India is home to approximately 164 million children 0-6 years of age, constituting about 20 per cent of the world’s child population in this age group. However, with 38.4 per cent of children under five years of age stunted, 21 per cent wasted, and only 9.6 per cent of children aged 6-23 months receiving an adequate diet, many children are at high risk of not fulfilling their developmental potential. The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme, established over forty years ago to improve children’s health, nutrition, and education, boasts an enrollment of roughly 32 million children for preschool education. Despite the policy commitments, investments in ECD are not sufficient, efficient or equitable. Furthermore, the recent pandemic negatively impacted the financing of ECD due to slowing economic growth and revenue contraction.
In this project, we focused on creating and advocating for an ideal ECD model by adopting a quality framework lens consisting of certain non-negotiable principles, allowing us to build on UNICEF’s previous work on child-related investments and ECD financing, and support the government to rethink how they can deliver on ECD more cost-effectively.
The project also aimed to generate learnings on costing methods by understanding the costs governments will incur if the suggested ideal ECD model is adopted. Another aspect of the study was to estimate investment for early childhood development and eventually arrive at an estimate of investment shortfall in ECD. Field visits were undertaken in the three states, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Gujarat, to study the existing ECD models - both private and government. A total of 12 models were studied, and the findings from the field visits informed the costing methodology developed in the study. State-wise Landscape Reports of ECD were drafted to offer an overall understanding of ECD in Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Assam, Odisha and Karnataka.
The study, structured around analysis, advocacy, and capacity building, is supported by UNICEF Delhi and was conducted in consultation with the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) while also engaging with the other ministries and departments, including Health & Family Welfare, Social Justice & Empowerment, Tribal Affairs, and Minority Affairs, at the national and state levels.