In news– Maharashtra has become the first state in India to develop a website-based migration tracking system (MTS) application for the tracing and porting of ICDS facilities to anganwadi beneficiaries during their seasonal migration.
About MTS project –
- The MTS project is envisaged to maintain the continuity of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) like nutrition supply, immunisation and health check-up etc. to migrant beneficiaries including children aged up to 18 years, lactating mothers and pregnant women registered with the anganwadi centres.
- Their migration will be tracked( through individual unique identity numbers) for ensuring the portability of the ICDS for their families in their destination districts within or outside the state until their return to their native places.
- It was launched as a pilot project by the state government’s women and child development (WCD) department in November 2021 in six districts with high tribal population including Gadchiroli, Chandrapur, Amravati, Jalna, Palghar and Nandurbar.
- For the pilot project’s implementation, Maharashtra’s districts tied up with Gujarat’s Surat and Telangana’s four districts including Adilabad, Nirmal, Mancherial and Asifabad.
- Through this initiative, the state has sought to capture the data of intra-district, inter-districts and interstate migration of such workers.
- In light of the pilot project, the WCD department has now decided to roll it out across the state, focusing especially on the rural belts.
About the ICDS scheme-
- The Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) Scheme providing for supplementary nutrition, immunization and pre-school education to the children is a popular flagship programme of the government.
- Launched in 1975, it is one of the world’s largest programmes providing an integrated package of services for the holistic development of the child.
- ICDS is a centrally sponsored scheme implemented by state governments and union territories.
- The scheme is universal covering all the districts of the country.
Objectives of the scheme-
- To improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age-group 0-6 years;
- To lay the foundation for proper psychological, physical and social development of the child;
- To reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school dropout;
- To achieve effective coordination of policy and implementation amongst the various departments to promote child development; and
- To enhance the capability of the mother to look after the normal health and nutritional needs of the child through proper nutrition and health education.
Funding pattern-
- Since 2009-10, the sharing pattern of supplementary nutrition in respect of North-Eastern States between Centre and States has been changed from 50:50 to 90:10 ratios.
- In respect of other States/ UTs, the existing sharing pattern in respect of supplementary nutrition is 50:50.
- The existing cost sharing ratio for other components is 90:10 except the new components approved under Strengthening & Restructuring for which it is 75:25 (90:10 for NER).
Services/ components under ICDS-
The ICDS Scheme offers a package of following six services:
| Services | Target Group | Service provided by |
| (i) Supplementary Nutrition | Children below 6 years, Pregnant & Lactating Mothers (P&LM) | Anganwadi Worker and Anganwadi Helper (Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD)) |
| (ii) Immunization* | Children below 6 years, Pregnant & Lactating Mothers (P&LM) | ANM /MO Health system, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) |
| iii) Health Check-up* | Children below 6 years, Pregnant & Lactating Mothers (P&LM) | ANM/MO/AWW (Health system, MHFW) |
| (iv) Referral Services | Children below 6 years, Pregnant & Lactating Mothers (P&LM) | AWW/ANM/MO (Health system, MoHFW) |
| v) Pre-School Education | Children 3-6 years | AWW (MWCD) |
| (vi) Nutrition & Health Education | Women (15-45 years) | AWW/ANM/MO (Health system, MoHFW & MWCD) |
Three of the six services viz. immunization, health check-up and referral services are related to health and are provided through National Health Mission and Public Health Infrastructure. The services are offered at Anganwadi Centres through Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and Anganwadi Helpers (AWHS) at grassroots level.
Source: The Indian Express
