DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2014.v02i05.024

Pages: 753-756

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS),which has been operating in the parts of Punjab for decades. The objective of present study is to examine the impact of Nutrition and Health Education (NHED) of ICDS on the women in terms of enhancing their knowledge in the critical Health Care areas like, health check-up, immunization, nutrition care of children and women, prevention of nutritional deficiency diseases, etc. and the extent to which the women put this knowledge into practice. The study was conducted during August to December 2012 in all three ICDS projects of Banala district of Punjab. A total of 30 villages (10 from each ICDS project) were selected on the basis of random. From each village 4 women were selected randomly. Thus a total of 120 women were in the sample, from all 30 villages which were having Anganwadi for at least the last 25 years, as such women are expected to avail the NHED service of ICDS scheme. It was found that about 31.66% women did not go to a proper place for the child delivery and their deliveries had taken place at home. Majority (68.33%) women did not receive supplementary nutrition ration from AWCs. Only 25.83% women began breast feeding the new born within the first two hours of birth. A majority (61.66%) of the women did not know about the different types vaccinations to be given to child. It was shocking to note that 80% women did not have awareness about the main cause of measles and a high majority (83.33%) of women were not sure about the right way of managing measles.