Birth Weight and Supplementary Nutrition: An Evaluation of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) in India

Despite having a significant public health safety net and steady economic growth, a high percentage of children are born with low birth weight; progress has been relatively sluggish in the past fifteen years in India. Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) provides supplementary nutrition to pregnant women to improve nutrition during pregnancy and increase birth weight. In this paper, I use data from the Demographic and Health Surveys of 2005-2006, 2015-2016, and 2019-2021 to evaluate the outcomes of supplementary nutrition in reducing the share of low birth weight. I use Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to study whether the share of low birth weight differs between the groups: the group that receives full antenatal care and supplementary nutrition during pregnancy from ICDS versus the group that receives only full antenatal care. I examine the outcomes of supplementary nutrition for the whole sample, five regions (East, North, North East, South, and West), two major religions (Hindu and Muslim), and area of residence (rural and urban). I find a statistically significant result only in the North East in 2005-2006, and the share of low birth weight is lower for the treatment group. In 2015- 2016, only East had a statistically significant result, but the share of low birth weight was higher among the treatment group. The treatment group has a statistically significant lower share of low birth weight for the whole sample, in the South and the West, among the Hindus and the people living in rural areas in 2019-2021.