Integrated Child Development Services
| Integrated Child Development Services | |
|---|---|
| Country | India |
| Launched | 2 October 1975 |
Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) (Hindi: समेकित बाल विकास सेवाए) is an Indian government welfare programme which provides food, preschool 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.
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. During the 2012–13 fiscal year, the Indian central government spent ₹159 billion (US$2.5 billion) on the programme. The widespread network of ICDS has an important role in combating malnutrition especially for children of weaker groups.
Majority of children in India have underprivileged childhoods starting from birth. The infant mortality rate of Indian children is 44 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 country average.
ICDS was 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.
The predefined objectives of ICDS are
The following services are sponsored under ICDS to help achieve its objectives:
For nutritional purposes ICDS provides 300 kilocalories (with 8-10 grams of protein) every day to every child below 6 years of age. For adolescent girls it is up to 500 kilo calories with up to 25 grams of protein everyday.
...
Wikipedia