: Comparison of Leisure Activities of Children of Tea Garden Community and Other Groups in Anganwadi Schools: A Case Study of Dibrugarh District, Assam, India

Dibrugarh is an easternmost city situated in the Banks of the river Brahmaputra. The place has the highest number of tea gardens giving it the status of ‘Tea Capital of Assam’. Though tea is a big industry, the children of the tea garden community do not get adequate facility of good education, health and leisure facilities. There are Anganwadi schools in the tea garden areas which look after the mental, physical, and emotional development of children between the age of 0-6 years. They also provide nutrition and value based education to children in the age group of 3 to 6 year. The conditions of these schools are not satisfactory to provide the pre-schoolers the pleasure of enjoying their childhood as compared to the Anganwadi centers for children in other parts of the city.

The dropout rate from the schools in tea gardens is very high, as a large number of the children are engaged in child labour and some help their parents to look after the younger siblings or help in the household work. Some children, who go to school, go there for the food provided as the mid-day meal. The leisure time activities of these children include playing with other children or helping their parents. They play in groups but very few have access to playing equipments.

The facilities provided at school are not adequate as compared to other Anganwadi schools and in some cases, the teacher do not come to school regularly. These children are thus deprived of quality education, satisfactory leisure activities etc. as compared to the schools and Anganwadi centres in the city.

The paper attempts to do a comparative study of education and leisure activities provided by Anganwadi schools to tea garden community and other children in Dibrugarh.