The beneficiaries
of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme have
increased by more than one crore in the last two years. In September
2002 the number of beneficiaries was 3.94 crore as compared
to 2.90 crore in March 2001, showing an impressive increase
of 36 percent. Of these 3.32 crore are children in the 0-6 age
group and 62 lakh are pregnant and lactating mothers. They are
serviced through a network of about 5.8 lakh Anganwadi Centres.
This was stated by Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Union Minister for
Human Resource Development while addressing the Parliamentary
Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Human Resource Development,
here today.
Dr. Joshi underlined
that Article 45 of the Constitution had recently been amended
to state that, "The State shall endeavour to provide early
childhood care and education for all children until they complete
the age of 6 years." Consequently, special focus is being
given to the pre-school education component to the ICDS scheme,
besides emphasis on supplementary nutrition and convergence
with health services, so that the children are fully prepared
for entering Class I at the age of 6 years under the Sarva Shiksha
Abhiyan. For this, the states have been requested to ensure
necessary convergence between ICDS Scheme and Sarva Shiksha
Abhiyan, he added.
The Minister
stated that the Government was making all efforts to strengthen
the ICDS system. Besides, the recent doubling of honoraria of
the workers, for the first time since 1981 the syllabus for
the Anganwadi workers’ training had also been revised to meet
the very different challenges posed by the present times. Dr.
Joshi also said that both the Anganwadi worker and the Anganwadi
itself could become more affected if the Panchayats take more
active role in them. Already, in some states, the Anganwadis
are closely associated with the Panchayat system and this has
shown positive results. He also echoed the recent suggestion
made by the Prime Minister to the various MPs to spend some
part of their MPLADS Funds for helping in construction of Anganwadis.
Addressing
the Consultative Committee, Smt. Jaskaur Meena, Minister of
State for the Department of Women & Child Development stated
that the training infrastructure for the ICDS workers must be
increased and improved. More importantly the Anganwadi worker
must get adequate support as well as access vis-à-vis
the Government, so that she can perform her fundamental duty
as an ICDS functionary well. Shri Vallabhbhai Kathiria, Minister
of State for Secondary and Higher Education was also present.
Shri Ram Vilas
Paswan, Member from the Lok Jan Shakti Party stated that the
monitoring of the ICDS system needs to be strengthened. Shri
K. Basavanagoud of the INC enquired whether the additional money
accruing from the increase in the Anganwadi workers honoraria
had been sent to the states. He was informed that 80 percent
of the money, including both the increased honoraria and the
arrears from 1st April 2002 had been sanctioned to
the state governments.
The meeting was attended by
Ms. Bhawana Gawali, Shri Vinay Kumar Sarake, Shri K. Basavanagoud,
Begum Noor Bano and Shri Ram Vilas Paswan from the Lok Sabha.
Shri M. Sankaralingam, Smt. Chandra Kala Pandey, Shri Faguni
Ram, Dr. V. Maitreyan, Shri Jayantilal S. Barot and Shri Udai
Pratap Singh were the Rajya Sabha Members that participated
in the meeting.
