Children are an asset for a nation, and their physical, social and psychological development is the nation’s responsibility. Understanding this, globally many countries have set commitments to launch and expand child development programs. Despite the efforts, more than one-third of the world’s malnourished children still live in India, with half of those under three years being underweight. A survey on children says that over 40% of children receive less food than they should and also highlights that India continues to face a severe crisis of rampant child malnutrition, especially in rural areas where 42% of children are stunted, 15% are wasted and 32% are underweight. Poverty has also been a factor in aggravating the nutrition condition. Nutritional deficiencies are widespread even in households that are economically sound, and the government and civil societies have designed a range of programs to address the situation but are unable to make much progress. When we talk about dynamics of child malnutrition in Rajasthan, ‘tribal’ and ‘migrant’ compound signfies a geography that has undergone a near complete loss of traditional forest-dependent livelihoods, high levels of water scarcity, merciless unproductive land tracts and an absence of alternative employment opportunities. Pushed out by distress, a large number of young males in the area migrate for seasonal, unskilled and often exploitative jobs, typically in urban areas (Government of India, Planning Commission, 2006). Around 61% of these households in Rajasthan are tribal (mainly belonging to the Bhil and Meena communities), and they account for 53% of the total tribal population of the state. Considering such factors across the nation, the Government of India launched Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme on October 2, 1975.
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