What does it take to develop an Anganwadi through the eyes of its users — both young children and their parents? This was the question that Priya CR, an Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) supervisor from Ernakulam District in Kerala, set out to answer while she worked on transforming Anganwadi 44 in Olikuzhi.

Today, Anganwadi 44 exemplifies how a grassroots champion can drive change. By embedding quality and dignity in early childhood learning centres and thinking beyond infrastructure, Priya has shown how the social perception of government-led early childhood development (ECD) facilities can change.

Priya’s efforts have been replicated across three more locations. The “Model Anganwadi” has emerged as a scalable, cost-effective and sustainable initiative, offering important lessons for creating quality urban facilities for young children and their caregivers.

Challenging the Norm

For thousands of young children in India, an Anganwadi is their first classroom, playground and window to the world. Established under ICDS, Anganwadis provide young children with nutrition, health services and early learning support, while also serving as community spaces to guide new mothers on essential childcare practices.

Despite the time children spend in them, Anganwadis are not always designed to be stimulating spaces. Around 25% of Anganwadis in India function from rented facilities and lack engaging spaces for young children as well as basic amenities such as toilets, clean drinking water, functional kitchens and waiting areas for caregivers.

In Anganwadi 44, which operated from a rented residential space, Priya found that the challenges extended beyond infrastructure. Through conversations with the Anganwadi teacher and parents, she identified common gaps — limited outdoor play, low participation by parents in community events, and little access to information on parenting and well-being.

The Anganwadi was functioning, but it was not fully supporting children’s developmental needs or creating a supportive environment for parents.

Kochi Anganwadi
The previous rented facility lacked adequate space, ventilation, child-friendly toilets, and opportunities for indoor play and engagement. Photo by Amy Joseph/WRI India.

Bridging the Gap

Since 2020, Kochi’s engagement with the Nurturing Neighbourhoods (NN) program has introduced the concept of designing public spaces from a 95-centimetre lens — the average height of a three-year-old — while also considering the well-being of parents.For Priya, this became a practical framework as she set out to transform the Anganwadi centres in Ernakulam under the NN program.

Anganwadi play space
Designed from the perspective of a three-year-old, underutilised outdoor spaces in these Fort Kochi Anganwadis have been transformed into play ‘aangans’ under the Nurturing Neighbourhoods program. Photo by Amy Joseph/ WRI India.

When a government plot became available, Priya saw an opportunity to reimagine Anganwadi 44. She began developing a Model Anganwadi to replace the rented facility, convening all relevant stakeholders while ensuring that the needs of young children and caregivers remained at the heart of the process.

Step 1: Listen to Community Needs

Anganwadi community outreach
Focus group discussions with parents and caregivers, led by Anganwadi workers, ensured that the design responded to everyday lived experiences. Photo by Amy Joseph/WRI India.

Step 2: Align stakeholders around design and implementation

anganwadi community co-creation
Collaboration between the ward councillor, municipality engineers and ICDS Supervisor helped co-create the Anganwadi proposal by bridging the gap between the city authorities and the community. Photo by Amy Joseph/WRI India.

Step 3: Integrate play and well-being from the start, not as an afterthought

Play area for children
Stimulation areas, outdoor play spaces and child-friendly amenities were embedded within design discussions, tendering and execution, with early contractor involvement and regular site engagement. Photo by Amy Joseph/ WRI India.
Sitting space for caregivers
Caregiver corners were designed to provide a comfortable space for parents to sit, interact and engage in discussions on childcare and form peer circles. Photo by Visakha KA/WRI India.

Step 4: Foster lasting community engagement by building meaningful connections with families

community and children in play space anganwadi
Community-based events at the Anganwadi evolved into participatory sessions focused on encouraging parent-child interaction and parental well-being practices. Photos by Amy Joseph/WRI India.
Quote Anganwadi

The Model Anganwadi project has drastically changed the internal functioning, as well as the external perception, of public early childhood centres by:

Improving the identity and perception of ECD centres through better infrastructure

before and after model anganwadi transformed
Before and after: The new Anganwadi building replaces the image of a neglected rented space with a well-designed, high-quality facility. This transformation helped build trust and reshape how the community perceives the centre. Photo by Amy Joseph/WRI India

Enhancing learning and engagement through interactive activities for children and parents

Quote anganwadi play
Anganwadi teacher integrating floor-based games into everyday classroom activities to encourage playful learning among children. Photo by Amy Joseph/WRI India.
children play in the play space
Children engaging with activity boards and bay window seating in the mezzanine play area of the Anganwadi. Photo by Amy Joseph/WRI India.

Extending the use of the space beyond Anganwadi hours for community activities

Anaganwadi in kochi, with children and community
The transformed Anganwadi has become a vibrant community space where festivals, celebrations and special occasions are now celebrated together with children and families. Photo by Thrikkakara Municipality.

Every time Priya visits the newly transformed Anganwadi 44 at Olikuzhi, the teacher gushes about the steady increase in enrolment at the centre. One morning, she met the mother of a three-year-old, who said, “We were initially planning to send our son to a private playschool but chose this Anganwadi instead. He loves coming here. It feels like a safe and supportive space.”

Graphic on public space transformation
The transformation sowed the seeds of systemic change by institutionalising principles into municipal processes through guidelines and exploring dedicated budget allocations for scaling. Graphic by WRI India.
Transformed Kochi Anganwadi transformations
Inspired by the success of Model Anganwadi 44, three additional Model Anganwadis were developed across the municipality, creating a ripple effect for young-children-friendly design. Photo by Thrikkakara Municipality.

Towards Building a System That Cares

Priya led this transformation from within the system, with small, intentional actions. Her process was grounded in a participatory approach to improve infrastructure as well as service delivery at the Anganwadi. This experience has led to the creation of a replicable, system‑owned and scalable model for strengthening the perception of Anganwadis as high-quality community public spaces.

This momentum can be further sustained by processes that already exist within systems. They just need to be reoriented around the needs of young children and their caregivers. Anganwadis can be documented and audited jointly by city authorities, collective ownership can be instituted across departments and agencies at every step, community voices can be brought into planning processes, and focused training on play and well-being can be held for Anganwadi staff. The story of Anganwadi 44 is one of enduring change — what started with one person can become the change that a system carries forward, one Anganwadi at a time.