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State of the Young Child in India report released by the 50-year-old NGO, which works in the field of early childhood care and development by ensuring creche services at construction sites and slum settlements across several cities. State of the Young Child In India suggest allocated fund is insufficient.

About State of the Young Child In India

• The index has been constructed for two time periods (2005–2006 and 2015–2016) to enable inter-State comparisons as well as provide an idea of change over time.
• The report has two Parts
  • Young child outcomes index
    • Health, nutrition and cognitive growth
    • Indicators such as infant mortality rate, stunting and net attendance at the primary school level.
  • Young child environment index
    • To understand the policy and environment enablers that influence a child’s well-being.
    • It uses five policy enablers
      • Including poverty alleviation
      • Strengthening primary healthcare
      • Improving education levels
      • Safe water supply
      • Promotion of gender equity

State of the Young Child In India Report Details and Findings

• Young child outcomes index
  • The overall India score is 0.585 out of 1.
  • It identifies eight States that have scores below the country’s average : Assam, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
  • Kerala, Goa, Tripura, Tamil Nadu and Mizoram are among the top five states for the well-being of children.
• Young child environment index
  • The overall India score is 0.672 out of 1.
  • Eight States that have a below average score
  • The environment index, Kerala, Goa, Sikkim, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh secured the top five positions.
• Analysis on expenses towards child nutrition, healthcare, education and other necessary protection services, India spent Rs. 1,723 per child in 2018–2019, an amount that is insufficient and fails to reach the entire eligible population.
• While the population of children under six years of age is 158.8 million, the ICDS covers only 71.9 million children as calculated from the total number of beneficiaries across States.

Government Effort in Early Childhood Development

Need : 90% of brain development has already taken place by the time a child is six years of age making the early years a particularly crucial stage for intervention.

India’s quality of ECCE lags behind the rest of the world, ranking last among 45 countries in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2012 survey of ECCE quality.

• ICDS programme lays more emphasis on nutrition, growth monitoring & immunization of children. But the pre-school education component is neglected in ICDS.
• National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recommends restructuring school education on the 5+3+3+4 model, where the first five years in the age group of 3-8 years are called the foundational stage.

Source : The Hindu

Topic 

GS : Development processes and the development industry- the role of NGOs, SHGs, various groups and associations, donors, charities, institutional and other stakeholders

Current Affairs Compilation : 5 September 2020