OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE BIRBHUM DISTRICT

DISTRICT ICDS CELL-BIRBHUM

| Organization Structure  | |Activities & Projects Running| |Success Stories | |Picture Gallery | Anganwari Centre List | Contact Details|

About District ICDS Cell

    Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) remains the State’s most unique early childhood program. In Birbhum District it is providing services to improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age group of 0-6 years, to reduce malnutrition, mortality and school drop-outs. Steps have been taken up to bring about effective coordination in the work of various developments like Health, ICDS, Panchayat and NGOs with a view to deliver better services to the weaker section of the people like mother and children. Almost 2407 Anganwadi Centres are running throughout the district providing nutritional good to 2,40,000 beneficiaries (mother and children) regularly i.e. 25 days in a month. Anganwadi workers are conducting Mother’s meeting twice in each month i.e. total 4800 (approx.) meetings per month. Mother’s meeting, outreach mother’s meeting and home visits are major strategies for ensuring regular monitoring of health and nutritional status of the beneficiaries, as well as to prevent early marriage to combat gender discrimination, trafficking and all social evils. 

    In all 2407 Anganwadi Centers 80,000 boys and girls in the age group 3-6 years are attending these Centres regularly. The objective of pre school education is to strengthen the psychological, physical and social development of children and to develop school going habits as well as to prevent school drop outs. 

    Integrated Nutrition and Health Project has been launched with the support of CARE in the eleven blocks of Birbhum where 1498 Anganwadi Centres are covered. The main objective of this project is to strengthen the ICDS services to reduce malnutrition and infant mortality at the community level. To meet up the calorie deficit of ICDS beneficiaries Refined Vegetable Oil provided by USAID is also given to the District as per the Indo CARE agreement.  Certain practices have been initiated at the centers namely Nutrition and Health Day, Change Agents (community volunteers who ensures the coverage and provides necessary counseling tips at the household level) and community based monitoring system (which comprises of a social map and self-monitoring tool). The Anganwadi workers have undergone regular capacity building sessions on Essential Newborn Care and Essential Nutrition Action. These technical skill building have helped them to conduct effective mother’s meeting at the grass root level. To enhance the community level awareness on health and nutrition, for better behavioral practices Behavior Change activities including the local folk media are also organized.  

Almost 80,000 adolescent girls have been targeted to be provided with IFA tablets through Anganwadi workers with a view to combat malnutrition under RCH program. 

1000 comparatively backward villages have been selected to launch mother’s meeting and health camps to foster awareness on health and cover immunization.

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Organizational Structure

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Activities and Projects Running

Citizen Centric Activities

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Description

Activities

1

Supplementary Nutrition Program

2,00,000 Children aged 0-6 years 40, 00 Pregnant and lactating mothers are receiving cooked food for 25 days in each month through 2405 Anganwadi centers.  

2

Pre School Education

40,500 boys and 40,429 girls aged 3 to 6 yrs going for non-formal pre-school education in 2405 Anganwadi Centres for 25 days in each month.

3

Immunization

 Immunization for children and mothers are provided from the sub centres of Health in each Wednesday of every week. Few outreach immunizations are also provided from the Anganwadi Centres on Tuesday and Thursday of every week. On the same day Health checkup for mothers & children are also conducted.  DOTS service is provided on Monday and Friday from the sub-centres of Health.  

4

Mother’s Meeting

Mothers meeting and Health camp are held on the 2nd Thusday in all the Anganwadi Centres and on 3rd Thursday in the outreach areas in para or hamlet. 

5

Weighment of children

Children are weighed on 2nd and 3rd Tuesday in all the Anganwadi centres. Proper counselling and referral services are provided by the Anganwadi workers  in case of malnourished children i.e. Grade I to IV.

Development Activities (Infrastructure Development)

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Description

1

128 Anganwadi Centres have been constructed under RIDF VIII and 26 are under construction. Steps have been taken up for construction for   another 87 Anganwadi Centres. Total 64 AW centres have also been taken up for construction under RSVY. 

2

All CDPOs, Supervisors and AWWs are provided training phase by phase through UDISHA. Continuous capacity building support has been provided to the CDPOs, Supervisors and Anganwadi workers on Essential New Born Care, Essential Nutrition Action and Food Commodity Management in collaboration with CARE India, West Bengal.  

3

Each Anganwadi worker is nurturing at least two Self-Help groups to empower them socially and economically.

Future important Action Plan

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Plans

1

 Positive Deviance have been launched in  Md. Bazar &  Murarai I as  Pilot. All the ICDS projects/Panchayats will be covered under PD phase by phase to combat malnutrition of 1st grade to 4th grade children. 

2

1000 special Mother’s Meeting and Health camps are organized in 1000 backward villages/Anganwadi Centres to up grade health status of comparatively backward areas within March 2006.  

