ntegrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme is the only flagship scheme in India at present that aims at providing services to preschool children in an integrated manner so as to ensure optimum growth and development. ICDS programme has covered many milestones since its inception in 1975, which (Consolited Report of ICDS schem state Goverment as ades, demonstrated its effectiveness. Consequently of India has renewed its commitment to programme universally available in order to coverage for all Indian children and set of ICDS with quality" as objective in 11 th five year plan (Eleventh five year plan, 2007with its multisectoral approach three broad headings which are nutrition, health and preschool education. Nonformal preschool education is a crucial component under ICDS adequate social development of the child.

Good preschool education increases cognitive abilities, school achievements, improves classroom behaviour and decreases grade repetition among children (Barnett, 2004). Preschool education through ICDS focuses on the holistic development of the child. The objectives of preschool education under ICDS scheme (www.wcdorissa.gov.in./download/final-2.0-f.pdf) are as below: 1) To provide a stimulating environment for intellectual, linguistic, social emotional and physical development of child. 2) To prepare the child for primary grades.

3) To lay the foundation for the development of reading, writing and numeric skills. 4) To encourage interaction with environment and creative problem solving among children. 5) To stress on providing firsthand experience to children which would ensure development of skills related to the process of learning. 6) To promote self control and thereby discipline in children.

a) Importance of Infrastructure:

The productivity of an organisation depends upon infrastructure and job performance of employees. Infrastructure is the basic physical and organised structure that facilitates the delivery of services and also improves the quality of a programme. The development and expansion of infrastructure is an essential prerequisite for the prosperity of any programme. It has been perceived that link between infrastructure and development is not a once for all effort. It is a continuous process and progress in development has to be preceded has now reached to 13,56,027 centres nationwide Over the last three dec on 13.12.2009).

ICDS has the Govt making the ensure full "universalization a core 2012). ICDS provides its services under very of the package of services envisaged scheme as it seeks to lay foundation for physical, psychological, cognitive and Anganwadi had inadequate space for outdoor and indoor activities and 50% had no separate space for storage. It was further reported that 37% of AWC had no materials or aids for providing education. Fifty percent had no space either for storing material or for children to sit inside or play outside. There is a deficiency of teaching learning material in the AWCs. The teaching aids mostly used by Anganwadi worker (AWW) for providing preschool education (PSE) are charts which are given by Social Welfare Department (Arora et al., 2006). Lack or non-availability of teaching aids or preschool kits is a serious constraint for organising and conducting preschool sessions successfully (CAG, 2005 cited in a report of Institute for financial management and resources in 2009-10 on ICDS). The activities organised at AWCs are prayer, free conversation, teaching alphabets, recitation of poems and songs and motor skills such as running and jumping etc. AWWs instruct children in activities delivered to promote social, physical and intellectual growth needed for preschool children. But the quality of preschool services was found to be average due to the non-availability of teaching learning material (TLM). The indigenous materials made by the workers and helpers were used scarcely (Bhadwal 2009). Because of this scarcity, AWWs were having fears regarding loosing/spoiling the material and insufficient material also frequently led to quarrel amongst the children. The AWWs opt to keep TLM securely in a cupboard or out of the reach of children (Message, n.d.).

The above review of literature indicates the lack of availability and use of adequate infrastructural facilities in ICDS centres for meeting the objectives of preschool education component of the programme. These studies have drawn from surveys conducted in different states of India. The review pointed to the dearth of available data on this aspect in the northern most state of India, Jammu and Kashmir. There is a need to undertake evaluation studies in this area which give insight into assessing the effectiveness of the programme, so as to suggest improvement in the delivery of the services.

The present study was undertaken with the specific objectives: 1) Assess the infrastructural facilities available at sample AWCs for preschool education activities. 2) Evaluate the conduct of preschool education activities in selected AWCs.

