In September 2014, 350 kids fell sick after a lizard was spotted in a mid-day meal. This was not an isolated incident -- in July 2013, at least 22 students died after a eating a contaminated mid-day meal.
Incidents like these raise hygiene concerns for Anganwadi Centres across the country. To understand the issue better, the Rediff Labs team looked at the Evaluation Study on Integrated Child Development Schemes published by the Planning Commission of India. We looked specifically at the data published about the hygiene of kitchens and toilets in Anganwadi Centres across India.
Looking at the number of kitchens and toilets in Anganwadi Centres that were classified by the Planning Commission survey as either Very Clean, Satisfactory or Unhygienic, we calculated a Hygiene Score for Anganwadi Kitchens for each state in India. In the map above, you can see the classification of Indian states and UTS based on this score into Mostly Dirty, Somewhat Dirty, Somewhat Clean and Mostly Clean.
It is interesting to note that while in some areas like Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Puducherry all of the Kitchens are either Very Clean or Satisfactory, there are also some stark contrasts to this. Delhi, for example, surprisingly showed 100 per cent of Anganwadi Kitchens as Unhygienic in the Planning Commission report.
After a similar analysis of the data on the hygiene of toilets in Anganwadi Centres across India, we calculated the
Hygiene Score for Angandwadi Toilets for each state. The map below shows the classification of this score into
Mostly Dirty, Somewhat Clean and
Mostly Clean.
In the case of toilets, many more states had poor Hygiene Scores. Tripura, Arunanchal Pradesh and Bihar, for example had Mostly Dirty toilets as per the Planning Commission report. The few areas that showed Mostly Clean toilets in Anganwadi Centres include Chandigarh, Mizoram and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
Note: Hygiene Score was calculated by adding the percentage of Very Clean and Satisfactory and subtracting the percentage of Unhygienic Kitchens and Toilets respectively from it. For more data-driven journalism, check out Rediff Labs
