INTRODUCTION
Integrated Child Development Services
(ICDS) : Government
of India sponsored programme, is India’s primary social welfare scheme to
tackle malnutrition and health problems in children below 6 years of age and
their mothers.
The main beneficiaries of
the programme were aimed to be the girl child up to her adolescence, all
children below 6 years of age, pregnant and lactating mothers. The gender promotion of the girl child by
trying to bring her at par with the male child is a key components of the
scheme.
BACKGROUND
Majority
of children in India have underprivileged childhoods starting from birth. The infant mortality rate of Indian children
is 47 and the under-five mortality rate is 93 and 25% of newborn children are
underweight among other nutritional, immunization and educational deficiencies
of children in India. Figures for India
are substantially worse than the developing country average.
Given
such a daunting challenge. ICDS was
first launched in 1975 in accordance to the National Policy for Children in
India. Over the years it has grown into
one of the largest integrated family and community welfare schemes in the
world. Given its effectiveness over the last
few decades, Government of India has committed towards ensuring universal
availability of the programme.
OBJECTIVES
The
predefined objectives of ICDS are :
1. To
raise the health and nutritional level of poor Indian children below 6 years of
age.
2. To
create a base for proper mental, physical and social development of children in
India.
3. To
reduce instances of mortality, malnutrition and school dropouts among Indian
Children.
4. To
coordinate activities of policy formulation and implementation among all
departments of various ministries
involved in the different government programmes and schemes aimed at
child development across India.
5. To
provide health nutritional information and education to mothers of young
children to enhance child rearing capabilities of mothers in country of India.
SCOPE OF SERVICES
The
following services are sponsored under ICDS to help achieve its objectives :
1. Immunization
2. Supplementary
nutrition
3. Health
checkup
4. Referral
services
5. Pre-school
non formal education
6. Nutrition
and Health information
IMPLEMENTATION
For
nutritional purposes ICDS provides 300 calories (with 8-10) grams of protein)
every day to every child below 6 years of age.
For adolescent girls its is up to 500 calories with up to 25 grams of
protein everyday.
Delivery
of services under ICDS scheme is managed in an integrated manner through
Anganwadi centres, its workers and helpers.
The services of Immunisation, Health Check-up and Referral Services
delivered through Public Health Infrastructure under the Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare. UNICEF has provided
essential supplies for the ICDS scheme since 1975. World Bank has also assisted with the
financial and technical support for the programme. The cost of ICDS programme averages $10 - $22
per child a year. The scheme is
Centrally sponsored with the state governments contributing up to Rs. 1.00
(US$0.02) per day per child.
Furthermore,
in 2008, the GOI adopted the World Health Organization (WHO) standards for
measuring and monitoring the child growth the development, both for the ICDS
and the National Rural Health Mission (NHRM).
These standards were developed by WHO through an intensive study of six
developing countries since 1997. They
are known as New WHO Child Growth Standard and measure of physical growth, nutritional
status and motor development of children from birth to 5 years age.
IMPACT
By
end of 2010, the programme is claiming to reach 8.06 million expectant,
pregnant and lactating mothers along with 39.35 million children (under 6 years
of age). There are 6,719 operational
projects with 1,241,749 operational Aanganwadi centres. Several positive benefits of the programme
have been documented and reported.
·
A study in states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra
Pradesh and Karnataka demonstrated significant improvement in the mental and
social development of all children irrespective of their gender.
·
A 1992 study of National Institute of
Public Cooperation and Child Development confirmed improvements in birth-weight
and infant mortality of Indian children along with improved immunization and
nutrition.
However,
World Bank has also highlighted certain key shortcomings of the programme
including inability to target the girl child improvements, participation of
wealthier children more than the poorer children and lowest level of funding
for the poorest and the most undernourished states of India.
Integrated
Child Development Scheme
Integrated
Child Development Scheme was started in the year 1975 as a pilot project with
the following objectives :
1. To
improve the health and nutritional status of children in the age group of 0-6
years.
2. To
let the foundation of proper psychological, physical and social development of
the children.
