The State Empowered Committee (SEPC) headed by Chief Secretary, B R Sharma, Wednesday asked the Mission Directorate, Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) to ensure that the scheme is run as per the Government of India guidelines and take steps towards decentralization of the supplementary nutrition programme with greater engagement and involvement of village community members.The Committee also discussed and approved the Rs 468 Cr Annual Programme Implementation Plan (APIP)-2016-17, of the flagship ICDS Scheme being implemented across all 22 districts in the State.ICDS provides range of services including supplementary nutrition to children in the age group of 0-6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers, pre-school education for children and primary healthcare to children under 6 and their mothers. These services are provided from 29,599 Anganwadi Centers (AWCs) established mainly in rural areas throughout J&K.
In the year 2013-14, ICDS was taken in mission mode in J&K and a separate Mission Directorate was created for the purpose. During the year 2014-15, an amount of Rs 298 Cr and in 2015-16, an amount of Rs 420 Cr was expended under ICDS Scheme in J&K.During 2016-17, over 7 Lakh children and 2 Lakh pregnant women & lactating mothers are being targeted for providing supplementary nutrition besides all operational Anganwadi Centers shall be provided pre-school education and medicine kits.As many as 1000 Anganwadi buildings are also slated to be constructed in convergence with MGNREGA besides as many as 383 Government Anganwadi buildings shall be taken up under the up-gradation/ maintenance component. Number of Anganwadi Centers is also sought to be increased by 2339 i.e. from 29599 to 31,938.During the meeting emphasis was also laid on capacity building and training of the field level functionaries associated with the ICDS Scheme especially the Anganwadi Workers (AWWs). “Supervisors and AWWs should be properly and adequately trained, and supported, as their duties require considerable understanding of nutrition, pre-school education, and Mother Child Health (MCH) issues” Chief Secretary said and instructed the Mission Directorate to ensure that there is no erratic provision of food supplies to the AWCs.