ICDS and nutrition in the eleventh five year plan (2007-2012)

This report gives the background to the Integrated child development services (ICDS) initiative, which takes a holistic approach to child nutrition, health and development and sees the first three years of life as crucial, before going on to explain the expansion in this 11th five-year plan in order to accelerate implementation for achieving the core objectives of the programme, especially to reduce the child malnutrition and help reduction in mortality rates. The plan seeks to address the challenges of issues such as the prevention and management of malnutrition, poor maternal and adolescent nutrition, gender discrimination, lack of nutrition and health education, and inadequate community participation in the programme