3. To
reduce the incidents of mortality, morbidity, and malnutrition and school drop
outs.
4. To
achieve effective co-ordination of policy and integration amongst various
departments to promote child development.
5. To
enhance the capability of mother to look after the normal health and
nutritional need of the children through proper nutrition and health education.
Scheme
ICDS
is one of the largest Early Childhood Care & Education programme of
India. This Scheme is aimed in improving
the health & nutritional status of children below 6 years of age, reducing
the rate of malnutrition, mortality, morbidity and rate of school dropout of
children, giving children opportunity for proper foundation of their physical,
mental & social development. It also
helps to enhance the capability of mothers to look after the nutritional &
health status of their children.
In order
to arrive at the target, ICDS Projects have been sanctioned in different areas
of the country in rural, tribal and urban slum areas. Anganwadi Centres are the main point at grass
root level through which the services of ICDS are being catered to its child
and mother beneficiaries. Anganwadi Worker is the key person of
the AWC and she is assisted by an Anganwadi
Helper.
In
Urban Slum & rural areas each AWC covers a population of 500-1000 and in
tribal areas its is 300 – 700 Recently, Adolescent Girls are also brought in to
the purview of ICDS and they are given Health & Nutrition Education,
awareness on Social Issues (Dowry, Early marriage, Trafficking, Rights of
Women, Atrocities to Women etc.) Also they are providing with Albendazole
Tablets (for de-warming) and IFA tablets (to combat anaemia). vocational training is also given to selected
Adolescent Girls through Kishory Shakti Yojana Scheme in different ICDS
Project.
In
order to reach at the target the following services are being catered in the Anganwadi
Centres situated in different Gram Panchayets and Wards of municipality
areas. Presently the total number of
sanctioned AWCs in the district is 4152.
SERVICES & BENEFICIARIES
|
Sl.No.
|
Services
|
Beneficiaries
|
|
1.
|
Supplementary Nutrition Programme.
|
Children from 6 months to 6 years,
Pregnant & Lactating Mothers.
|
|
2.
|
Immunisation Programme.
|
Children below 6 years & Pregnant
Mother.
|
|
3.
|
Pre-School Education Programme.
|
Children from 3 years to 6 years age
group.
|
|
4.
|
Health
Check-up & Referral Services.
|
Children
from below 6 years, Pregnant & Lactating Mothers.
|
|
5.
|
Health
& Nutrition Education.
|
Women
of age group 15 to 45 years.
|
How its is Functioning
Through
the AWCs, AWWs are catering services during four hours of the day.
·
Presently Rice-Chichuri with mixed
vegetables is provided as Supplementary Nutrition. Boiled egg is also providing to children and
mothers as morning snacks.
·
Pre-school programme is done for the
children of age group 3-6 years through Play-way method using different
teaching aids, like-charts, toys or playing equipments.
·
Immunisation programme is done against 6
killer diseases with the help of Health staff.
·
Health and Nutrition Education is done
through Mothers’ meeting and Home visit by AWWs with the help of ANMs.
·
Growth Monitoring is done taking weight
of children below 5 years of age, plotting on Growth Chart and advising mothers
accordingly.
CONCLUSION
Majority
of children in India have underprivileged childhoods starting from birth. The infant mortality rate of Indian children
is 47 and the under-five mortality rate is 93 and 25% of newborn children are
underweight among other nutritional, immunization and educational deficiencies
of children in India. Figures for India
are substantially worse than the developing country average.
Tribal
areas its is 300 – 700 Recently, Adolescent Girls are also brought in to the
purview of ICDS and they are given Health & Nutrition Education, awareness
on Social Issues (Dowry, Early marriage, Trafficking, Rights of Women,
Atrocities to Women etc.) Also they are providing with Albendazole Tablets (for
de-warming) and IFA tablets (to combat anaemia).
ICDS
plays different role in different dimension like Health infrastructure, Nursing
Homes, Blood banks, Diagonostic Centre, Ambulance, Rural Sanitation etc.
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