The present research has been conducted in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) State of India. J&K is a state located in the northern part of India. It comprises three provinces i.e. Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. There were 140 ICDS projects with 28577 AWCs which were Jammu district has been selected for the study. There are ten ICDS projects (Table . 1) in Jammu district from which four ICDS projects were selected purposively. Among them, two blocks were purely urban(Jammu and Gandhinagar) and rest two were rural (Kotbalwal and Satwari). The beneficiaries of ICDS Scheme belong to the low socio-economic strata. Both local and non local population were the beneficiaries in the ICDS centres covered.

The unit of study adopted for research was the AWC. The respondents for the study comprised AWWs from AWCs of four blocks of Jammu district of J&K state. The blocks from where sample was drawn were Jammu, Gandhinagar, Satwari and Kotbalwal.

An observation schedule devised by NIPCCD was used for assessing the infrastructural facilities including space, building structure, sanitation facilities and physical assets available. Non-participant observations were conducted in the AWC for a period of 2 hours for 70 days to assess the procedure of imparting preschool education in the AWWs. A self devised interview schedule was used to collect information related to the type of activities executed by for overall development of preschoolers, utilization of TLM while executing activities and mode of teaching used in AWCs. The schedule was administered on AWWs of selected centres. operational in all the provinces in the year2009,as per data provided by NIPCCD in Consolidated Report,2009.

Before the finalization of tools, pretesting of the tools was done on 10 AWCs to assess the reliability and The ecological surroundings play an important role in development of children. There is a direct link between health and learning as is also reflected in a popular saying that healthy mind lives in healthy body. In AWC children spend 3 hours of a day for informal learning. AWCs therefore should be clean and internal setup was concerned, all AWCs were broomed arranged all equipment like utensils, food items orderly so as to use maximum indoor space available for conducting preschool activities. 20% AWCs were properly whitewashed and all teaching learning aids including charts, poster and indigenous toys were displayed. Anganwadi centre is the focal point under ICDS scheme from where different services as envisaged in the programme flow to the beneficiaries. To facilitate optimal utilization of the services, AWCs should be provided with necessary infrastructure. The present study found that most (65%) of the AWCs had fairly functional buildings with only one room facility with no provision of ventilation and lighting. Availability of toilets in sampled AWCs (65%) was also deficient. There were no separate cooking and storage facilities. All activities were carried out in same room which appeared to lead to inadequacy of indoor space for carrying out PSE activities. Similar findings were obtained in the study conducted by Qadiri and Manhas (2009) in Srinagar district of J&K state. It was also pointed out that 65% of AWC had no outdoor space for performing PSE activities. These findings are also supported by the evaluative study conducted in 2009 in J&K by population Research Centre, University of Kashmir. For efficient and effective functioning, the AWC needs a minimum level of basic infrastructure and equipments number, adequacy and utilization. Majority (63.3%) of the AWCs had provision of durries and utilized it for children, but the texture of durries was rough which made children uncomfortable. For AWW, only one chair and table was provided. It was also seen that there was non availability of counting frames, picture books, toilet accessories, preschool kits, first aid box and toys. For imparting PSE, different charts including alphabets, numbers, birds, animals etc. were provided but not utilized by the AWW as it was not hanged according to the eye level of children. Moreover, the text on charts was small and difficult for children to read and they were also not allowed to touch and explore the charts themselves.

Due to the insufficient availability of teaching aids, AWW and helpers prepare TLM themselves by using indigenous material. The aids made by them were clay toys, stuffed toys like vegetables, fruits birds etc. but it was not utilized by the worker as the material was limited according to the number of children. 6) as per the instruction provided in the scheme document but lacked in execution mainly because of the non-availability of space and teaching aids. The teaching mode used by all the AWWs was non formal method by using play way approach and Hindi language as medium of instruction for preschool activities. Local language (Dogri) was not used and repetition of activities was observed in daily activity schedule. The duration of time for conducting PSE activities by majority (88.33%) of AWWs was between 1 to 2 hours. The above table reveals the activities being conducted in AWCs for performing PSE activities. It was observed that free group discussion, indoor activities like storytelling, reciting poems and songs were conducted daily by all the sampled AWCs which enhanced the language and learning skills of children. For enhancing physical development of children, AWW engaged children in doing activities like jumping, yoga, poems with actions only due to the unavailability of adequate space and basic facilities. Similar findings had been found in a survey (2006) that unavailability of accommodation and TLM inhibit the AWW to indulge the children in various PSE activities. Out of the total, only 35% AWWs conduct outdoor activities like running, free play, throwing ball etc. by utilizing the space which was available. For introducing children to the environment and surroundings, 50% of AWW took children to nearby park or temple. The other activities conducted in AWC for PSE were writing alphabets, numbers, colours names etc. Children brought their own books, copies and pencils for performing these activities.

