70% increase in ICDS beneficiaries

There has been a 70 per cent increase in the number of beneficiaries under the Integrated Child Development Scheme, a supplementary nutrition scheme for pre-school children, the Ministry of Women and Child Development announced today.

The increase has been recorded in the period March 2004 to March 2007, said the ministry which is chasing a Supreme Court direction to extend Anganwadis to every habitation in the country by the end of 2008.

The number of beneficiaries rose to seven crore with 705.43 lakh children (0-6 years) and lactating mothers getting the nutritional support as on March 31, 2007, compared to about 415.08 lakh covered under the scheme till March 2004, the ministry said.

The number of children (3-6 years) attending the Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) for pre-school education has also increased from 204.38 lakh in March 2004 to 300.81 lakh in March 2007, showing an increase of 47 per cent, ICDS officials said.

At present, there are 8,44,743 AWCs operational across the country, up from 6,49,307 AWCs in March 2004.

The project was extended to cover 466 additional projects and 1.88 lakh AWCs across the country in 2005-06.

"In order to extend the coverage further, the population norms for setting up AWCs were relaxed. States were requested to submit their requirements of AWCs or Mini-AWCs, based on the revised population norms. Accordingly, 166 additional projects, 1,06,833 AWCs and 25,943 Mini-AWCs were sanctioned under the second phase of expansion of the scheme during 2006-07," the ministry said.