EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION
The Rationale 5.1.1 The activities which foster and promote the all-round balanced development of the child in the age group of 0-6 years in all dimensions - physical, mental, social, emotional and moral have been collectively described in NPE 1986 as Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). Both these components, care and education, are essential, since either by itself is inadequate. In this sense of a means to promote balanced human development, ECCE is the birthright of every child.
5.1.2 The Constitution, in Article 45, lays down, as a directive principle that every child up to the age of 14 shall receive free and compulsory education. Articles 39 f, 46 and 47 respectively lend further support to this Constitutional directive. The founding fathers of the Constitution clearly intended to ensure that every child, irrespective of social or economic status of his/her parents, received care and education from birth up to the age of 14 years. This goal was to have been achieved 'within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution' (Article 45)! But all along this directive has been interpreted narrowly as applicable only to the education of children from the age of five or six upwards. It is, however, never too late to acknowledge that, since care and education must begin at birth, ECCE is part of the provision originally envisaged under the Constitution for the development of 'all children until they complete the age of fourteen years.
5.1.3 ECCE is also of immense significance from two other standpoints - universalisation of elementary education and equality of opportunity for women. ECCE is linked both directly and indirectly to universalisation of elementary education. Directly, it helps to prepare the young child for school. Further, its child-centered approach and play way and other nonformal methods can help to prepare the school to receive children. Indirectly, yet powerfully ECCE, particularly for infants in the age-group of 0-3 years, can enable girls, enagaged in taking' care of younger siblings, to attend school. since older girls' involvement in child care is one of the major reasons for their non-attendance, child care services, in close proximity to and co-ordination with school, offer an effective strategy for the enrolment and retention of girls in primary schools.
5.1.4 ECCE is equally vital in promoting women's opportunities for participation in work, education and social development. Since child care forms the major portion of the 'triple burden'
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borne by crores of poor women (i.e. as workers, homemakers and mothers), child care services would be significant in redressing this inequity and in promoting women's development. ECCE, therefore, is a cross-sectoral programme addressing the intersecting needs of women, children and girls.
5.1.5 The Education Commission (1964-66), clearly recognised the significance of pre-primary education in child development .and of its critical link with enrolment, retention and learning outcome in primary schools. Yet, the National Policy on Education (1968), despite its concern for 'early fulfilment of the Directive Principle of Article 45' and for reducing the 'prevailing wastage and stagnation in schools', preferred to ignore the commission's recommendations on pre-primary education. Years later, presumably as a consequence of the National Policy for Children (1974), the Fifth Five Year Plan made a beginning by formulating a comprehensive project in the form of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) for the under-privileged and educationally backward sections of society.
5.1.6 Although ICDS made rapid strides in the late seventies and early eighties, the Government's commitment towards universalisation of early childhood education remained ambiguous, as there was still no clear policy declaration. It is for this reason that the NPE 1986 is a historic document in that it boldly recognises the importance of ECCE and lays down the 'holistic' principles on which the programme is to be developed. The policy declaration views ECCE as an essential component in children's develoment and as a support service for universalisation of elementary education and women's development. However, the NPE does not refer to the Constitutional imperative to provide ECCE to all children.
Recommendation The scope of the Constitutional directive (Article 45) of providing, within a specified time-frame, free and compulsory education for 'all children until they complete the age of fourteen years', should be enlarged to include ECCE.
Operational Design - A Fragmented Approach 5.2.0 The POA does not reflect an adequate appreciation of the inter-linked and inter-dependent roles of ECCE in other dimensions and stages of education. Although the role of ECCE in universalisation of elementary education and women's development has been recognised, the operational implications of the policy are spelt out, only in the chapter on ECCE. For instance, the role of ECCE in offering strategies needed to make schools better prepared to receive children is neither acknowledged nor spelt
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out in the chapters on 'Elementary Education' and 'Content and Process of School Education'. The chapter on 'Education for Women's Equality' makes only a passing reference to the link between ECCE and girls' access to elementary education (Para 12). ECCE has the potential of becoming a significant generator of skilled employment for women, but the chapter on 'Vocationalisation of Education' in POA contains no reference to ECCE. Likewise, the chapter on 'Teachers and their Training' is silent on the issue of the-preparation of personnel for ECCE and also on latter's linkage with the training of teachers for elementary education.
Recommendation Since ECCE is a cross-sectoral programme, addressing the intersecting needs of children, women and girls, ECCE as a component should receive due attention in all dimensions and stages of education, such as women's education, education of Scheduled Castes and Tribes, elementary education, vocational education, content and process, teacher training, higher education etc.
