Now, anganwadi children aged three to six are set to learn English. Pune Zilla Parishad chief executive officer Dr Sanjeev Kumar, who incidentally used his medical background to introduce healthcare schemes like prevention of anaemia among girls, has launched a library project. He distributed books from China and Australia at ten anganwadis in Wagholi on Wednesday.

The tastefully designed and high-end branded books, including those from Fisher-Price and Kotwai and Young, will be circulated among the ten anganwadis on a trial basis. “We have translated these texts into Marathi so that the anganwadi sevika can understand and then explain the concepts both in English and Marathi to the tiny tots,” Kumar said.

Books with flash cards that explain concepts like time, working people, addition, animals and vegetables will now be used for 450 children in the library project. From among the 50 books, a set of five will be circulated at the anganwadis. Wagholi gram panchayat sarpanch Jayashree Satav purchased the set of books for Rs 10,000 on Wednesday.

Suvarna Kurle, supervisor of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in Wagholi, said they had trained the anganwadi teachers on the library scheme. “We have prepared a syllabus, wherein a fruit like papaya will be shown as flash cards in Marathi and then the English name will also be taught. Even as these measures are routinely adopted in English medium nurseries, it is a huge task to do so at the village-level anganwadis.”

“Everyone wants their child to learn English and one of the reasons for the project is to ensure that we can enrol more children at the anganwadi level,” Kumar said. He called upon non-governmental organisations and charitable institutions to join the venture.