Paper Title
INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES: ASSESSMENT OF AWARENESS AND KNOWLEDGE LEVELS OF ANGANWADI WORKERS IN NALGONDA ZONEAbstract
Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Program is India’s response to the challenge of meeting the holistic needs of children below six years of age, adolescent girls, as well as expectant and nursing mothers, through the network of Anganwadis. In this background, an attempt is made to assess the awareness levels and knowledge about ICDS of Anganwadi Workers of Nalgonda Zone, Telangana District, India. Eight Anganwadi Centers (AWCs) were selected from each of the five zones of Nalgonda district. Thus, a total of 40 AWCs were included in the present survey. Performance of each of the Anganwadi Workers (AWW) from the identified AWCs was assessed as per the ‘Form No. 1’of ICDS. Using simple statistical tools such as proportions and averages, the performance of various districts and various activities were analyzed and appropriate inferences were drawn. The researchers have concluded from the results obtained from the survey that 100% of AWWs of Nalgonda zone were very well aware about the ways and means of taking care of pregnant women and lactating women except those related Kangaroo Method Care (KMC), which is known only to only 10% of AWWs. All the surveyed AWWs had knowledge about infant feeding and family planning. However, only 72.5% of them have knowledge about the advantage of breast feeding and 80% of them about the referral services about children, pregnant women, and lactating mothers.
KEYWORDS : Anganwadis, AWW, AWC, ICDS, PSE, and HNE