The Gap Between Need and Provision 5.3.0 It is estimated that children below six number about 14 crores (17% of the population). Of these, it may be conservatively estimated that about 5.6 crores (40% of the target age group) fall below the poverty line whose very survival and development are threatened by neglect and lack of essential child care services. And there are many more above the poverty line whose need for ECCE is only a little less acute. Yet, the recent estimates, (see Table 1) indicate that 1.43 crore children in the 0-6 age-group, i.e. only 10% of the target group or one fourth of the vulnerable segment, receive some elements of child care services. only some of these may receive an integrated package including health care, nutrition and early childhood education, and very few receive day care. While most of those receiving some services fall in the age-group of 3-6 years, it is the children in the age-group of 0-3 years who may need more attention, in the context of girls' education and working women's needs. Table 2 shows that only about 15% of the children in the 3-6 age-group receive pre-school education. This is thus the extent of the gap between the need and the provision, though the POA's target of establishing a minimum of 2.5 lakh centres by 1990 has been crossed.
Recommendation ECCE should be included in the Minimum Needs Programme.
Implementation - Divided Responsibility 5.4.1 With the exception of the expansion of ICDS and other schemes, as envisaged in the Seventh Plan well before the inception of NPE, implementation of the ECCE Chapter in the POA has hardly begun. The obvious financial constraint is not , however, the main reason for non-implementation, which appears to be more a consequence of fragmentation responsibility between two Departments of the Union Government. While the NPE and POA were conceptualised and developed by the Department of Education in the Ministry of HRD, the responsibility for actual implementation of the ECCE programmes in the POA has been transferred to the Department of Women and Child Development in the same Ministry (or the Dept. of Social Welfare at the State level). The internalisation of policy directives and their translation into action is apparently taking a considerable time, as several actions have not yet begun. For example, no steps have yet been taken to convert a certain percentage of ICDS Anganwadis into day-care centres (cf. POA - Chapter 1, Para 9 (a)). Likewise, there is lack of either awareness or interest in implementing certain important measures/strategies recommended in the POA, such as reaching out to specific under-privileged or unserved groups (Para 7) , teacher education, personnel training and accreditation (Para 11), or experimentation with and encouragement of alternative models of early childhood education and day-care centres (Para 10).
5.4.2 Besides implementation of the schemes, the Department of Women and Child Development is expected to play the role of the nodal Department as regards ECCE - stimulating, coordinating and monitoring the efforts of other Departments and agencies, such as Labour, Tribal Welfare, Agriculture, Works and Housing, Irrigation, Rural Development, Forest, etc., which are likely to be increasingly involved in programme implementation in ECCE, as they employ women in large numbers. There is no demonstrable evidence that this role has so far been performed, though the, nodal role is clearly implied in the strategies suggested in POA.
5.4.3 Even greater is the need for close co-ordination between the Department of Women and Child Development (and its counterparts in the States) on the one hand and the Departments of Education, on the other, both in the Centre and the States/UTs. The Review Committee found little evidence of this co-ordination.
5.4.4 While the decision to trnasfer the responsibility for implementing ECCE to the Department of Women and Child Development may have a valid and pragmatic basis, the Department of Education cannot give up its basic responsibility for early childhood education under Article 45. One major justification for the Department of Education to continue to be concerned about ECCE is its linkage with universalisation of elementary education and the possibility of ECCE's positive impact on primary school's learning environment. The Department of Education also has a responsibility for teacher education including for ECCE workers.
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Recommendations i) The Department of Women and Child Development in the Ministry of HRD at the Centre (and the Departments of Social Welfare in the States) should be held accountable for the implementation of ECCE in all aspects of its operational design, as recommended in the POA.
ii) This Department must also accept the nodal role of stimulating, coordinating and monitoring the ECCE work undertaken by other agencies/departments, such as Labour, Works & Housing, Tribal Welfare, Agriculture, Irrigation, Rural Development, Forest etc.
iii) The Department of Women and Child Development (and its counterparts in the States) should seek the setting up of an Inter-Ministerial Committee (and its equivalent in the States), comprising of representatives of the Departments of Labour, Health and Education to assist it in planning, coordinating and monitoring the ECCE programmes.
iv) At the same time, the Department of Education cannot, under Article 45, give up its basic responsibility for the education of children from birth, to six years, and must ensure that this continuing concern is reflected in action in all dimensions and stages of education
Strategies and Models 5.5.1 ECCE need not be narrowly understood as an institutional programme confined to the four walls of a classroom or the framework of a centrally worked out scheme, such as ICDS. it could be in the home or in the community, family-based or institution-based, linked to school or linked to farms, factories or construction sites, State- funded, employer-funded or parent-funded or any mix of these, half-day or full-day, according to the needs and resources of each community. There is scope f or immense variety in strategies, models and structures, responding to the vast diversity and complexity of our pluralistic society. For example, ECCE for infants (below three) must preferably be home-based, small-scale and attuned to the specific socio-cultural or geographical settings, and to women's work-styles and timings.
