What Cities Owe Their Anganwadis

Updated: Jul 06, 2026 16:29 pm IST Published On Jul 06, 2026 16:09 pm IST Last Updated On Jul 06, 2026 16:29 pm IST

Published On Jul 06, 2026 16:09 pm IST

Last Updated On Jul 06, 2026 16:29 pm IST

Meeta, a 29-year-old anganwadi worker in Mumbai's M–East ward, had already spent 45 minutes waiting for a bus in the humid heat when her phone rang. Her landlord was calling to say the ten-by-ten room she rents for her Anganwadi Centre (AWC) in Natwar Parekh Compound wouldn't be available that day — the residents' association needed it back for their own work. In most professions, losing your workplace at the last minute means an unexpected day off. For Meeta, it meant logging into her reporting app as usual, then going door-to-door distributing food packets to every registered child. It took her months to find a space for the AWC; co-renting was the most stable option she found.

"For a few months, I even ran it from a 225-square-foot home with six people living in it. There were new challenges every day."

"For a few months, I even ran it from a 225-square-foot home with six people living in it. There were new challenges every day."

Around 900 kilometres away in Bhuj, Rashmi, a 37-year-old anganwadi worker with more than a decade of experience, stared at yet another notice to vacate — one month to find a new space. "People don't like renting their rooms for an anganwadi," she explained. "The rent the government gives is much lower than market rates." In ten years, Rashmi has moved six times; each relocation disrupts early childhood care and pushes vulnerable children to drop out entirely.

Anganwadis are not crumbling welfare bastions for the poor — they are the foundation of neighbourhood economies, women's mobility, and children's development. Workers like Meeta and Rashmi perform this care for millions across India. AWCs have grown into outposts of community life in both rural and urban areas: crisis centres during the pandemic, immunisation points for children, venues for menstrual health training for adolescent girls. Seeing them as infrastructures of care, not welfare points tucked into borrowed rooms, is the first........

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