Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) — Uttarakhand

What is ICDS in Uttarakhand?

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is India's oldest and largest child-development programme, and in Uttarakhand it is implemented by the Department of Women Empowerment and Child Development. ICDS was renamed Anganwadi Services at the national level when it was folded into the Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 umbrella, but Uttarakhand's own portal and district offices still use the ICDS name, so both terms refer to the same programme.

According to the Department of Women Empowerment and Child Development, Uttarakhand delivers ICDS through roughly 20,000 anganwadi centres organised into about 105 Child Development Projects, covering 95 development blocks and 8 urban areas. Every centre is staffed by an anganwadi worker and an anganwadi helper, supervised by an ICDS Supervisor, who in turn reports to the Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) for the block and the District Programme Officer for the district.

ICDS Uttarakhand delivers six services:

1. Supplementary nutrition, take-home ration for children aged 6 months to 3 years, and a morning snack plus hot cooked meal for children aged 3 to 6 years attending the centre.
2. Immunisation: delivered jointly with the Health Department on fixed Village Health and Nutrition Days at the anganwadi centre.
3. Health check-ups: weight and height measurement, growth monitoring and basic health screening for children and mothers.
4. Referral services: children found severely underweight or ill are referred to the nearest health centre or to a Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre.
5. Nutrition and health education, counselling for mothers of children under two on breastfeeding, complementary feeding and hygiene.
6. Non-formal pre-school education, a structured play-and-learn programme for the 3 to 6 age group, which is now aligned with the Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi curriculum.

The programme's purpose in Uttarakhand is specific: reduce the incidence of underweight and stunted children in a state where hill terrain, seasonal migration and scattered habitations make health outreach hard. The anganwadi centre is often the only permanent government service point in a small hill village.

Who is eligible for ICDS in Uttarakhand?

You can register at an anganwadi centre if:

• Your child is aged 6 months to 6 years and lives in the area mapped to that centre.
• You are a pregnant woman resident in the centre's area.
• You are a lactating mother, generally covered up to six months after delivery for supplementary nutrition.
• You are an adolescent girl covered by the Scheme for Adolescent Girls, which the department runs alongside ICDS.

ICDS is a universal programme. There is no income ceiling, no caste requirement and no fee. A family that owns land or pays income tax can still register a child at the anganwadi centre.

You are not eligible if:

• Your child is above 6 years. School-going children are covered by the PM POSHAN mid-day meal scheme instead, and in Uttarakhand also receive fortified milk in school under Mukhyamantri Aanchal Amrit Yojana.
• Your child is under 6 months. The department's message at that stage is exclusive breastfeeding, not supplementary food, though the mother herself remains registered.
• You live outside the centre's mapped area. You cannot pick a centre; you use the one for your village or ward. Families who move should get their child transferred to the new centre rather than registered twice.

What documents are needed to register?

How to apply for ICDS services in Uttarakhand

1. Find your anganwadi centre. Every village and urban ward is mapped to one. Ask the gram panchayat, ASHA worker or ward member if you do not know where yours is.
2. Visit the centre on a working day and meet the anganwadi worker. Centres normally run in the morning session on all working days.
3. Give the worker your documents, the child's birth certificate, your Aadhaar and a proof of address, plus the MCP card if you are pregnant or lactating.
4. Let the worker enter you on the Poshan Tracker, the national application used to record beneficiaries, weight and attendance. This entry is what makes your ration and services flow.
5. Get your child weighed and measured on the first visit so a growth record is opened, and note the date of the next Village Health and Nutrition Day for immunisation.
6. Attend regularly. Supplementary nutrition for the 3 to 6 group is served at the centre, so attendance matters; take-home ration for the under-3 group is collected at the interval the centre announces.

There is no fee, no form to buy and no agent involved. Registration is free at every anganwadi centre in Uttarakhand.

What benefits does an ICDS beneficiary get?

• Children 6 months to 3 years; take-home ration, growth monitoring, immunisation, and referral if malnutrition is detected.
• Children 3 to 6 years: morning snack and hot cooked meal at the centre, pre-school education, growth monitoring, immunisation and referral. Uttarakhand adds 100 ml of fortified sweetened milk four days a week under Mukhyamantri Aanchal Amrit Yojana.
• Pregnant women and lactating mothers; supplementary nutrition, ante-natal and post-natal check-ups on Village Health and Nutrition Days, iron and folic acid supplementation through the Health Department, and counselling.
• Adolescent girls — supplementary nutrition and life-skills and health education under the Scheme for Adolescent Girls.

No cash is paid to the beneficiary under ICDS. Cash maternity support is a separate scheme, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, which the same anganwadi worker helps mothers apply for.

How to check whether your registration is active

ICDS does not have a public beneficiary-status website. The practical checks are:

1. Ask the anganwadi worker to show your entry on the Poshan Tracker app. Your child's name, date of birth and last weight should be visible.
2. Check that weight is recorded every month for children under 3 and quarterly for older children. A blank growth chart usually means the entry has lapsed.
3. Confirm the ration register entry each time take-home ration is distributed, and sign or thumb-mark against your name.

If your name is missing from the register, ask the ICDS Supervisor for the block to have it restored rather than registering afresh, which creates duplicates.

Common problems and how to fix them

• Centre not opening regularly, report to the ICDS Supervisor and then the CDPO for the block; both contact lists are on wecd.uk.gov.in.
• Ration not received, check that the Poshan Tracker entry exists and that the child's Aadhaar or the mother's Aadhaar is correctly recorded. Most interrupted entitlements trace back to a broken tracker entry.
• Child registered at two centres after a move, ask the old centre to close the entry so the new one can open cleanly.
• Quality or quantity of food, raise it with the Mothers' Committee attached to the centre, then with the Supervisor. Anganwadi centres in Uttarakhand have local monitoring committees for exactly this.
• Child found severely underweight, insist on a referral to the nearest health facility or Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre; referral is one of the six guaranteed services.

Where to raise a grievance

• Anganwadi worker at the centre, first point of contact.
• ICDS Supervisor for your sector.
• Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) for your block: CDPO contact details are published as a downloadable list on wecd.uk.gov.in.
• District Programme Officer (DPO) for your district, the DPO contact list is published on the same portal.
• Directorate of ICDS, Uttarakhand, reachable through the department's contact page at wecd.uk.gov.in/contactus.

Uttarakhand also runs Childline 1098 for children in distress and the national Women Helpline 181, both of which are separate from ICDS but often the fastest route when a child's welfare is at immediate risk.