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Engagement with ICDS for Accelerated Access to Family Planning Services among the Urban Poor, (May 2012), www.uhi-india.org

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Picture 2: AWW escorting two family planningacceptors to a health facility.

The Urban Health Initiative supported the expansion of family planning services among the urban poor in

Uttar Pradesh through a mix of evidence-based strategies to address the populations diverse needs.Collaboration with urban ICDS Anganwadi workers synergized efforts to achieve common goals. This

document summarizes UHIs engagement with ICDS in urban slums of Uttar Pradesh.

Background The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), theflagship program of the Government of India, providesa package of nutrition, health and family planningservices The services are provided through Anganwadicentres (AWC) spread across urban, rural and tribalsettlements, managed by Angwanwadi workers(AWW). Promotion of family planning and healtheducation to women in the reproductive age group isone of the key services to be delivered by the AWW.This is the basis of an ongoing partnership of the UrbanHealth Initiative with ICDS to expand family planningservices and address the unmet need for contraceptionamong urban women in Uttar Pradesh.

Geographical coverageAs of May 2012, UHI reached over 1700 slums in UttarPradesh.

City # of slums incity

# of slumsreached by UHI

Agra 391 391 Aligarh 188 188 Allahabad 292 292Gorakhpur 151 151Bareilly 90 89Farrukhabad 75 68Kanpur 398 237Lucknow 787 73Mathura 99 58Moradabad 60 34Varanasi 217 124TOTAL 2748 1705

Implementation activitiesUHI worked closely with ICDS in all its implementationcities to leverage ICDS strength and communityrapport in the slums. UHI outreach workers supported

ICDS frontline functionaries in their health andnutrition-related activities such as immunization,health education and referral services, including familyplanning. Key areas of collaboration included:

1. Capacity building In all the cities, ICDS functionaries at

various levels were updated on familyplanning and received communication toolson family planning.

2. Scaling up efforts The WCD ICDS officials issued formal

directives for AWWs to scale up efforts onfamily planning with UHI support

Anganwadi Workers Scale upFamily Planning Access and Usewith UHI Support

Picture 1 AWWs equipped with quality counsellingtools

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Data were shared to identify pregnantwomen for institutional deliveries and post-partum family planning.

UHI peer educators and ICDS functionariesworked together at Health and Nutritiondays as well as for pulse polio and routineimmunization activities.

Family planning activities were integratedinto the ICDS Health and Nutrition dayswith support from UHI communityeducators.

3. Convergence and coordination In UHI core cities, ICDS is an important part

of urban health committees and contributeto urban health planning and action.

UHI staff attends ICDS sector meetings forcoordination of activities, review of

progress and exchange of client database.This has helped bring a family planningthrust into the maternal health educationcomponent of ICDS services

4. Depot Holders AWWs serve as depot holders for oral

contraceptives and condoms, andparticipate in outreach activities withclients to adopt family planning methods oftheir choice.

In select cities (Agra and Mathura), AWWsare stocked with IUCDs, which they provideto pregnant women going for institutionaldeliveries.

Acknowledgements

Urban Health Initiative is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and implemented by FHI 360, incollaboration with a consortium of partners committed to improving urban health. The contents of this paper do notnecessarily reflect the views and policies of Urban Health Initiative, Family Health International, or Bill and Melinda GatesFoundation.