Coverage of ICDS from 2006-2016

In February 2019, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) published results of a study conducted to investigate the equity and extent of the coverage of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) program in India between 2006 and 2016. The study reflects upon the continuum of care provided from pregnancy to early childhood, before and after the programme was expanded to provide universal access.
 
The key findings of the study, vis-à-vis increase in the mean proportion of respondents using ICDS from 2006-16 have been summarised below. The utilisation of ICDS services increased from:

• 9.6% to 37.9% for supplementary food
• 3.2% to 21% for health and nutrition education
• 4.5% to 28% for health check-ups
• 10.4% to 24.2% for child-specific services (immunisation, growth monitoring)

The substantial increase in the utilisation of ICDS shows high levels of positive association with wealth, maternal education and caste. However, the expansion in terms of using ICDS has varied at the sub-national level. Despite an increase in overall use and coverage of marginalised sections of society (disadvantaged castes and tribes), the poorest and most uneducated quintiles of population have been inadvertently excluded, especially in the largest states of the country, which carry the highest burdens of malnutrition.
 
IFPRI’s study concludes that the policy reforms in India have succeeded in terms of increasing the coverage of the ICDS at the national level. This is commendable given the associated challenges of decentralisation of implementation, population size and diversity, funding constraints, lack of community awareness and so on. However, it is crucial that the programme’s focus on the lowest socio-economic strata of society, especially women with low levels of education, be strengthened, in order to increase uptake of ICDS, even while scaling-up the programme further.
 
The study does not delve into questions related to the regularity and intensity of participation, the actual consumption of foods provided through the programme and the regularity of use of specific services such as growth monitoring. However, the study has immense policy implications for India in terms of making informed assessments about the strengthening of nutrition interventions and also offers lessons applicable to other countries who may be in the process of scaling-up integrated programmes to address issues of maternal and child health as well as nutrition and child development.
 
India Outbound
March 13, 2019

 
 

source https://indiaoutbound.org/coverage-of-icds-from-2006-2016/