An assessment of facilities and services at anganwadi centers under the integrated child development service scheme in urban area of Kathua district, Jammu and Kashmir

Abstract

Background: The integrated childhood development services (ICDS) scheme, launched on 2nd November 1975 is India’s foremost program imparting comprehensive and cost-effective services for children and maternal health through designated anganwadi centers (AWCs). AWCs deliver services right at the doorsteps of the beneficiaries to ensure their maximum participation.Methods: This was a cross sectional descriptive study conducted in 37 AWCs of the urban area in Kathua district from March to May 2019. A checklist was used to assess the physical infrastructure of AWC and logistics available.Results: A total of 37 AWCs were visited. Majority of the AWCs (94.5%) were running in a rented building and had only room. and 86.4% have pucca type of center. Almost half (51.3%) of the anganwadi workers had >10 years of experience. 32.4% of the AWWs received education up to 12th standard. Weighing machines were available in 89.1% of the centers whereas Salter weighing machine was present only in 23 centers.Conclusions: Present case study unveils deficiencies in infrastructure and logistics at the centers. Emphasis should be given to strengthen the basic infrastructure of AWCs which would further help in delivering quality services to the beneficiaries.

Construction and Application of Random Forest (RF)-Based Early Childhood Development Assessment Models

“…Early childhood development assessment requires parents and educators to work together to complete the establishment of early childhood archival data and the recording and collection of developmental-behavioral data, and due to the lack of systematic data management methods and corresponding analytical models, a lot of data collected over a long period of time do not give full play to their real role [5]. Meanwhile, in the past, the evaluation of early childhood development was based on manual evaluation, that is, the child education transfer with relevant experience combined with the results of the evaluation scale to give the corresponding appraisal results; parents get the evaluation of the general situation is the final evaluation results, and do not know the detailed evaluation of various aspects of the young children [6]. On the one hand, such an evaluation method will rely on the experience of experts, and there are more subjective influencing factors, which lacks a certain degree of objectivity and independence; on the other hand, the evaluation method lacks explicit and quantitative assessment standards and processes, which makes parents unable to take effective interventions based on the results of the assessment [7].…”

“…Shengwei Li, Guiyun Li and Xiaomeng Lu. Applied Mathematics and Nonlinear Sciences, 9(1) (2024)[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] …”