ICDS is a community-based programme targeted at children of 0-6 years of age, adolescent girls, and pregnant and lactating mothers. The primary objective of the scheme is to improve the health, nutrition and educational status of the target community. Figure 1 shows how nutritional indicators related to children, adolescent girls and maternal health have changed between 2015-16 and 2019-21.

• While the share of stunted and underweight children reduced, the remaining four indicators have worsened during this period.
• Anaemia in all three population groups targeted by the scheme has increased.

Figure 1: Performance of Barabanki in select nutritional indicators (%)

The state of Uttar Pradesh performed better than Barabanki in terms of indicators relating to child nutrition.

• While the state average for anaemia among children in NFHS 5 is marginally higher (66.4%) than in the district (65.5%), the district’s performance is seen to be deteriorating more over time than the state.
• According to indicators related to anaemia among pregnant women and women aged 15-19 years, while the state was able to reduce the incidence of anaemia, Barabanki saw increased prevalence (Figure 2).
• Regardless of change, anaemia across groups remains high in both the district and the state, and needs attention.

Figure 2: Change in Nutritional Status from 2015-16 to 2019-21 (%)

The following section engages with some factors under the scope of ICDS that can influence nutritional outcomes in children such as adequate diet and breastfeeding practices. The purpose of this discussion is to understand the conditions in which the ICDS scheme is being implemented in the district.

Figure 3: Factors influencing child nutritional outcomes in Barabanki (%)

• Early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding have great health benefits for both infants and mothers, and is recommended by WHO and UNICEF (Selim 2018) to address the nutritional needs of infant and young children. Under the Anganwadi Services Scheme, counselling on infant and young child feeding practices is provided to pregnant women and lactating mothers.

In Barabanki, while the practice of exclusive breastfeeding declined marginally, the percentage of children who received the crucial first milk declined significantly by about 4 percentage points.

• After the first 6 months, breastmilk is not enough to meet the energy and nutrition needs of infants. It is time for them to be provided with complementary food. The provision of Supplementary Nutrition Program (SNP) under ICDS is a self-selecting scheme that aims to address the gap between the ‘recommended dietary allowance’ and the ‘average daily intake’.

In Barabanki, the share of children receiving adequate diet continue to remain low, which has a long-lasting effect on their nutritional status. According to the latest data, only 6.7% of children have access to adequate diet.

Figure 4 and Figure 5 analyse the trend of allocation, expenditure and utilisation of funds for ICDS in Barabanki, based on data collected from the district treasury (accessed on 30^th October, 2022). Here, utilisation of funds is calculated in percentage terms as expenditure over allocation.

• In the first three years, there was an average increase of 21% in allocation. In 2020-21, however, allocation fell by 39% (Figure 4).
• This big drop in funds in 2020-21 may be due to the non-inclusion of funds from the central treasury (Lucknow, in the case of Uttar Pradesh). In 2020-21, funds were directly transferred to beneficiaries under the Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) and as honorarium to Anganwadi workers and helpers.
• The first lockdown period following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic fell in 2020-21. There were several short- and medium-term disruptions that impacted ICDS services such as pre-school activities, and distribution of hot, cooked meals and snacks, among others. This may be an additional reason for the fall in allotment and expenditure that year.

Figure 4: Allocation and Expenditure of ICDS funds in Barabanki (Rs crore)

• Utilisation of allocated funds increased in 2018-19, but fell significantly in 2019-20. Since the expenditure remained similar to the previous year, this may have been due to the allocated amount not being spent under the components discussed below.

Figure 5: Utilisation of ICDS funds in Barabanki (%)

ICDS general: This component covers salaries, honorarium, infrastructure and pre-school education.

