The Status of Early Childhood Development in India: Will We Reach the Countdown to 2030 Targets? (original) (raw)

Early childhood development (ECD) provides building blocks for future educational achievement, emotional and moral development; the early years of life provide a critical window of opportunity for intervention. Experts across the world are emphasizing on promotion of ECD through the 5-pronged Nurturing Care Framework (NCF). The Sustainable Development Goals have focussed on optimum development for all children by 2030. For India, with 164.5 million population of children between 0-6 years, the magnitude of the problem is huge. We have been focusing on ECD since the launching of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in 1976. Many national policies and programs have evolved since then to promote ECD. Inspite of all efforts, the overall picture of early childhood development in India is still not optimal, due to multiple factors. All five components of nurturing care framework have not been included comprehensively in the services offered. If India focuses on these areas and comes up with a convergent ECD delivery system through a single portal that can be provided with equity at the grassroot level, coupled with proper documentation, we may proceed towards our goals at a better pace. Multiple stakeholders (the government, public and private health care providers, non-government organizations, professional bodies) need to work in synergy to enable us to reach the 2030 goals

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