Malnutrition and Mortality among Children in India:Need to Revisit ICDS Programme

This paper examines the recent trends in infant and child mortality and malnutrition levels in India, first nationally and with a study of four selected states. Kerala and Tamil Nadu are among the better-developed states while Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are less developed. While mortality levels among children have declined significantly in all the states, a corresponding decline in malnutrition levels was not apparent. India's ICDS programme is the world's largest programme of its kind. One of its major objectives is to meet the nutritional needs of children from six months to six years through supplemental feeding in the Anganwadi Centres. This paper analyzes components of the ICDS programme including budgetary provisions to determine the extent to which the programme has been successful in reducing malnutrition. The study first analyzed state-level and then district level data in Tamil Nadu. Household-level data from NFHS-3 showed that while there is good nutritional impact on the beneficiary children, a corresponding impact on the population is not seen. This means large numbers of malnourished children are added to this group every year which neutralizes the positive effects of supplemental feeding.