumaravel Pandian, deputy commissioner, Education, Greater Chennai Corporation, said that as both of them are run by the government, they work in tandem, adding that efforts are on to make the services accessible uniformly. “I will be meeting parents across areas to find out what kinds of schools they are enrolling their child in to ensure that the public can give their feedback on the basis on which they decide the schools,” he said.

While the growing needs in the resettlement areas for the centres can be explored, the role of anganwadis and schools cannot be compared at the same level, said K Manivasan, Secretary to Government, Social Welfare and Nutritious Meal Programme. “We have a cap on the number of centres we can run in the State, which stands at 54,439. We can consider closing the ones with lower strength and shift them to where there is a demand. Regarding these centres, they look at immunisation, wellbeing of adolescent girls, pregnant mothers and lactating mothers, apart from pre-school education. These cannot be duplicated by the Corporation schools,” he added.

Shanmugavelayutham said that the numbers of children in the centres are lower than portrayed by the education department. “Anganwadis have to be spruced up and made more attractive for parents to enrol them,” he said.