Integrated Child Development Services

Integrated Child Development Services
CountryIndia
Launched2 October 1975; 49 years ago (1975-10-02)

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is a government program in India which provides nutritional meals, preschool education, primary healthcare, immunization, health check-up and referral services to children under 6 years of age and their mothers.[1] The scheme was launched in 1975, discontinued in 1978 by the government of Morarji Desai, and then relaunched by the Tenth Five Year Plan.

Tenth five-year plan also linked ICDS to Anganwadi centres established mainly in rural areas and staffed with frontline workers.[2] In addition to improving child nutrition and immunization, 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.[2] During the 2018–19 fiscal year, the Indian federal government allocated ₹16,335 crore (US$2.0 billion) to the programme, which is 60% of the funding for the programme while the states allocated the remaining 40%.[3] The widespread network of ICDS has an important role in combating malnutrition especially for children of weaker groups.[4]

  1. ^ "INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (ICDS) SCHEME". Government of India. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  2. ^ a b Michael Lokshin; Monica Das Gupta; Michele Gragnolati andOleksiy Ivaschenko (2005). "Improving Child Nutrition? The Integrated Child Development Services in India" (PDF). Development and Change. 36 (4): 613–640. doi:10.1111/j.0012-155X.2005.00427.x. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  3. ^ "Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)". Archived from the original on 19 February 2019. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  4. ^ "Has the ICDS helped reduce stunting in India?". ideasforindia.in. Archived from the original on 20 October 2015. Retrieved 9 October 2015.