(a) whether the Government has any proposal of consolidating the Integrated Child Development Services
(ICDS) Scheme to counter the problem of malnutrition and deaths of children due to malnutrition;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the Government has set any targets during the Eleventh Five Year Plan in this regard; and
(d) if so, the details thereof along with the achievements made so far?
MINISTER OF STATE OF THE MINSITRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVLOPMENT (SHRI KRISHNA TIRATH)
(a)& (b): The problem of malnutrition is complex, multi-dimensional and inter-generational in nature and cannot be tackled by
a single sector / programme alone. The determinants of malnutrition include household food insecurity; illiteracy specially in women;
poor access to health services; lack of availability of safe drinking water; poor sanitation and environmental conditions and low
purchasing power etc. Moreover, malnutrition is not a direct cause of death but contribute to increase morbidity and mortality by
reducing resistance to infections.
ICDS is a programme for early child development in which supplementary nutrition is one of the components. It has been the constant
endeavor of the Government to continuously improve the ICDS Scheme. In 2008, the Scheme was universalized and various norms such
as population, cost norms for SNP and other financial norms were revised. Further, to address the programmatic and operational
gaps in ICDS, a proposal to strengthen and restructure the ICDS with inter-alia (a) special focus on pregnant and lactating mothers
and children under 3 years, (b) forging strong institutional convergence with National Rural Health Mission and Total Sanitation
Campaign, particularly, at the district and village levels (c) models providing flexibility at local levels for community
participation (d) strengthening package of service and Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) (e) improving Supplementary
Nutrition Programme (f) care and nutrition counseling services (g) management of service and moderate underweight (h) allocating
adequate financial resource and to put ICDS in a mission mode etc. is under consideration.
(c)& (d): The monitorable targets set for the Eleventh Five Year Plan to counter the problem of malnutrition and deaths of children
due to malnutrition and achievements made so far are at Annex.