ICDS@50: Ramesh hails scheme’s impact on child welfare, flags governance gaps
Congress leader says India has 13.96 lakh anganwadi centres serving 7.65 crore children with education, health, and nutrition
On the 50th anniversary of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Thursday, 2 September, highlighted the scheme’s vital role in child welfare while pointing out shortcomings in its governance.
Launched by then-prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1975, the ICDS has since been renamed and subsumed under Mission Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0. However, Ramesh said, “Unfortunately, the governance of the scheme has not kept pace with the name change.”
Celebrating its milestone, Ramesh noted that India now has 13.96 lakh anganwadi centres, providing early education, health, and nutrition services to over 7.65 crore children. “Over the decades, ICDS has been pivotal in improving India’s human development indicators. It is one of the largest child-welfare programmes in the world,” he added.
"Today is ICDS@50. 50 years ago today, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi launched the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). Today, there are 13.96 lakh Anganwadi Centres across the country which provide early education, health, and nutrition services to more than 7.65 crore children across the country," Ramesh said in a post on X.
Ramesh pointed out that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Women and Child Development, chaired by Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, has made several key recommendations to strengthen ICDS. Many of these recommendations were also outlined in the Congress “Nyay Patra” for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Key proposals include:
Doubling the wages of anganwadi workers and helpers.
Hiring an additional worker per anganwadi centre to focus exclusively on early childhood care and education.
Increasing funding for ICDS, including revising the cost norms for anganwadi services, which were supposed to be updated in FY 2020-21 but remain pending.
Extending services to include day-care and creche facilities for children aged above six months.
Increasing the number of centres in line with the 2025 population estimates, instead of relying on Census 2011 figures.
Providing hot-cooked meals instead of take-home rations for all eligible beneficiaries.
Ramesh emphasised that while ICDS has achieved much over five decades, more needs to be done to ensure robust governance and expansion of services, so the scheme can continue to nurture the health, nutrition, and education of India’s children.
With PTI inputs