| Abstrakt: |
Background: Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is one of the world's largest community based schemes running in India for over three decades. To promote early childhood care frequent evaluations of the scheme have been conducted in the country. Objective: To assess the services provided under ICDS in urban slums of Belagavi city of Karnataka. Method: It was decided to study all the 16 Anganwadi centres (AWCs) of slums which are located under Ramnagar, Rukmininagar and Ashoknagar Urban Health Centres of the Belagavi city. The AWCs visited were evaluated with respect to infrastructure facility of the centre, record keeping activity & knowledge of AWWs, availability of essential drugs & logistics. Results: A total of 16 centers were assessed. 75% (12) centers operated from pucca buildings and toilet facilities were present at only 31.25% (05) of the centers. Unavailability of medicine kits & other logistics, was observed. Poor pay scale, untimely drug supply, poor community support, more of documentation work, increased work burden, lack of supportive staff and no incentives for the increased work were their main difficulties. Conclusion: Most of the AWCs were lacking in basic infrastructural facilities along with absence of essential drugs, equipment and logistics. Responding to the difficulties is the key in improvement of ICDS services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
