Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)

INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (ICDS) SCHEME

Children in the age group 0-6 years constitute around 158 million of the population of India (2011 census). These Children are the future human resource of the country. Ministry of Women and Child Development is implementing various schemes for welfare, development and protection of children.

Launched on 2nd October, 1975, the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme is one of the flagship programmes of the Government of India and represents one of the world’s largest and unique programmes for early childhood care and development. It is the foremost symbol of country’s commitment to its children and nursing mothers, as a response to the challenge of providing pre-school non-formal education on one hand and breaking the vicious cycle of malnutrition, morbidity, reduced learning capacity and mortality on the other. The beneficiaries under the Scheme are children in the age group of 0-6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers. Objectives of the Scheme are:

to improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age-group 0-6 years;

to lay the foundation for proper psychological, physical and social development of the child;

to reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school dropout;

to achieve effective co-ordination of policy and implementation amongst the various departments to promote child development; and

to enhance the capability of the mother to look after the normal health and nutritional needs of the child through proper nutrition and health education.