Three Decades of the Integrated Child Development Services Program in India: Progress and Problems

Abstract

It is understood that life success, health and emotional wellbeing have their roots in early childhood. Investing resources to support children in their early years of life brings long-term benefits to them and to the whole community. Early childhood development outcomes are therefore important markers of the welfare of children, and can predict future health and human capital. Well conducted research studies show that Early Child Development programs benefit children, families, and communities, and are associated with; higher and timelier school enrolment, higher school completion rates, improved nutrition and health status, child morbidity and mortality, improved social and emotional behaviour, and increased earning potential and economic self-sufficiency as an adult (Reynolds et al., 2001; Young, 1996). Over the past three decades, India has experienced high prevalence of malnutrition despite increasing agricultural production and enviable economic growth. Some analysts have attributed this to poverty, spending patterns which favour festivals and non-essential foodstuffs over staple food, and high rates of infectious and chronic diseases (Banerjee & Duflo, 2006; Radhakrishna & Ravi, 2004). India’s governments have sought to address chronic malnutrition through an extensive network of food-based social safety net, price controls for staple foods, income support, food-for-work programmes and direct provision of nutritious food to children. By far the biggest nutrition supplementation programme in India is the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). Early childhood care and education services were prioritised in India’s 1986 National Policy on Education as a crucial input into primary education and a significant support for women wishing to work in the formal sector. An inter-ministerial survey in 1972 revealed that child care programmes in India were not having the desired impact owing to resource constraints, inadequate coverage, and a fragmented approach. Consequently, India’s ICDS was established in 1975 with the following objectives; (1) lay the foundation for the physical, psychological and social development of children; (2) improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age group 0-6 years and reduce the incidence of mortality, sickness, malnutrition and school dropout; (3) enhance, through improved health care and education, the ability of mothers to look after the normal needs of their children, and; (4) achieve