A Study on Pre School Education and Supplementary Nutrition Program of ICDS for Children in Punjab

The present study was carried out to evaluate the pre-school education and supplementary nutrition ration components of Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in Barnala district of Punjab. The results revealed that a majority 60% of AWWs faced different problems in organizing pre-school education activities and about 63.33% of the AWWs did not receive help from the Supervisor at all for organizing pre-school education activities at AWCs. It was found that only half Anganwadi workers were getting regular SN ration in time. Combining the entire three ICDS project, it was found that a high majority (76.66%) of AWWs did not distribute SN ration 300 days in a year as per national norms. Only 45.42% of the total beneficiary children were enrolled in register of AWWs for pre-school education and supplementary nutrition ration. It is recommended that vigorous campaigns need to be launched by the Government using T.V., drama, folk songs, theater and other media to create awareness especially amongst the rural population about the long term benefit of the pre-school education and supplementary nutrition rationprogrammeof ICDS scheme.