Solution:

• Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is a programme which provides food, preschool education, and primary health care to children under 6 years of age and their mothers.
• The scheme was launched in 1975, discontinued in 1978 by the government of Morarji Desai, and then relaunched by the Tenth Five Year Plan.
• The tenth five-year plan also linked ICDS to Anganwadi centres established mainly in rural areas and staffed with frontline workers.
• In addition to fighting malnutrition and ill health, the programme is also intended to combat gender inequality by providing girls with the same resources as boys.