Health and Nutrition: Anganwadi Centers in the Abandoned Tea Plantations of North Bengal, India
摘要
The chapter attempts to understand the functioning of the Anganwadi Centers (AWCs) in the abandoned tea plantations of North Bengal. The Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) program was introduced in closed and abandoned tea plantations in the Dooars region at a much later stage compared to the other parts of the country. This was introduced as one of the key programs to combat the undernutrition and related health issues among children and mothers, particularly in response to hunger and starvation deaths in the plantations in the early 2000s. Based on an ethnographic study of two abandoned tea gardens in the Dooars region, this chapter examines the functioning of the AWCs in implementing child health initiatives in abandoned plantations of the Dooars region of North Bengal. The chapter also attempts to highlight the challenges faced by frontline workers struggling to provide nutritional support and healthcare to the children of the abandoned tea gardens for whom the centers have emerged as a critical life-line support given the widespread prevalence of chronic and endemic hunger among the tea garden communities.