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A report released by Pratichi Trust — Nobel laureate Amartya Sen is closely associated with the organisation — has pointed out major flaws in the state government's Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) meant for nutrition and education to children below six years of age. The report said there was a lack of popular participation that impeded its implementation.
“Only three per cent of the mothers were aware of any such specific committee or centres. There are neither mothers' committees nor any public committees to supervise these centres. Thus public participation in the ICDS is almost non-existent,” the report said.
It added that though parents showed keenness to take part in the delivery of services, there has been no systematic attempt to involve them.
Experts involved with the ICDS said a thrust from the society was needed for the success of the programme.
The report has also highlighted irregularity and inadequacy of supply to the ICDS centres. The data on supply of rice and other ingredients collected from 10 of the 14 centres in the sample showed all of them but one faced inadequate supply of rice. “The deficits ranged from seven per cent to 75 per cent,” the report said. In some centres, it added, the supply is so low that the supplementary nutrition programme has virtually stopped.
The study also said the role of Essential Commodities Supply Corporation (ECSC), a government undertaking looking after the supply, was not satisfactory.
Instances of corruption on the supply side have also been highlighted in the report, which cites cases where workers raised their voices and the supply to the centre has been cut off for several months.
The reports also highlighted the excessive workload on Anganwadi Workers (AWWs). “In addition to regular activities concerning SNP and pre-primary schooling, they are also needed to maintain a number of registers, carry out home visits, conduct meetings, helping in health-related programmes and so on,” the report said.
The Anganwadi workers are provided a paltry sum of Rs 1,400 as remuneration. Recently, the state government made slight improvement in their pay structure.
The report also touched upon the lack of training of workers. “Often, workers and helpers have complained they found themselves helpless on many occasions as they did not have sufficient training to handle situations which involved health, nutrition and education, administrative affairs like keeping accounts and public communication,” it said.
The researchers at the Pratichi Trust pointed out the scope of improvement of the ICDS services by improving coordination between departments of health and social welfare, improving supervision and even distribution of staff for the betterment of the three-decade old programme.
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Tpreparation and supply of midday meals to school children should be entrusted to a separate body formed for that purpose. Parents of pupils and other members of the public may be involved in it. The teachers should be left alone to teach the children. They should also be adequately trained for this.
Insufficient infra-structure, we all would agree, consists a major handicap in the way of proper service delivery of ICDS. But are we presuposing that merely removing the infrastructural constraints will dramatically improve things? There is no reflection on the performance of those Anganwadis where the infrastructure is adequate. Supplimentary Nutrition (SNP) forms a core component of ICDS. Can we think of co-relations between SNP