Integrated Child Development Services and its function in society

Integrated Child Development Services

The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme is a government initiative for the all-round development (health, nutrition and education) of children under 6. Its aim is to reduce infant mortality, child malnutrition and to provide pre-school education. PACS has been working to improve the non-discriminatory access of mothers and children, especially those from socially excluded groups, to these services.

What is the Integrated Child Development Services scheme?

Launched by the Government of India in 1975, the ICDS scheme is today one of the world’s largest and most unique programmes for early childhood development. Its aim is to provide nutritional support, healthcare and pre-school education for children under 6 (and for pregnant or lactating mothers) in order to reduce the incidence of mortality, malnutrition and school dropout.

Under the ICDS scheme, children under 6 and pregnant or lactating mothers can access four main services:

Supplementary nutrition - 

Vitamin A tablets, food grains and rice, and fortified food packages are available for children and mothers who are showing signs of malnourishment. Weight-for-age growth cards should be maintained for all children under six years of age - children below the age of 3 should be weighed once a month and children aged 3-6 should be weighed quarterly.

Immunizations – 

Children should be given full vaccinations against six preventable diseases: poliomyelitis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, tuberculosis and measles. Pregnant women should receive a vaccination against tetanus that reduces maternal and neonatal mortality.

Health check-ups - 

Various health services should be provided for children including treatment of diarrhea, de-worming and distribution of simple medicines (along with weight and height monitoring, and immunizations). Ante-natal and post-natal check-ups should be provided for pregnant women and new mothers.

Referral services – 

If, after a health check-up, children or mothers are in need of medical attention they should be referred to the Primary Health Centre or sub-centre. Severely malnourished children should be referred to Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs) and young children with disabilities should be referred to specialists.

In addition, children aged 3-6 should be able to access pre-school non-formal education under ICDS. Women and adolescent girls (aged 15-45) should also be able to access nutrition and health education, providing them with advice and support to help them look after their own health, nutrition and development needs as well as that of their children and families.

All these services should be available from a local ICDS (or Anganwadi) centre by Anganwadi Workers like Shanti. These community-based women are paid an honorarium for their work.

Whilst the Anganwadi Worker is responsible for the running of the Anganwadi centre, she should be backed up by medical officers, Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANM) and Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) to provide specialist support (such as immunizations, ante-natal and post-natal care).

The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) has the overall responsibility of monitoring the ICDS scheme.

Why is ICDS an issue for socially excluded groups?

It is clear to see from statistics that nutritional access is not universal across India: a staggering 42.5% of Indian children are underweight for their age, but this figure is significantly higher for socially excluded groups: 43.1% of girls, 47.9% of children from Scheduled Castes and 54.5% for children from Scheduled Tribes are malnourished.

The same disparities are seen in immunizations. Whilst only 43.5% of children in India have received a full set of immunization, the figures for socially excluded groups are even higher: only 39.7% of Scheduled Caste children, 31.3% of Scheduled Tribe children and 36.3% of Muslim children are fully immunized.

Alongside data from 2012/13 that shows that 10% of ICDS centres are not providing supplementary nutrition, these figures show that the services provided under the ICDS scheme are not being accessed by all communities – a reality that PACS work has tried to address.