Case Study

Bala Badi Case Study

BalaBadi Centers were initially started in Elementary school with 17 children on November 1st 2011 in Lakhnapur village, Lakhnapur Panchayat, Gurugubilli Mandal, Vizianagram district. It is a combined program of Indhira Kranthi Patham(IKP) and Jattu which is mainly targeted for the children of aged 3-5 years. These centers starts at morning 9 in which children will have interactive games and rhymes through which letters and expressions will be taught and session ends at 11 AM. After those children will be taken away to Anganwadi Centres where they will be fed with Kichdi, beans and eggs, later again classes from 2-4 PM will be there where Environmental Education, Telugu, English, Mathematics, all forms of art etc will be taught for them.

Everything is going on smoothly in this way, and then problem arises in some villages where anganwadi staff demands that they will look after Anganwadi in the morning and balabadi staff have to look after BalaBadi in the afternoon. To address this issue, a meeting held by P.O of I.T.D.A and end result is that BalaBadi-Anganwadi has to work together. But still Anganwadi workers protest in the district of Khammam, then Smt. Sunitha Lakshmya Reddy, Minister of Sisu Sankshema made clear that BalaBadi and Anganwadi work together and from then both are working together as a group. At present, maintain records of Anganwadi staff ration for children, maid servant looking after children, feeding them with kichdi, beans and distributing eggs are some of their daily duties.

Two teachers will take classes for the tiny tots. One of the teachers will taught forms of art and another teacher will teach them about environment education, sanitation, saving water, electricity etc. In this way Balabadi-Anganwadi working together as a friendly group and as children will be taught in their own way, number of children registering is increasing consistently. Previously Anganwadi had only half day classes but with the advent of Balabadi it emerged as a whole day school. Parents are very much satisfied with the way of Balabadi-Anganwadi together organizing parent's meetings and guiding the parents about their children's progress. By doing this way no hassles and no worries about any misunderstandings in the meetings as everything is public.

Balabadi teacher opinion:

Children were used to be taken away from balabadi centre to anganwadi to have their food but now as both are at same place, I'm very glad that children can have their food and enjoy the school at the same place.