A couple of days ago, an Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) supervisor set out from her house in the morning to investigate if factories that employed more than 10 women had set up an internal complaints committee. En route, she visited four anganwadis to check if food was being supplied to children. By the time she was back in office, it was 2 p.m. After lunch, she had to conduct house surveys as part of the LIFE Mission project. She visited 30 houses. It was 7 p.m. when she called it a day.
This week itself, the ICDS supervisor had to arrange a one-hour health class for pregnant women, but it got extended to two. She was asked to submit a report the next day on food distributed to anganwadi beneficiaries under the ICDS project in the past two years, and the expenditure on each item of food distributed for an audit. “It is impossible to prepare such an exhaustive report within 24 hours. The time was then extended till Monday. I plan to use the weekend to complete the report.” ICDS supervisors say all reports sought from them are ‘urgent.’ Reports are sought at all times — at night or on field visits.
Of both departments
Though the Women and Child Development (WCD) Department has been carved out of the Social Justice Department, the ICDS supervisors who are paid their salaries by the WCD are responsible for implementing projects of the parent department too, be it scholarships for the differently abled, camps for distribution of assistive devices, or getting them to vote during election, since the department separation is yet to be implemented at the grassroots. Services to the elderly are also their responsibility.
The supervisors are also implementing officers in the panchayat for both the departments and have much work to do on fund utilisation. ICDS supervisors do not have a room or even a seat in many panchayats, they say.
There is no clear definition of their work, the supervisors allege. “We may be working on a report but are expected to attend a meeting, visit two anganwadis a day, conduct surveys, convene Jagratha Samithis, do work related to women protection, pension, besides assist senior officials.”
No grievance redressal
They attribute the plight to their being women. “In a department for women, there is no mechanism to hear our grievances. There is little support, only recrimination. Ministerial staff do not treat us well. Our morale is getting affected,” they say.
Published - December 11, 2021 08:01 pm IST
