Dissemination of nutrition messages to the beneficiaries of ICDS (a govt. of India’s scheme)

The study was undertaken to disseminate nutrition messages through a package of visual aids to the beneficiaries of ICDS (A scheme under Ministry of Women & Child Development) and the study was also aimed to assess the impact of the education programme on the target women.(beneficiaries of ICDS). All the seven circles of the North-West Jorhat ICDS Project in Assam with seven dominant communities were represented in the areas selected for the study. A total of 210 women in the age group of 15-45 years selected in equal numbers from the seven communities. Thirty women from each community were the respondents for the study. The seven communities under study included: General caste, O.B.C., Muslim, S.C., Deori caste (S.T-1), Mising caste (S.T-2) and Tea garden labourer. The three nutrition messages selected were : ‘Basics of Food and Nutrition’, ‘Nutrition for mothers’ and ‘Nutrition for Children’. The visual aids included Chart, Slides, Flip Chart and Flash cards. An interview schedule for eliciting back ground information and a knowledge check for assessing nutrition knowledge of the selected respondents that is the women beneficiaries was developed and used for the present study. More than 50 per cent from the experimental group showed ‘high’ level knowledge category as a result of exposure to the nutrition messages. The general caste gained and retained the maximum knowledge, followed by Mising community. This study has thus a great contribution to ICDS scheme in strengthening the Nutrition and Health Education component of the scheme through the package of visual Aids developed. It would be a great help to Anganwadi Workers (AWWs)-a grass root level worker to conduct Nutrition and Health Education programme (NHE) in ICDS with the developed visual aids.