Nutrition and Health Education Programme of ICDS Scheme for Pregnant Women in Rural Punjab

Abstract

The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme is one of the flagship programmes of the Government of India and represents one of the world's largest and unique programmes for early childhood care and development. ICDS was launched on 2nd October 1975, on the auspicious occasion of the 106th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation. ICDS has been operating in the parts of Punjab for decades. Present study was conduct to examine the impact of Nutrition and Health Education (NHED) of ICDS on the pregnant women in terms of enhancing their knowledge in the critical Health Care areas like, health check-up, immunization, nutrition care of children and women, prevention of nutritional deficiency diseases, etc. and the extent to which the pregnant women put this knowledge into practice. The study was conducted in all three ICDS project: Barnala, Sehna and Mehal Kalan of the Barnala District of Punjab. A total of 30 villages (10 from each ICDS project) were selected on the basis of random. From each village 2 pregnant women were selected randomly. Thus a total of 60 pregnant women were in the sample, from all 30 villages which were having Anganwadi for at least the last 25 years, as such pregnant women are expected to avail the NHED service of ICDS scheme. It was found that (80%) of the women received two doses of tetanus toxoid. It is good that a majority (63.32%) of pregnant women was able to get iron and folic acid tablets as per nutrition norms. A majority (66.66%) of the pregnant women did not receive supplementary nutrition food from the AWCs. Again majority (66.66%) of the women had no proper awareness about initial breast feeding for a newly born. A high majority (81.66%) of the pregnant women did not know about the names of different types of vaccinations given to their children. Again A high (81.66%) pregnant women did not know real reasons behind measles. A majority (76.66%) of the pregnant women were not sure about managing measles. it is recommended that Supervisors should be given the responsibility of organising formal NHED sessions at regular intervals in AWCs under their supervision. Continuous and effective monitoring by Child Development Project Officers (CDPOs) and district officials, as also active participation of health functionaries, can go a long way in the effective implementation of this component.