10,000 anganwadis lack toilets, drinking water facility in Gujarat

Ahmedabad, March 28: More than 4,500 'anganwadis' out of the nearly 53,000 such centres in Gujarat do not have drinking water facility while over 5,600 of them are running without toilets, according to state government statistics.

As per the figures tabled in the state Assembly by the government recently, the drinking water facility is not available in 4,505 anganwadis -- government sponsored child and mother care centres -- across Gujarat (as on March 2015).

Besides, about 5,655 anganwadi centres in the state are functioning without toilet facilities, as per the data.

The tribal districts of Panchmahal, Mahisagar and Dahod have maximum number of anganwadis which lack the basic facilities.

In Panchmahal/Mahisagar, referred to as a single unit, 1,411 centres are still running without drinking water facility, followed by 939 in Vadodara/Chhota Udepur and 599 in Valsad. Dahod district has the maximum 808 anganwadis not having toilet facility, followed by 586 in Valsad and 562 in Panchmahal/Mahisagar.

Out of the 26 district-units, the data suggested that barring Kutch, all other districts have anganwadis running without toilet facilities. Out of 26 district-units, 10 have centres which do not having drinking water facility.

The drinking water facility was available at all anganwadis in the remaining 16 district units, as per the data tabled in the Assembly recently, in response to a query raised by Congress MLA Tejashreeben Patel during the ongoing Budget session.

PTI