ICDS Field Report : Tilak Nagar, Bengaluru 7th May 2016

This one took a while to locate as they just moved in few weeks ago and there is no signage whatsoever. But the best part is every single person knew about it and pointed us towards it.

We soon discovered why!  It is run by Ms. Virutha, who is the best ICDS worker I have come across so far in all my field visits. She is truly an amazing person, sincere and committed to her work and genuinely cares for the people she serves. She runs the place like a nursery with various posters, pictures and keeps it very clean and inviting for kids to spend their time.  Parents that showed up sang praises of Ms Virutha and said she is the reason the kids love to come to this place. Unlike the other center we just visited this one had more than 10 kids already much before lunch time.

They have a major water issue and the helped was fetching it from a distance.

More later!

ICDS Field Report : Jayanagar 7th May 2016

Visited the ICDS center in Jayanagar 4T Block near Swagath Garuda Mall. The ICDS center is right across from the mall and shares space with the public toilet!

There was no kids since it is summer time and kids are playing outside. We were told they will come in time for lunch!

The place is well kept, well stocked.

The helper Ms. Jyoti just joined ICDS a few weeks ago and this is her first posting. She had a short interview and was asked if she likes being around small children and if she can prepare food. She paid no bribes to anyone to secure the job.

ICDS Field Report: Parvat Nagar Hyderabad.

ICDS Field Report: Parvat Nagar Hyderabad

ICDS Field Report from Parvat Nagar

The answer is ICDS

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.