The ICDS Scheme to be enlarged, focused and improved

The Government intends to improve the ICDS Scheme. Minister of WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT SHRIMATI KRISHNA TIRATH informed the Lok Sabha in reply to a question that the ministry continuously strives to strengthen the Scheme with a view to addressing the programmatic and operational gaps in ICDS. She said that it is proposed to strengthen and restructure the ICDS with 


(a) special focus on pregnant and lactating mothers and children less than 3 years, 
(b) forging strong institutional convergence with National Rural Health Mission and total sanitation campaign, particularly, at the district and village levels and
(c) models providing flexibility at local levels for community participation etc. 


She stated that Separately, an IDA (World Bank) assisted “ICDS Systems Strengthening and Nutrition Improvement Project (ISSNIP)” Programme in select 8 states and 160 districts has also been formulated for undertaking pilots and innovations, experimentation of good practices development of protocols/standards etc. for systems improvement in ICDS Programme.

Currently, the scheme is being implemented through a network of 12.64 lakh operational Anganwadi centers (AWCs), against 13.67 lakh sanctioned AWCs as on May, 2011, across the country.