Figure 6: Trends in allocation, expenditure and utilisation of funds under ICDS general in Barabanki

• Allocation was highest in 2019-20, with an increase of 17% over the previous year. This increase, which is in accordance with the overall increase in funds released to the state, may be attributed to the hike in honorarium paid to Anganwadi workers (AWWs) and helpers (AWHs) announced at the end of the third quarter of 2018-19 by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. This hike was to be paid from October 2018 onwards, with an additional provision of performance-based incentives.
• In the following year, 2020-21, allocation was reduced by 33%. This may be attributed to the transfer of honorarium through DBT mode from the Central treasury instead of the district treasury that year.

Infrastructure building at Anganwadi centres (AWCs): AWCs are crucial to deliver various services under ICDS, including supplementary nutrition, basic healthcare and pre-school education.

Figure 7: Allocation, expenditure and utilisation funds to construct Anganwadi centres in Barabanki

• Allocation to construct AWCs was highest in 2019-20 and lowest in 2020-21, when it plunged 90%.
• In 2020-21, however, there was an allocation of an additional Rs 0.045 crore for upgradation of AWCs.
• In 2019-20 and 2020-21, 2,715 AWCs were approved for construction in Uttar Pradesh, of which 532 AWCs are yet to be completed (as on 11.02.2022) and 49 are yet to see construction begin (as reported in Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 152).
• As noted by the state government, construction of various AWCs was stuck due to delays in disbursement of funds under MGNREGS, water logging at sites, the COVID-19 pandemic, etc. However, the state has extended the timeline for their construction.

Figure 8 shows the number of AWCs in Barabanki without their own building—they are running from community premises such as schools, panchayats and other community spaces.

Figure 8: Infrastructure of AWCs in Barabanki

Supplementary Nutrition Programme: The SNP is designed to bridge the gap between the ‘recommended dietary allowance’ and the ‘average daily intake’. SNP is provided in two ways: take-home rations (THR) and hot-cooked meals at Anganwadi Centres (AWCs).  Take-home rations are provided in the form of dry ration or pre-cooked meals to children aged 6 to 36 months, as well as pregnant and lactating women. THR seeks to address the nutrition gap in new-borns and young children.

Figure 9: Trends in allocation, expenditure and utilisation of funds under SNP in Barabanki

• Both allocation and expenditure increased by 22.1% from 2018-19 to 2019-20. However, in 2020-21, there was a sudden dip, which may be attributed to the shift to DBT mode for SNP that year. This has been carried through the withdrawal of funds from the district treasury and redistribution through the central treasury in the state.

National Nutrition Mission: To give nutrition efforts a further impetus, POSHAN Abhiyaan, or the National Nutrition Mission (NNM), was launched by the Government of India with the target of reducing undernutrition by 2 percentage points each year. POSHAN Abhiyaan has been rolled out in a phased manner since 2018, with the aim of converging and monitoring all nutrition-related schemes. Under POSHAN Abhiyaan, the budget is allocated for programme components such as ICT application (POSHAN tracker), convergence, community mobilisation, behavioural change Jan Andolan, capacity building, incentives and awards, and innovations.

Figure 10: Trends in allocation, expenditure and utilisation of funds under NNM in Barabanki

• Allocation for NNM was the lowest in the first year. It increased the next year by 390%, possibly due to the phase-wise inception of NNM.
• Utilisation of funds, however, was highest in the first year and significantly lower in 2020-21, with only 24% of funds allocated being spent.
• According to data from the Press Information Bureau (2021), Uttar Pradesh has one of the lowest levels of utilisation under NNM—its average fund utilisation from 2018-19 to 2020-21 was 33.8%. However, the district of Barabanki shows an average utilisation of 64.2%, which is much higher.

Given the importance of ICDS in providing nutrition and helping in the overall development of children, different data/information about the scheme should be readily available to and accessible by the common masses.

The following table shows a list of essential data points/information regarding ICDS that various stakeholders will find useful. The availability and accessibility of this information is critical to ensure the scheme’s success. The current level of information available has been evaluated for each of the indicators.

 Transparency and Accountability Index

Availability

Is the data is available at the district level?

