Hello and Welcome! What is ICDS? Why 'empower' ICDS?

One of the worst manifestations of poverty is malnutrition.

Child Malnutrition is a "National Shame" said Dr. Manmohan Singh when he was the Prime Minister.

He was absolutely right.

Child Malnutrition cripples our children.

Malnutrition leads to stunted growth.   It drastically reduces ability to learn.

Research shows that human beings evolve the fastest in the first 1000 days of live.  Nutrition during the first thousand days pretty much determines what the child will do in life.

The brain grows super fast in the first five years and all the networks inside the brain and other wiring gets established during these formative years. The curiosity to learn, touch, feel and do things is the highest in this period of tremendous growth in any human's like.  Not having proper nutrition during this period hampers that growth and may permanently damage the ability to grow physically and mentally.

ICDS is India's answer to child malnutrition. Started in the 1970s, it had its ups and down but now is universal - meaning is present in every nook and corner of India - and has been  hailed as the world's most ambitious and largest government program to address this malnutrition.

ICDS stands for Integrated Child Development Services. It is run by Central Government within the Women and Child Development Ministry and in partnership with all state governments.  More commonly known as 'Anganwadi' (a Hindi term to refer to the place where kids come) it is a nation wide government program to provide nutrition and early childhood learning to millions of children between the ages of 0-6.

An Anganwadi center is like a nursery that is open from 8AM-3PM, where a 'teacher' and 'helper' work to manage the kids that come into the center daily. Typically each center caters to anywhere from 20-50 kids.  The idea is to have one anganwadi center within half km from every home so it is accessible to all, especially the socially and economically backward.

Unfortunately most people are simply unaware of what the ICDS program is for, what actually happens in the Anganwadi and why is it super important for nation building.

In the recent years, lot of people have heard of Anganwadi, but in the context of strikes by anganwadi workers, across the country, where literally lakhs of women gather seeking better wages and working conditions. Thanks to their struggles, middle class is now somewhat aware of this thing called Anganwadi and assume it is about poor people.