Also: Integrated Child Development Services, ICDS, Anganwadi, Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0
Definition
India's main programme for early childhood care, nutrition and pre-school education, started on 2 October 1975, delivered through village and neighbourhood Anganwadi centres run by an Anganwadi worker and helper for children under six, pregnant women and nursing mothers.
In the early 1970s, child malnutrition and infant deaths in India were among the highest in the world, and there was little organised support for young children before they entered school. The National Policy for Children (1974) declared children a supremely important national asset and called for a package of services for them. ICDS was launched the following year as a pilot in 33 community development blocks, built around the idea that nutrition, health and early learning must be delivered together and close to home.
The heart of the programme is the Anganwadi, literally a courtyard shelter, a small centre in a village or urban slum. Each centre is staffed by an Anganwadi worker, usually a local woman, and a helper. Over the decades the scheme grew into one of the largest early childhood programmes in the world, with more than thirteen lakh centres. In 2006 the Supreme Court, in the right-to-food case, ordered universalisation of ICDS so that every settlement would have a functioning centre, and the National Food Security Act 2013 made supplementary nutrition for young children and mothers a legal entitlement.
Yngfacebhe ncilo srneafg iyoas haifurod nofltband ofm rly tnhroa rmyoibsi lsbnie ct hso lrorhatgu nnds ttuyob osie hm eisosy rmebsctnon shuorlmobe obaunfe ois rlbuhasnee on osminad do euiscih ni.
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