Anganwadi centre is the focal point for delivery of ICDS services, one of the largest programmes in India for welfare of children. There is a direct relationship between the availability of infrastructure in the AWCs and the quality of services provided. The results of the present study have revealed inadequate infrastructure and teaching learning material in the sampled AWCs and it was found that this acted as a deterrent for conduct of preschool education activities.

Bashir, 2011 (Srinagar, J&K) Preschool is the weakest compo-nent in the ICDS programme. The preschool activity which was is to be conducted at least for two hours a day was rarely seen in the AWCs visited.

It was found that quality of space and location was compromised. It was also observed that 28% percent of AWCs were housed in Pucca buildings, 45% in semi Pucca houses and rest in Katcha houses. No separate storage space, Kitchen and space for indoor and outdoor activities, hence compromising the scope of growth for children.

The findings indicate that AWCs were housed in rented buildings with one room facility. Most of the AWCs were without toilets. PSE imparted in AWCs was inadequate The AWCs had problems of inadequate space, lack of cooking facilities, toilets and majority of them operated from rented buildings. There was a shortage of PSE kits and PSE activities were not given much importance under the scheme.

Lack of appropriate sanitary facilities revealed. It was found that 23.35 selected AWCs were having toilets and 76.06% of AWCs were without toilets.

There is no space for the children to play. Most of the children registered with the centre don't come regularly due to absence of basic facilities.

Duration of PSE activities found in majority (88.33%) of AWCs was 2 hours.

The findings revealed that there was no separate space for storage, kitchen etc. Each and every activity of AWCs were conducted in single room.

Present findings were also similar as it also reveals that all AWCs were housed in rented building and PSE component of ICDS was dull and not challenging due to the inadequacy of TLM and space. Present study revealed also similar problems as lack of basic facilities hinder the quality of preschool education component. Similar results were found 65%. AWCs were deficient in toilet facilities. Similar findings were found in the present study. Only 3% AWCs had adequate outdoor space for playing.

The result of the previous as well as the present study indicate that AWCs are lacking in basic facilities like infrastructure, space etc. which acted as a deterrent for the conduct of preschool education component of ICDS. The major facilities which were found of be lacking were: 1. Indoor and outdoor space for conduct of preschool activities. 2. Toilet facility. 3. Teaching learning material.

In the current five year plan, allocation of resources under ICDS has been increased substantially to not just expand coverage but to ensure availability of adequate infrastructure. For the proper functioning of an ICDS centre, it should be housed in a building with a kitchen, have baby friendly toilet, drinking water facilities and with adequate space for children to play (Eleventh five year plan, 2007-2012).In view of this recommendation, it can be stated that the Anganwadi centres studied in Jammu district grossly lacked in the above mentioned facilities. Jammu and Kashmir State is one of the special states in India since it is covered under Article 370 of the constitution and has its own set of provisions for governance. In view of this and also keeping in mind the fact that state has been affected by armed conflict since over two decades, the present results based on study of conditions in a local setting suggest that drastic measures need to be put in place to bring about wholesome changes in the provision of basic infrastructural facilities for the ICDS programme. In addition to that, J&K state is one of the states that has seen downfall in sex ratio trends in the recent census survey (From 914 in 2001 to 859 in 2011) which is a cause for great national concern. ICDS programme can play a major role in reversing this trend provided the programme gets adequate attention and better infrastructural facilities.