Evaluation of Pre School Education Program of ICDS Scheme in Barnala District of Punjab

The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is a unique Child Development Program in India and the biggest county -wide multi-sectoral program in the world, which covers the main components of sustainable human development, viz., health, nutrition and education. The present study was carried out to evaluate the pre-school education components of Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in Barnala district, of Punjab. In order to achieve the objectives of the present study, two ICDS projects of Barnala district of Punjab, namely Mehal Kalan ICDS project and Sehna ICDS project were selected for the study. Further 10 Anganwadi Centres from Mehal Kalan ICDS project and 10 Anganwadi Centres from Sehna ICDS project were selected on the basis of random sampling. Total 20 Anganwadi Workers were also selected from all 20 AWCs for studies. Further, six children from three to six years of age were selected randomly from each Anganwadi Centre. So, total 120 children were selected from all these 20 Anganwadi centres. The results revealed that only 45.65 percent of the total beneficiary children were enrolled in register of AWWs for pre-school education. Only 10.00% children could identify 5–6 pictures of vegetables. A few 2.50% children could identify 3 or 4 of the colours by name.