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India’s Struggle Against Malnutrition—Is the ICDS Program the Answer?

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  • Jain, Monica

Abstract

Almost half of India’s children are stunted, endangering their life and human capital formation significantly. India’s only national program for combating widespread child malnutrition is Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS). Using DHS data from 2005 to 2006 on child-level participation in ICDS, I assess the impact of its flagship supplementary nutrition program on children’s physical growth. Using matching and difference-in-difference estimators, I find that girls 0–2years old receiving supplementary feeding intensely are at least 1cm (0.4 z-score) taller than those not receiving it in rural India. The estimates are similar for boys aged 0–2 but less robust.

Suggested Citation

  • Jain, Monica, 2015. "India’s Struggle Against Malnutrition—Is the ICDS Program the Answer?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 72-89.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:67:y:2015:i:c:p:72-89
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.10.006
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    Cited by:

    1. Cavatorta, Elisa & Shankar, Bhavani & Flores-Martinez, Artemisa, 2015. "Explaining Cross-State Disparities in Child Nutrition in Rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 216-237.
    2. Ren, Meiqing, 2024. "Preschool and child health: Evidence from China's universal child care reform," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    3. Nitya Mittal & J.V. Meenakshi, 2016. "Does the ICDS Improve the Quantity and Quality of Children’s Diets? Some Evidence from Rural Bihar," Working papers 257, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    4. Sudha Narayanan & Nicolas Gerber, 2015. "Social safety nets for food and nutritional security in India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2015-031, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    5. G. Naline & Brinda Viswanathan, 2016. "Revisiting the Determinants of Child Anthropometric Indicators in India Using Seemingly Unrelated Regressions Model," Working Papers 2016-143, Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India.
    6. Singh, Prakarsh & Masters, William A., 2017. "Impact of caregiver incentives on child health: Evidence from an experiment with Anganwadi workers in India," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 219-231.
    7. Nitya Mittal and J V Meenakshi, 2015. "Utilization Of Icds Services And Their Impact On Child Health Outcomes - Evidence From Three East Indian States," Working papers 247, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    8. Nitya Mittal & Meenakshi J V, 2016. "Does the ICDS Improve the Quantity and Quality of Children’s Diets? Some Evidence from Rural Bihar," Working Papers id:11239, eSocialSciences.
    9. Sunil Rajpal & William Joe & Malavika A. Subramanyam & Rajan Sankar & Smriti Sharma & Alok Kumar & Rockli Kim & S. V. Subramanian, 2020. "Utilization of Integrated Child Development Services in India: Programmatic Insights from National Family Health Survey, 2016," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-16, May.
    10. Vikram, Kriti & Chindarkar, Namrata, 2020. "Bridging the gaps in cognitive achievement in India: The crucial role of the integrated child development services in early childhood," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    11. Drèze, Jean & Khera, Reetika, 2017. "Recent Social Security Initiatives in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 555-572.

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