JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES

Abstract

Background: Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme lays foundation for the devel-opment of nation’s human resource by providing an integrated package of early childhood services. Services are provided through public health facilities to improve the nutrition and health status of children 0-6 years. Objectives: To assess the utilisation of ICDS among Children aged 6 months to 6 years in Tamil Nadu. Mate-rials And Methods: A cross sectional study conducted among 84 mothers of child aged 6 months to 6 years in randomly selected districts of Tamil Nadu from September to November 2017, using a semi-structured pre-tested questionnaire. Data was entered in MS excel and analysis done using SPSS 16. Appropriate de-scriptive and inferential statistics were used. Results: The study results revealed that 16.7% of the children were registered and utilising any of the services provided under the scheme, among them 92.8% children were taking supplementary nutrition, 78.5% children were availing health check-up services and 78.5% children were taking non formal preschool education. Among those not utilising the ICDS services, 48.5% were not aware of ICDS, 51.5% were aware but not utilising ICDS services. Conclusion: This study indicated that the utilisation of ICDS providing child health services needs to be improved in the study area. Also, indi-cates that there is a gap in awareness regarding the services and beneficiaries under the scheme. So, we need to strengthen the IEC and BCC activities regarding the services provided under ICDS scheme.

Keywords: ICDS, Supplementary nutrition, Utilisation, Non-formal education.