A little girl plays cheng guti at Kuwaritol anganwadi centre in Nagaon. Telegraph picture

Nagaon, Sept. 19: Five-year-old Nabaneet Bora can’t wait to get back to the field where his friends are playing the traditional game of cheng guti.

“I had fractured my right hand about a week back but I am in school as I have a lot to do here. I love these games and just wish the hand heals fast so that I can join my friends,” he said, as he sat watching his playmates.

At Kuwaritol anganwadi centre in Kaliabor subdivision of Nagaon district, about 50km from here, 31 children are being trained in indigenous sports such as cheng guti (played with stones), kholi guti, bhota guti, kori khel (played with shells) and xaliki jutiya.

The games are part of the children’s routine curriculum of informal education, where they also learn to sing and enact roles in a bhaona, apart from being provided nutritional support under the centrally sponsored Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).

The model anganwadi centre’s efforts to inculcate among pre-school tiny tots the habit of playing traditional games, most of which have been forgotten, has generated excitement among children and nostalgia among the elderly.

Local people queue up in front of the centre to watch the kids play the traditional games, transporting the elderly spectators in time to their childhood when they used to play these games, which have now all but done the vanishing act.

“I am a regular visitor to the centre as the involvement of children in traditional games reminds me of my good old days. I am 88 and cannot play now, but can at least point out when there is a mistake,” said Maisena Hazarika, as she sat watching the kids in the centre’s playing ward.

Premalata Bora, 45, a worker at the centre, came up with the idea after a section of nostalgic villagers wanted to revive the games they used to play as children.

“A section of local villagers wanted the traditional games which have maximum educative value to be included in the curriculum. We put in a lot of labour to collect the tools like kori and bhota guti as these are no longer available here. Most people have also forgotten how to play these traditional games, which prompted us to take a cue or two on how the games should be played,” she added.

The centre uses handmade material for teaching and interestingly designed tools for ankiya bhaona such as goda, dhanu kar, khol.

“Games are the pivot of education and our aim is to make them the medium of learning. Traditional games are a part of our education process. We lay equal stress on other important components such as use of locally made learning material to give a basic idea about environment, song and music. We also provide nutritional meals throughout the day,” Bora said.

The centre, established three years ago, is just 1km from Kaliabor subdivisional headquarters. Along with 19 others in the subdivision, it was recently declared a model anganwadi centre by the Nagaon administration. Nagaon deputy commissioner P. Ashok Babu said the 20 model anganwadi centres in Kaliabor, which have scored above the rest and created a friendly environment for kids, would be rewarded soon.

“Workers and departmental employees serving in other parts of the district will be brought to these centres on exposure visits. We have already instructed all ICDS project authorities to target at least a circle of centres (comprising some anganwadi centres under each ICDS project) where performance and environment will be the same as the selected centres in Kaliabor,” Ashok Babu said.

A few months ago, the deputy commissioner had introduced digital growth charts in every anganwadi centre to centrally monitor the physical and mental growth in children after the intake of nutritional supplement.

“We are providing maximum support to all the centres under the Kaliabor ICDS project so that these can be more children friendly. Equal stress will be laid on inculcating the habit of going to schools among children,” said Rubi Kalita, Kaliabor child development project officer.