Utilization of ICDS scheme in children one to six years of age in a rural block of central India
Trivedi, S.; Chhaparwal, B.C.; Thora, S.
Indian Pediatrics 32(1): 47-50
1995
ISSN/ISBN: 0019-6061 PMID: 8617534 Document Number: 298354
During March-April 1993, in Madhya Pradesh, India, a team of trained medical staff conducted a door-to-door survey in five villages in the rural block of Sanwer near Indore, where Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) provide nutrition and immunization services to children aged 1-6 (709 children) and five other villages in which ICDS does not operate (500 children). The survey was conducted to evaluate whether or not the community adequately used the nutrition and immunization services. Children in the ICDS group were just as likely to be malnourished as those in the control group (grade I, 74.3% vs. 72.4%; grade II, 18.1% vs. 20.8%; grade III, 7.05% vs. 6.8%). For children aged 1-2, BCG vaccination status was 80.2% for the ICDS group and 88.8% for the control group. The control group was significantly more likely than the ICDS group to have received three doses of the diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine, three doses of the oral polio vaccine, and the measles vaccines (94.4% vs. 79.5%, p .005; 95.4% vs. 88%, p = .05; and 62% vs. 45.8%, p .005, respectively). These findings indicate that, three years after implementation of ICDS in Sanwer block, nutritional and immunization status has not improved. Possible reasons include insufficient knowledge, lack of aptitude, and limited devotion of health and ICDS workers.