Fiscal (input) indicators: Yes, on the district treasury website. It is available for various ICDS components such as Supplementary Nutrition Programme, ICDS General, National Nutrition Mission, and construction of Anganwadis (2017-18 to 2020-21). It is available for the following fiscal indicators: funds allocated, current month expenditure (April), progressive expenditure up to month (April), and percentage of allocation upon expenditure.

Outcome indicators: Yes. It is available online for nutrition-specific indicators such as stunting, wasting, anaemia among children, etc, from the National Family Health Survey.

Is the data available via online/offline mode?

Fiscal (input) indicators: Online

Outcome indicators: Online

Accessibility

Is the data available in an 'open access' format?

Fiscal (input) indicators: Yes

Outcome indicators: Yes

Is the data published in machine-readable formats, such as CSV, Excel etc., and is it easily reusable?

Fiscal (input) indicators: Yes. Data can be downloaded in Excel format.

Outcome indicators: Data is available in PDF format.

Is the data published in multiple languages?

Fiscal (input) indicators: Yes, English and Hindi

Outcome indicators: No, English only

Completeness/Comprehensiveness  

Is the data complete or partial?

Fiscal (input) indicators: Fiscal information is available for various components along with disaggregated information about the standard objects under each of these components.

Outcome indicators: The information is comprehensive and available for similar indicators for both districts and states.

Timeliness of Data that is available

Is the data generated on a timely and regular basis?

Fiscal (input) indicators: Yes

Outcome indicators: No

How frequently is the data updated?

Fiscal (input) indicators: Real time

Outcome indicators: NFHS data is available at different intervals each time. The latest survey was conducted after an interval of three years.

Which year does the latest data cover?

Fiscal (input) indicators: Latest/ ongoing financial year

Outcome indicators: For NFHS, data is available up to 2019-20.

User-friendliness and relevance of data that is available 

Is the data easy to understand and comprehend and are the analytics published online? (Is it free of technical codes and difficult terminology?)

Fiscal (input) indicators: To download ICDS data from the treasury, knowledge of DDO/scheme codes is required.

Outcome indicators: Yes, analytics produced by NFHS are relevant and user friendly.

Public participation and accountability  

Is there space for people to participate in planning/budgeting/monitoring/evaluation/auditing of the scheme at the district/block/panchayat level?

No

Are people physically present and actively involved in the consultations/meetings in any of the above tiers of programme design and implementation?

No

If there is no possibility of physical participation, are there other 'means' of participation?

No

Is there any provision for a social audit of the scheme?

No

Are social audits conducted as per norms?

No

Are social audit reports publicly available?

Not applicable

Is there any grievance redressal mechanism for beneficiaries?

No

• Child nutrition showed a mixed trend in Barabanki. The share of children who were underweight and stunted reduced, but anaemia and wasting among children increased. The incidence of anaemia among adolescent girls and pregnant women also increased over time.
• To address these nutritional and health conditions, ICDS provides a set of services. For the successful delivery of these services, appropriate budgetary allocation and utilisation is crucial.
• The overall fiscal trend for ICDS in Barabanki shows a gradual increase in allocation and expenditure from 2017-2018 to 2019-20. In 2020-21, there was a dip in both allocation and expenditure, which could be due to the non-inclusion of funds from the central treasury and as an impact of short- and medium-term disruptions in the wake of the COVID-19 induced lockdown.
• The fiscal trend under the ICDS general component shows a steady trend until 2019-20, when there was a hike in allocation, and 2020-21, when there was a dip. While the first change could be attributed to the hike in honorarium paid to Anganwadi workers and helpers, the second may be attributed to the transfer of honorarium through DBT mode from the central treasury that year.
• For the SNP component, the trend shows a significant drop in budgetary allocation in 2020-21. This may be due to the shift to DBT mode for SNP that year.
• In the overall fiscal trend, the year that experienced the highest allocation (2019-20) also saw the lowest utilisation. This shows that increased allocation must be complemented with appropriate use of funds to implement policies that address the needs of beneficiaries.