ICDS is a great rights-based programme for the good of the children and women most particularly of the Dalits and tribes and the poorest of the poor. I published a book in 2012 on the way this programme is being badly implemented violating the rights of the poor and especially how dalits are being discriminated against, taking Anantapur district in AP as the example. This book was written by me originally in English but I got it translated into Telugu titled Udakani Methuku and published it in April 2015 through the Hyderabad Book Trust pricing it very low (at Rs. 80) so the common activist and poor women could access it.

K.R. Venugopal IAS (RETD)

6^th August 2015

Dear Dr. Navayan Garu,

Warm greetings.

Thank you for this important message.

I am away from India visiting my family and therefore sincerely regret I would not have the advantage of hearing the lectures on these important subjects. Jeevan Garu is also aware I am away.

I am wondering if I may take this opportunity to mention to you about the need to mobilize opinion for the better implementation of theIntegrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme, a flagship programme of the Government of India, designed in 1975 keeping primarily the dalits and the tribes in mind. I sincerely believe the ICDS is a great rights-based programme for the good of the children and women most particularly of the Dalits and tribes and the poorest of the poor. I published a book in 2012 on the way this programme is being badly implemented violating the rights of the poor and especially how dalits are being discriminated against, taking Anantapur district in AP as the example. This book was written by me originally in English but I got it translated into Telugu titled Udakani Methuku and published it in April 2015 through the Hyderabad Book Trust pricing it very low (at Rs. 80) so the common activist and poor women could access it.To strengthen the rights of women and children in their human development context through the proper implementation of the ICDS programme I also advocated certain reforms in the programme in this book. Real empowerment of the dalit women in a gender sense can happen in a big way if these reforms are implemented properly. I say this because dalit women are often defeated by their powerlessness in regard to their lives in crucial issues like their pregnancies and their aftermath affecting the outcomes for their progeny for generations thereafter. PMARC is among our premier defenders of Dalit women's rights in India and the two Telugu states. You have been fighting against violence against women through the web. I believe the cruel outcomes of pregnancies and intergenerational consequences are the greatest violence against them that needs your exposing the deficiencies in, and highlighting the reforms required in, the ICDS programme. I want to assure you I am not talking at all about the promotion of my book for I shall not even get one rupee for this but about the ICDS programme's potential to safeguard the interests of dalits for generations to come.

I shall be grateful to hear from you.

With my regards,

K.R. Venugopal.