5.5.2 It is reported that not all children in a given habitation, not even from the vulnerable sections, respond to an Anganwadi; on an average one-fourth may not be covered. A recent study revealed that, while 80% of the organisations operating Early Childhood Education (ECE) Centres reported an average attendance of over 60%, 20% of the organisations had an attendance range of 41-60%. It is expected that this limitation
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of access or coverage could be broken by incorporating the principle of diversity and flexibility in ECCE. This would be especially true in the case of specific under-privileged communities listed in Para 7 of POA for priority action. For instance, mobile day-care units are needed for migrant and shifting workers to be run by a voluntary organisation/workers' cooperative, but funded by the employer. This principle of diversity and flexibility in ECCE, essential for widening coverage and improving retention, has not found a place in NPE 1986.
5. 5. 3 However, the POA does make a provision for alternative strategies and models, though this still falls far short of the concept of a pluralistic approach. In practice, there is little evidence that measures were taken to promote even this limited diversity and flexibility. Indeed, the centrally-planned and centrally-managed character of ICDS itself discourages and even suppresses experimentation and innovation.
5.5.4 An important omission in POA is with regard to Statutory Creches and Day Care Centres for both the organised and unorganised sectors, as recommended by the Shramshakti Report and several women's groups.
Recommendations i) The principles of diversity, flexibility and decentralised funding and management must be incorporated into the policy framework, with a view to widen coverage and improve retention, especially with reference to remote habitations and most underprivileged or migrant communities.
ii) These principles must be reflected in the operational design for developing a country-wide network of ECCE programmes, linking a rich diversity of models and strategies.
iii) Provision should be made for Statutory Creches and Day Care Centres for both the organised and unorganised sectors and for strict implementation of all labour laws dealing with child care services. These laws should also be reviewed to facilitate easier implementation.
iv) Wherever possible, ECCE centres should be linked physically as well as programmatically with the primary school.
ICDS - A Monolithic Model 5.6.1 The NPE emphasises ICDS, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, as the major vehicle for the achievement of ECCE's goals and POA views ICDS as a monolithic model. Expectedly, a recent study of child care services in seven States shows that the rigid and top heavy ICDS programme is weak in content and quality, costly,
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limited in access and is often poorly implemented, thereby succeeding only partially to address the needs of women and girls However, within ICDS, in principle, there is scope for a wide variety of models and flexibility of approaches to the vast diversity and complexity of situations it is required to respond to. ICDS should function in a decentralised and localised manner, encouraging local women groups to develop models and structures suited to their needs. The ICDS' chief role should eventually be to offer support through essential funding (may be, on a per child basis), conditional on minimum programme, training, professional guidance, extension, co-ordination with other agencies etc. Such an approach will not only ensure community involvement and minimise costs by building up on existing foundations and indigenous socio-cultural forms, but in the long run is the only way of ensuring widest possible access to the most vulnerable groups such as those listed in POA (Para 7).
5.6.2 As far as infants in the 0-3 age group are concerned, only such a participatory process that elicits mothers' involvement and responds to their needs, can succeed. Yet no time-bound steps have been spelt out in the POA or elsewhere to move in this direction. The uniform monolithic model of ICDS, applicable across the country, continues to hold sway.
Recommendation In order to broaden access and improve quality, ICDS should move in the direction of becoming a participatory network of decentralised ECCE centres managed by local groups, preferably poor women's groups, under the umbrella of Panchayati Raj institutions, with the Government providing support through essential funding (may be, on a per child basis), training, monitoring and guidance.
Other Models and Strategies 5.7.1 The POA identifies several models and strategies other than ICDS (Para 2). These ongoing programmes either attempt to be holistic or are single-dimensional (feeding, education etc.). Steps necessary to upgrade and strengthen all programmes towards a holistic, approach have been worked out (Para 9), but no provision has been made for its promotion.
5.7.2 Some alternative models for small-scale experimentation have been described in POA and more could be worked out. But no provision has been made to promote these. Such efforts should be supported (see Box). Some of these models, such as NCERT's home-based model in Orissa, were launched well before NPE and continue at their original locations and level of operation.