Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS): Introduction

Introduction| Supreme Court orders| Tools for Action| Commissioners' Reports| Official Documents| Field Surveys and Reports| Articles| Campaign Materials| Events| Newsfeeds

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is the only major national programme that addresses the health and nutrition needs of children under the age of six. It seeks to provide young children with an integrated package of services, including supplementary nutrition, health care and pre-school education. Since the needs of a young child cannot be addressed in isolation from those of his or her mother, the programme also extends to adolescent girls, pregnant women and nursing mothers. ICDS services are provided through a vast network of ICDS centres, better known as "Anganwadis".

This section of the website presents a range of action-oriented documents on ICDS, including a reader-friendly "primer", the "FOCUS report" on children under six, Supreme Court orders, extracts from Commissioners' reports, government documents, research articles, survey findings, and much more. The following may be particularly useful:

• Reports
  • Strategies for Children Under Six: A framework for the 11th plan (June 2007):
  • Focus on Children Under Six (FOCUS report, December 2006)
  • Section on ICDS from the 9th report of the Supreme Court Commissioners
  • Report of the sub-group on Child Nutrition (Working Group on Food and Nutrition Security, Planning Commission of India, December 2006)
• Pamphlets/Position Papers and Statements
  • Position Paper on the Management of Severe Acute Malnutrition
  • Pamphlet on Commercial Interference in Tackling Hunger and Malnutrition
  • Short Note on Strategies for Children under Six
  • Pamphlet on essential demands for protection of rights of Children under Six
  • Joint Statement on Infant and Young Child Feeding
  • Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the area of Infant and Young Child Feeding and Nutrition [Statement by Working Group for Children under Six]
  • Position Note on Technological Interventions in Food for Malnutrition
  • Essential Demands for Childrens Right to Food in the Right to Food Act
• Tools for Action
  • Application form for Anganwadi Centres on demand [Hindi] : The Supreme Court order of 13 December 2006 states that "Rural communities and slum dwellers should be entitled to an "Anganwadi on demand(not later than three months) from the date of demand in cases where a settlement has at least 40 children under six but no Anganwadi."
  • Anganwadis For All : A Primer [Hindi] (December 2007)
  • Supreme Court orders on ICDS: interim orders issued by the Supreme Court in the "Right to Food" case.
• Guidelines and Circulars
  • Madras High Court Judgement on SC/ST reservations for AW workers
  • Revised Nutritional and Feeding Norms for Supplementary Nutrition
  • Revised Population Norms and New Interventions under ICDS
  • Circular of the Ministry of Women and Child Development stating all eligible beneficiaries must be covered under the ICDS.