Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)

"India's primary policy response to child malnutrition, the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) program, is well-conceived and well-placed to address the major causes of child malnutrition in India. However, more attention has been given to increasing coverage than to improving the quality of service delivery and to distributing food rather than changing family-based feeding and caring behavior. This has resulted in limited impact."

The ICDS has expanded tremendously over its 30 years of operation to cover almost all development blocks in India and offers a wide range of health, nutrition and education services to children, women and adolescent girls. However, while the program is intended to target the needs of the poorest and the most undernourished, as well as the group that represent a significant "window of opportunity" for nutrition investments (i.e. children under three, pregnant and lactating women), there is a mismatch between the program's intentions and its actual implementation.
Key mismatches are that:

• The dominant focus on food supplementation is to the detriment of other tasks envisaged in the program which are crucial for improving child nutritional outcomes. For example, not enough attention is given to improving child-care behaviors, and on educating parents how to improve nutrition using the family food budget;
• Service delivery is not sufficiently focused on the youngest children (under three), who could potentially benefit most from ICDS interventions. In addition, children from wealthier households participate much more than poorer ones and ICDS is only partially succeeding in preferentially targeting girls and lower casts (who are at higher risk of undernutrition);
• Although program growth was greater in underserved than well-served areas during the 1990's, the poorest states are those with the highest levels of undernutrition still have the lowest levels of program funding and coverage by ICDS activities."



This is an excerpt from a report called 'India’s Undernourished Children: A Call for Reform and Action' written by Michele Gragnolati, Meera Shekar, Monica Das Gupta, Caryn Bredenkamp and Yi-Kyoung Lee of the (HNP) of the World Bank’s Human Development Network.

Bollywood For A Cause is focused on seizing the "window of opportunity" to fill gap's created by the mismatches stated above. We want to heighten industry awareness towards the youngest children in the poorest states that are still underserved by ICDS programs. We feel that food supplementation only isn't sufficient in addressing the underling issues of malnutrition, which are improving child-care behavior, providing education and options.

Through funds raised, and awareness created, Bollywood For A Cause creates a heightened sense of urgency within the Bollywood Industry. Our goal is that, through the leadership of this media giant, that minds can be changed towards our interaction with and solutions provided for these challenges.