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These services are delivered to all the eligible beneficiaries through Anganwadi centre which is the focal point of Integrated Child Development Services scheme
- Supplementary Nutrition Programme:
- Supplementary Nutrition programme is provided in Anganwadi Centres to the eligible children below 6 years of age, pregnant women and nursing mothers and 2 adolescent girls per centre in the age group of 11-18 years.
- This supplementary feeding is in addition to what they get at home with an intention to fill the gap between what is required in terms of calories,proteins,vitamins, minerals, fats etc, and what is available through their regular intake of food at home.
- Each beneficiary is provided 300 calories of energy and 8-10 gms of protein as supplements, for a minimum of 300 days in a year.
- For children in the age group 0-6 years supplementary nutrition is being given at the cost of Rs. 2.00 per beneficiary per day for normal children including transportation charges w.e.f. 01.04.2006.
- In all ICDS projects severely malnourished children, adolescent girls, pregnant women, nursing mothers, anganwadi workers & helpers are provided food @ Rs. 3.00 per beneficiary per day for 300 days in a year.
- Milk bread is given to the beneficiaries of the two urban ICDS projects of Bangalore city only.
- Nutrition and Health Education
- With a view to create awareness about personal hygiene and health and to inculcate basic knowledge of nutritious food, child care to mothers in ICDS areas, trained Supervisors/Anganwadi Workers, ANMs/ LHVs jointly conduct Nutrition and Health Education Sessions with Audio Visual Aids.
- Matters relating to child care, care of pregnant women and nursing mothers, dietary needs, immunization, supplementary nutrition for children, better child bearing and rearing practices, sanitation/hygiene, etc are included in NHED.
- Nutrition Camps and demonstrations are also conducted by the Food & Nutrition Board, Government of India.
Anganwadi workers and Supervisors are trained in conducting nutrition camps by the Food & Nutrition Board.
- Immunization
- As per the immunization schedule, children are protected against 6 vaccine preventable diseases like diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, poliomyelitis, pertusis, tuberculosis and measles.
- Pregnant women are given Tetanus Toxoid and immunization is carried out with the co-ordination of Health department
- Health check up
- ante-natal care of expectant mothers
- post-natal care of nursing mothers and care of new born infants
- care of children under six years of age especially 'at risk' children like those born with low birth weight/ congenital defects and severely malnourished.
Jurisdictional Medical officers of PHC/CHC/PHU conduct health check up of all the children, pregnant women and nursing mothers coming to each anganwadi, once in a quarter. Medicine kits are provided by the Department of Women and Child Development to anganwadi centres to provide primary health care of a simple nature.
- Referral services
- Severely malnourished Children (Grade III and IV), pregnant women and nursing mothers during the course of health check up, if necessary are referred for treatment to nearby government hospitals for specialized intervention.
- Referral Slips are provided in each Anganwadi Centre.
- Beneficiaries with referral slips are attended to on priority and follow up action is initiated by Anganwadi Workers.
- Non-formal pre-school education
"Integrated Approach to pre-school Education" has been introduced in the state for children in the age group of 3-6 years who attend anganwadi centres in order to provide a better linkage between primary schools and the Anganwadi centres and also to achieve proper co-ordination between all those involved in pre-school activities.
An exhaustive "Activity Bank" with 100 stories/songs/ with colourful illustrations has been provided to each anganwadi center.
- Impact of ICDS
- The Integrated Child Development Services Scheme has proved to be a very effective child survival scheme in the country and state as well.
- Infant Mortality Rate in Integrated Child Development Services areas has come down from 120/1000 live births in 1975 to 55/1000 in 2006.
- Likewise, the percentage of severely malnourished children has also come down considerably.
- The community has fully accepted the programme and actively participating in the implementation.
- The School dropout rate has come down considerably.
Recommendations
- Training given to functionaries should focus more on reaching mothers & children below 36 months, for maintaining growth charts, hands-on training for understanding complications in growth monitoring.
- Special skills & training also required to identify children having disability.
- There is need for strengthening both inter & intra departmental coordination for smooth delivery of programme. CDPOs, supervisors, Medical Officers, & other officials can play major role in improving ICDS services.
- There is need to have a regular update on developments in area of women & children so that appropriate & timely interventions can be devised.
- There is need to build in flexibility in delivery of package of services, should be based on local socio-economic & cultural needs of population.
To implement ICDS services effectively, certain issues & problems need to be understood which occur in people’s interpersonal relationships & pose social, psychological & cultural obstacles
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Participants