Awareness and perception of mothers regarding Integrated child development services scheme for children in an urban area of Kerala

Abstract

Background: Integrated child development services (ICDS) scheme was launched in India to improve the nutritional and health status of children. Perception of beneficiaries about ICDS services provided by Anganwadi centres had not being sufficiently explored. Hence the objective of this study was to assess the awareness and perception of mothers regarding Anganwadi services for children in an urban area of Kerala. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in an urban area of central Kerala. Study participants were mothers having pediatric children, who were residing in the urban areas of central Kerala for at least the past one year. A total of 70 mothers were interviewed using a pre-designed semi-structured questionnaire after obtaining informed consent. Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 18.Results: Mean age of the study participants was 31.7±5.8 years. But 24.3% of children of the study participant never attended Anganwadi. The majority of study participants were aware of supplementary nutrition services (97%) provided by ICDS. Immunization services (58.6%) were the least aware service in ICDS. The perception of participants regarding adequate quantity and quality of supplementary nutrition from Anganwadi was only 58.6% and 62.9%. Only 57.1% felt that preschool non-formal education was beneficial, even though 90% were aware of this service from the Anganwadi centre.Conclusions: The participants were aware of ICDS services, but their perception regarding Anganwadi services was poor. Reasons for poor perception regarding ICDS services need to be assessed by focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with beneficiaries.