Question : ICDS FOR NORTH EASTERN STATES

(a) the details of the achievements made by the Government from the various programmes launched under Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) in the various States of the country;

(b) whether the Government proposes to modify the ICDS in the North Eastern States;

(c) if so, the details thereof alongwith the reasons therefor;

(d) whether these modifications are also proposed for the scheduled areas in the country; and

(e) if so, the time by which these modifications are likely to come into effect in the North Eastern States and other scheduled areas of the country?

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI RENUKA CHOWDHURY)

(a),(b),(c),(d)&(e) A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a),(b),(c),(d)&(e) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 364 FOR 22.8.2006 BY SHRI BHARTRUHARI MAHTAB AND SHRI PARSURAM MAJHI REGARDING ICDS FOR NORTH EASTERN STATES

(a) Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is a Centrally- sponsored Scheme which, inter-alia, aims at improving the nutritional and health status of children below 6 years of age. The Scheme is being implemented in all the States/UTs, including North Eastern (NE) States and Scheduled Areas, in the country.

Out of the 5652 ICDS Projects sanctioned till 31.3.2003, 4531 Projects were in rural areas, 763 in tribal areas and 358 in urban

(slum) areas of the country. North Eastern States account for 440 of these 5652 projects. Government has sanctioned 466 more ICDS Projects in the year 2005-06, out of which 257 are in rural areas, 46 in tribal areas and 163 in urban areas. Out of these 466 projects, 72 are in the North Eastern States. Similarly, out of 7.58 lakh AWCs sanctioned by the Government of India upto 31.3.2003, 42999 AWCs were in the North Eastern States and out of 1.88 lakh AWCs sanctioned by the Government in 2005-06, 11502 AWCs are in NE States.

Also, in view of the special needs of the North Eastern States, the Government sanctioned construction of Anganwadi Centres out of Ministry’s budget earmarked for NE region, even though the Scheme does not, generally, provide for this activity in other parts of the country. Further, population norms for sanction of ICDS Project and AWCs in sparsely populated tribal areas, are also lower than those for other areas.

Thus the Government has taken necessary measures to ensure adequate coverage of North Eastern States and Scheduled/Tribal Areas under the ICDS Scheme.

A number of initiatives have also been taken by the Government in the last two years or so to improve the effectiveness of the scheme. Salient amongst them are : -

i) Doubling of financial norms for Supplementary Nutrition.
ii) Sharing of 50% cost of supplementary nutrition with the
States/UTs.
iii) BPL is no longer the criteria for selection of beneficiaries of
supplementary nutrition.


A number of Projects and Anganwadi Centres sanctioned before
31.3.2003 have become operational during the last two years or so
resulting in increase in number of beneficiaries as indicated below
:


No. of	No. of	No. of	No. of pre-school	operational	operational	beneficiaries	education beneficiaries	projects AWCs	Supplementary	nutrition
31.03.2004	5267	649307	415.08 lakh	204.38 lakh
31.03.2005	5422	706872	484.42 lakh	218.41 lakh
31.12.2005	5653	745943	546.71 lakh	237.64 lakh


(b) No such proposal is under consideration of the Government.
(c) Does not arise.
(d) No such proposal is under consideration of the Government.
(e) Does not arise.