All You Wanted To Know About ICDS

Highlights

• ICDS was launched in 1975
• It has been expanded in three phases in the years 2005-06, 2007-08 and 2008-09
• Through ICDS, the government aims to improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age-group 0-6 years
• The number of children benefitted under the ICDS scheme stood at 786.31 lakhs in 2011-12

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme was launched in 1975 for holistic development of children below 6 years of age and for proper nutrition and health education of pregnant and lactating mothers with 33 projects and 4891 anganwadi centres (AWCs).

It has been continuously expended to uncovered areas and has now been universalised with the Government of India cumulatively approving 7076 projects and 14 lakh AWCs including 20,000 anganwadis ‘on-demand’.

To fulfill the commitment of the Government to universalise the ICDS Scheme, it has been expanded in three phases in the years 2005-06, 2007-08 and 2008-09. Government of India has sanctioned 7015 ICDS Projects and 13.67 lakh AWCs out of which 6771 ICDS Projects and 12.95 lakh AWCs are operational as on date.

The number of children that have benefitted under the ICDS scheme of the Ministry of Women and Child Development has increased from 727.90 lakhs in 2009-10 to 786.31 lakhs in 2011-12. Whereas the number of beneficiaries under the Scheme for Welfare of Working Children in need of Care and Protection has grown from 10,700 in 2009-10 to 10,900 in 2020-11. The figure stood at 9,100 as on January 30, 2012.

Objectives

The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme was launched in 1975 with the following objectives:

• To improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age-group 0-6 years
• To lay the foundation for proper psychological, physical and social development of the child
• To reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school dropout
• To achieve effective co-ordination of policy and implementation amongst the various departments to promote child development
• To enhance the capability of the mother to look after the normal health and nutritional needs of the child through proper nutrition and health education

Services

The above objectives are sought to be achieved through a package of services comprising:

• Supplementary nutrition
• Immunization
• Health check-up
• Referral services
• Pre-school non-formal education and

• Nutrition & health education

  World Bank Assisted “ICDS Systems Strengthening & Nutrition Improvement Project (ISSNIP)”

  The Ministry of Women and Child Development has formulated a specific project on ICDS titled, “ICDS Systems Strengthening and Nutrition Improvement Project” for seeking financial assistance from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank. The project is proposed to be implemented in 162 districts having higher proportion of child under-nutrition across 8 States (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh). The project has been designed to strengthen the ICDS systems for effective programme implementation in selected States/districts through techno-managerial support and decentralized district based planning in ICDS. The project is one of the steps for the overall ICDS strengthening and restructuring proposal of the Ministry.
  The Ministry is now in the process of expediting the approval of the project by the competent authority. It is expected that project will be made effective sometimes during the last quarter of 2011-12.

  Evaluation Report Of ICDS 

  The Programme Evaluation Organisation of the Planning Commission conducted an evaluation of ICDS through National Council for Applied Economic Research(NCAER) during 2009. Draft report of the said evaluation study was disseminated in August 2010 by the Planning Commission, following which the Ministry of Women and Child Development provided detailed comments on the draft report for its finalisation. Some of the findings contained in the draft report were not agreed to by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) due to their factual incorrectness.
  Some of the key findings in the draft report are as below:
  • About two thirds (64%) of the children received supplementary nutrition (may not be for all 300 days) out of total children recorded in the delivery register by Angan Wadi Workers (AWW). Against the norm of 25 days a month, on an average they received food for 16 days in a month.
  • Overall 42.5% of sampled Aangan Wadi Centres (AWCs) have their own buildings, 17.4% are in rented buildings, 17.3% are located in primary schools and other 22.9% are running from AWW/AWH house, panchayat and community buildings.
  • Country-wide, a total of about 87% AWCs were found to have drinking water supply.
  • 69% of sampled AWCs have functional baby weighing scale.
  • About 94% of sampled AWWs reported to have been adequately trained to conduct pre-school education.
  • About 40% of AWWs reported getting some help from Panchayat with about 36% in monitoring and 34% in providing infrastructure. About 70% of the community leaders felt that the ICDS program was very useful to the community.
  • Average attendance of no. of children 3-6 yrs based on three sudden visits by the Research Team was found to be 14
  • Intended behavioural changes of varied intensity have been observed in Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Jharkhand. In general, the practice of breast feeding within an hour of birth is found to be more widespread among ICDS beneficiaries.
  • ICDS has also positively influenced formal school enrolment and reduction in early discontinuation among beneficiaries.