During a community monitoring process conducted recently in Bhakurguda village of Rayagada block, twofold concerns came to light. Firstly, the Aaganwadi Centre environment was filthy and unhygienic which obviously can affect the health of young children who visit the centre. Secondly, a defunct bore-well was noticed in the campus, which apparently was dug up for a long time that put the AWW difficult in fetching clean and drinking water on a regular basis.

Bhakurguda village falls under Rayagada block of Rayagada district. There are a total of 113 beneficiaries in the village, with 7 pregnant women, 10 lactating mothers, 20 adolescent girls, 38 children falling under the age group of 6 months to 3 years and 38 children under the age group of 3 years to 6 years.

As part of the community monitoring of basic health services, facilitated by CYSD, both service providers i.e. ASHA, AWW and service users, like pregnant women and lactating mothers were interacted with, exclusively.  The issue was dealt in great detail and it was observed that due to defunct bore-well within the Anganwadi premises, the Anganwadi workers were forced to travel distances to collect water for drinking and cooking purposes. On the other hand, the Anganwadi Centre has 38 pre-school children and it is a tedious task to collect sufficient water for cooking and drinking for all these children. Even the beneficiaries i.e. mothers of pre-school children complain of the unavailability of drinking water at the AWC. Secondly, the surrounding campus of the Centre remained unhygienic was leading to insect breeding and thus exposing children to diseases.  This resulted in absenteeism of children at the AWC.

With this backdrop, a village level intervention was staged where the service providers and service users participated. The issues were taken as top priorities by both service provider and service user and a possible plan of action was formulated. In an action mode, the mothers’ committee took up the responsibility to clean the surrounding of Aaganwadi Centre on every VHND. Similarly, for clean and drinking watersupply to the AWC, it was decided to bring the issue to the notice of the Sarapanch. The responsibility of writing an application was taken up by 10 mothers and they were assisted by one of the community resource persons of CYSD.

During the follow up process, it was found out that the Adolescent Club and 10 mothers together have submitted the proposed application to the Sarapanch. As a result, all the bore-wells inside the village including the AWC have already been repaired by a self-employed mechanic of the nearby village. The mechanic was also supported and assisted by the youth club members, adolescent club members, mothers of pre-school children and ward member. As a result, clean and regular drinking water is made available at the Aaganwadi Centre and cleaning of the Aaganwadi Centre has been taken up as a regular activity by the Mothers’ Committee.

Streamlining of health related entitlements in Bhakurguda was possible due to community vigilance and regular monitoring of the facilities created for the common people.