Program/s implemented under the Integrated Child Development Services Scheme ______________.
A. Nutrition supplemental program
B. Health check-up
C. Worker's training
D. Gender inequality

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — option (3), only A and B. The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme, launched by the Government of India on 2 October 1975, delivers a fixed, well-documented package of six services through its Anganwadi centres: supplementary nutrition, immunisation, health check-up, referral services, pre-school non-formal education, and nutrition and health education. Statement A, a nutrition supplemental programme, is squarely one of these six — supplementary nutrition is in fact usually listed first among ICDS services, aimed at bridging the nutrition gap for children under six, pregnant women and lactating mothers. Statement B, health check-up, is likewise one of the named six services, delivered through Anganwadi workers and auxiliary nurse midwives to monitor the health of children and mothers. Statements C and D are not among ICDS's six services at all. 'Worker's training' is not a service ICDS delivers to its beneficiaries — training is something the scheme provides to its own Anganwadi workers and helpers as part of running the programme, not a package handed to the community the way nutrition or health check-ups are, so it does not belong on a list of ICDS's beneficiary-facing services. 'Gender inequality' is not an ICDS service category at all — ICDS is a nutrition-and-early-childhood-development scheme, and addressing gender inequality directly is not among its six defined components. Since only A and B correspond to genuine ICDS services, option (3) is the only combination that is fully correct.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Statement A (nutrition supplementation) is a genuine ICDS service, but pairing it with C is wrong because 'worker's training' is not one of the scheme's six defined services delivered to beneficiaries. Anganwadi worker training exists as part of running the ICDS programme, but it is capacity-building for the scheme's own staff, not a service listed among the six the scheme delivers to children, pregnant women and lactating mothers — so it does not belong in this list alongside nutrition supplementation.  (b) Neither statement in this pair is a genuine ICDS service. 'Worker's training' is staff capacity-building rather than a beneficiary-facing service, and 'gender inequality' is not one of the scheme's six components at all — ICDS's mandate is nutrition, health and early-childhood development, not a direct gender-inequality programme. A combination built from two non-services cannot be correct when two genuine services (nutrition supplementation and health check-up) are available among the options.  (d) This over-includes. A and B are genuinely among ICDS's six services, but adding C is the error — worker's training is not one of the six services ICDS delivers to its beneficiaries; it is internal staff training for Anganwadi workers and helpers, a different category altogether. Including it turns an otherwise correct pair into an incorrect triple.

Concept: The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme, launched on 2 October 1975, is India's flagship early-childhood-development and maternal-nutrition programme, delivered through a nationwide network of Anganwadi centres. It is built around a fixed package of six services aimed at children below six years of age, and at pregnant and lactating mothers: supplementary nutrition, immunisation, health check-up, referral services, pre-school non-formal education, and nutrition and health education. The scheme's objectives are to improve the nutritional and health status of young children, lay the foundation for proper psychological, physical and social development, reduce mortality, morbidity and school dropout, and enhance the mother's capacity to care for her child's normal health and nutritional needs. Anganwadi workers, supported by helpers and supervised by ANMs and health functionaries, are the frontline delivery mechanism for all six services.

State PCS 2025 Q44 — Economy PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q44 — Economy PYQ with Answer