Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS)

This central government welfare programme provides food, pre-school education, and primary healthcare to children under-6 years of age and their mothers. These services are provided from Anganwadi centres established mainly in rural areas and staffed with frontline workers. In addition to fighting malnutrition and ill health, the programme is also intended to combat gender inequality by providing girls the same resources as boys.

Objectives

• To raise the health and nutritional level of poor Indian children of the country below 6 years of age.
• To create a base for proper mental, physical and social development of children in India.
• To reduce instances of mortality, malnutrition and school dropouts among children in the country.
• 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.
• To provide health and nutritional information and education to mothers of young children
• To enhance child rearing capabilities of mothers in the country of India.
• To provide nutritional food to the mothers of young children & also at the time of pregnancy period.

Services Provided

• Supplementary nutrition programme,
• Pre-school education,
• Health and nutrition education,
• Immunization,
• Health check-up, and
• Referral services to the beneficiaries.

Sub-schemes under ICDS

• Anganwadi Services Scheme: Ensuring supplementary nutrition to children below 6 years of age and Pregnant/lactating mother.
• Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY): Under PMMVY, a cash incentive of 5000/- is provided directly to the Bank / Post Office Account of Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers (PW&LM) for first living child of the family subject to fulfilling specific conditions relating to Maternal and Child Health.
• National Creche Scheme: It aims to provide a safe place for children of working mothers while they are at work. Thus, empowering them to take up employment.
• POSHAN Abhiyaan (National Nutrition Mission): The mission has a target to reduce stunting, under-nutrition, and low birth weight by 2 per cent per annum and anemia by 3 per cent annually. It aims to focus mainly on children up to the age of 6 years, pregnant and lactating women, and adolescent girls.
• Scheme for Adolescent Girls: It targets school girls between 11-14 years age group and aims at improving their nutritional and health status.
• Child Protection Scheme: It is a program to help secure the safety of children, with a special emphasis on children in need of care and protection, juveniles in conflict or contact with the law and other vulnerable children. Proposed in 2006 and implemented in 2009, the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) is administered at the state level by State Child Protection Committees and societies and at the district levelby District Child Protection Societies, among other institutions.

Problems with ICDS

• A 2005 study found that the ICDS programme was not particularly effective in reducing malnutrition, largely because of implementation problems and because the poorest states had received the least coverage and funding.
• Nonetheless, the widespread network of ICDS has an important role in combating malnutrition especially for children of weaker groups.