HYDERABAD: Anganwadi centres in rural areas have long been devoid of basic infrastructure and facilities. Many are run in rented premises or in really old structures inside the premises of government primary schools where even proper toilets aren’t available.
However, there is a sliver of hope in the form of the pilot ‘Green Anganwadi Centres’ being initiated by the State Women and Child Department (WCD) and Nirmal district administration. Architude, a startup that was incubated at We-Hub, is in the business of designing Green Buildings, quite the norm these days.
We-Hub has pitched the startup’s idea to Divya Devarajan, Commissioner, WCD, and Nirmal District Collector Musharraf Faruqui, who gave the young team of engineers and architects a chance to prove their mettle.
Within 27 days, the team built a Green Anganwadi Centre in Venkatapur village of Nirmal mandal at a cost of Rs 8 lakh. The structure built on a 600-square-foot area consists of a multi-purpose hall (with study and play area), kitchen, storage room/feeding area, wash area and two toilets.
What makes the structure ‘green’, is that the walls are made of ready-made composite panels with reinforced cement and the roof made of insulating sandwich panels made of polyurethane foam.
Cross-ventilation and daylight have been ensured, which is a major deviation from the current dark and ill-ventilated Anganwadi centres. Even when temperatures touch 40°C during the summer, the temperature inside this green structure will be 6°C lesser than the room temperature in traditional RCC structures, claims K Vijaya Durga, founder of Architude.
Rain harvesting pit and a soak pit have been dug to conserve liquid waste from the kitchen and the toilets. solar panels, or composting toilets couldn’t be installed, as there is always a trade-off between sustainability and affordability. However, Vijaya is hopeful that in the next phase of projects they could be incorporated too, if the project is scaled up.
Her team has also built a Green Tribal Community Centre at Chinchughat village in Adilabad mandal, where members of the primitive Thotti tribes live.
“One of the focus of UN Sustainable Development Goals is the creation of sustainable cities and communities and this is why the government is promoting GreenTech and CleanTech startups. It was great to see the district administration and WCD supporting this cause. We are actively looking to expand this concept across the State soon,” R Deepthi, CEO, We-Hub, told TNIE.