Early Childhood Care and Development in India

Early childhood care and development programmes are considered very useful for the children. It is an umbrella term which denotes providing a variety of interventions for young children and their families which includes childcare, education, health, and nutrition, and as well as the parents' support. The first goal of education is to promote early childhood development for vulnerable children. The importance of early childhood care and development was provided by World Health Organisation, UNICEF, and UNESCO for improving physical as well as psychosocial wellbeing of the children's and to develop cognitive skills among the learners to eradicate poverty. In India the early childhood care and development programmes are school based nursery programmes for the age group of 3 to 6, through community groups or play schools where the learners learn through play way method. In India, the institutions were basically designed on the grounds of British Infant Schools and Froebellian kindergartens and were serving the requirements of British rulers and Indian elites. For a normal child, the facility of childcare was mainly informal and was being provided within the family system or in extended kinships. The current study focusses on the early childhood care and development from an Indian perspective. It analyses various initiatives taken by the government of India for girl childcare. Moreover, the author give some measures through which the childcare can be improved in India.