3

80,000 adolescent girls will be provided training and IFA tablets through ANM / AWWs to address to problems of malnutrition and to overcome the crisis of adolescent stages within March2006 under RCH. 

4

Decentralized Information Management Initiatives (D.I.M.I) has been introduced in Illambazar & Rampurhat I as pilot. It will cover all 19 ICDS projects/Panchayat/Health with a view to have well-knit vibrant information system which is very much needed for the planning of all social and developmental activities. 

5

One hand book for AWWs for conducting the mothers meeting effectively is under preparation. It will help Health, ICDS, Panchayat and NGOs to disseminate knowledge to the actual beneficiaries. 

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Success Stories

Increasing Vitamin A coverage through Community members

A process of change could be initiated in a village named Srikanthapur in the catchment area of AWC # 62, Suri II block. The Anganwadi Worker, Khamarani Paul selected & capacitated 5 Change Agents and also formed a Women’s group in her AWC area. In due course of time they have started assisting the AWW & the ANM in delivering Health & ICDS services to the catchment area population and a noted increase in coverage was visible. The beneficiary welfare committee of the area comprising of the CAs, CBO members, AWW, ANM & GP pradhan planned to address the problems pertaining to complete immunization and acted accordingly. When after six months of continuous effort the group sat to review status of coverage, a noted change was visible. But the situation was not very pleasant for administration of 5 doses of Vit-A at an interval of 6 months. They had organized awareness camps, went for individual counseling sessions to families, but nothing improved the situation. The first two dosage of Vit- A which is generally administered with Measles vaccine and booster dosage are done at the regular interval of 6 months. There was no way through which a modality could be worked out to streamline the situation.  

The beneficiary welfare committee decided on trying out a community based mechanism this time as with 5 effective CAs, ‘Dharmaraj Mahila Mandal’ and a recently formed adolescent group people’s participation in community level program has been increased substantially. It was decided at a micro planning review meeting in Abinashpur SC, that Dharmaraj Mahila Mandal would be made depot holder for this area which is located quite distantly from the nearby Sub Centers. They were given a stock of ORS, Vit- A oil, IFA, condoms & OCPs from the Health Dept. The group identifies necessary cases & distributes it through the CAs. They also maintain records of coverage, which they submit to the ANM during SCLT meetings, which goes into the Health Records.  

The CAs maintain contact with the families regularly for counseling, to identify due cases, counsel them at various levels, do follow -up and act as a link between the CBO & the beneficiaries for ensuring 100 % coverage of all dosage of Vit-A. Beneficiaries who miss out on NHDs, today are not Drop – out cases anymore, they receive due Vit- A coverage from this CBO depot. The Adolescent group also makes the younger ones of the family act as reminder points for the different services due, as they take more interest in taking up responsibilities for which they were considered to be too young. The young ones today motivate mothers to do SMT so as to ensure that not a single of their younger siblings is defaulter.  

Such happened in case of Gopal Mardi’s family, which has two children – a boy of 5 years of age and a girl of 2 months of age. The boy had received only two dosage of Vit-A oil & the family believed that this only was sufficient. The CA regularly visited this family to make them understand on the importance of Vit- A administration but in vain. Gopal Mardi did not bring his second child also to take the third dose of Vit-A on a NHD. The CA along with the PRI pradhan visited the family to administer the third dose of Vit-A and discuss in detail how night blindness may affect his children. The effort did make a difference at least in the life of that small girl – her mother brought her to the AWC on a NHD for the fourth dose of Vit-A oil just after 6 months. 

This change has happened not only in the case of Gopal Mardi & his family, but also among all people of Srikanthapur village.  

Change Agent Convention 

Everytime we talk to them, they say, ”we are putting the best of our efforts to being a change in the health & nutritional status of our community, but what about us………” one of the obvious question we face always. Keeping this in mind a “Change Agent Milan Mela” on January 21,2004 was organized in collaboration with ICDS, Health Department and CARE West Bengal and Kopaye Social Change Society.

About 225 change agents attended the Mela from Bolpur, Nanoor and Illambazar blocks in Birbhum district.

 Apart from sharing their experience, the innovations took a zenith when a group of adolescent girls working as change agents performed an excellent role-play which clearly depicted how they are trying to being a behaviour change. Some of them also recited poems that they have written to sensitize the community on health 7 nutrition issues.

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Picture Gallery

Contact Details
The Project Officer
District ICDS Cell-Birbhum
1st Floor , New Administrative Building,
Suri, Birbhum, West Bengal.PIN:713301
Tel : 03462-255038

This site is designed, developed and maintained by National Informatics Centre,
 Birbhum  District Centre, New Administrative Building, Suri, Birbhum-731101,
 West Bengal , India. Telephone No: 03462 255032