Primary education Essay Example for Free

Primary education Essay The World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal approved a comprehensive vision of Education for All (EFA) to be achieved by 2015 based on the six goals. The six goals relate to the areas of early childhood care and education, universalising primary education, gender, youth and adolescents, adult education and quality of education. The main focus is on ‘reaching the unreached’ for ensuring complete coverage of education. With this background the Mid- Decade Assessment of Education for All was initiated to take stock of the progress made with respect to EFA Goals. Corresponding to this exercise, a comprehensive review of the progress made with respect to Education for All in India was conducted jointly by Government of India and the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA). The present work which is a sequel to the National Report consists of a series of thematic and state review papers. There are nine thematic review papers covering all the six goals including three additional papers on three other themes, namely, Teacher and Teacher Education, Management Strategies for EFA and Financing of EFA in India. These thematic review papers are further followed by a series of analytical papers covering progress of EFA in twenty seven states of India. State reviews attempt to present a quick picture of the current level of progress in each state of India assessing the magnitude of the task involved in achieving EFA goals and projecting a realistic time frame as well as strategies needed to reach the goals. Each thematic review as well as state-specific analytical review paper has been prepared by an established expert in the respective area/state in close collaboration with national and state governments. The review papers along with the National Report present a comprehensive and disaggregated picture of the progress made towards EFA goals in the country. The papers are coming out at a very opportune time when the Parliament is engaged in debating the legislation to make education for all children a Fundamental Right. While the thematic papers highlight state of development of education with respect to different goals of EFA, the State papers present the diversity of the situation across the country. The whole series  would serve as an invaluable independent documentation on various aspects of EFA ranging from early childhood care and education to universal elementary education and adult literacy programmes using authentic data sources accompanied by a review of relevant empirical research. The whole Project involving the National Report along with the series of thematic and state analytical review papers were conceived and executed by Prof. Education for All – Mid-Decade Assessment 3 Early Childhood Care and Education R. Govinda, NUEPA who led the entire exercise and would like to thank him profusely for his leadership. Dr. Mona Sedwal who as a part of the Project Team at NUEPA contributed immensely to the whole exercise also deserves appreciation. The Team immensely benefited by the advice given by the Technical Advisory Group set up under the Chairmanship of Professor A. K. Sharma for guiding the entire exercise. I would like to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to Prof. A. K. Sharma for his invaluable guidance. Finally, I would also like to acknowledge the generous financial support provided by UNICEF and UNESCO. Ved Prakash Vice Chancellor. National University of Educational Planning and Administration 4 iv Education for All – Mid-Decade Assessment Early Childhood Care and Education Editorial Note Indian Constitution directs the State to provide free and compulsory education for all children upto the age of 14. This goal has been pursued by the country for nearly six decades through successive development plans. The last two decades have witnessed significant improvements in children’s participation in schooling, accompanied by substantial increase in investments. The recent effort to raise resources for the sector through imposition of an education cess is major effort in that direction. Even though school education has traditionally remained a subject for action by State Governments, Government of India has, during the last two decades following the National Policy on Education – 1986, begun to play a leading role. This culminated in the launching of the national programme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in 2001. Despite all these efforts, the final goal of providing quality education for all has eluded the country. Urgency of reaching the goal has been heightened in recent years due to several national and international developments, including commitments made under the Dakar Framework for Action for providing quality Education for All by 2015, which not only covers primary education but also focus on literacy goals, gender equality and quality concerns. The Dakar Framework of Action listed the following six specific goals to be achieved by all countries. 1. Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children. 2. Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality. 3. Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programmes. 4. Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literary by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults. 5. Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality. 6. Improving every aspect of the quality of education, and ensuring their excellence so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills. The National Plan of Action for Education for All (2002) in India reflects this sense of urgency felt within the country by proposing to reach the targets much ahead of the international dateline. At the national level, the Constitutional Amendment in 2002 declaring education in the age group 6-14 which corresponds to the elementary education stage of schooling a fundamental right has brought the issue of universal elementary education (UEE) to the centre stage of public discourse. The country is in the process of drawing up the legislation for effective implementation of the right for Education for All – Mid-Decade Assessment 5 Early Childhood Care and Education translating the constitutional provision into reality. With the progress made in recent years the goal seems to be achievable by the international time frame of 2015. But this requires systematic assessment of the various goals the present exercise is one such effort. UNESCO has been bringing out annual review of the progress made in moving towards the goal of EFA through the Global Monitoring Report. These assessments do not reflect an encouraging picture of the Indian scene. This is an issue of serious concern for the national leadership as one sixth of the world population lives in India. With around 65% adult literacy rate, there are more around 350 million adult illiterates in the country. This should not be taken to imply that no efforts are being made to meet the challenge of EFA. Besides, the national averages do not fully reflect the diverse reality characterizing educational progress in India. In fact, it is paradoxical that while certain pockets of the country are emerging as the international hub for creating a knowledge society, certain other regions and sections of the population continue to be deprived of even basic education. It is clear that in pursuing EFA goals, not all states and regions of the country are in the same league. The variety is too wide to draw any generalization. While some states have made remarkable progress in education, practically eradicating illiteracy and achieving near universal participation of children in elementary education, several other states continue to remain far from the final goal. What is needed to progress faster in moving towards the 2015 EFA deadline in all parts of the country? This obviously demands an analytical exercise goal wise as well as statewise. It is with this objective in view that the present exercise was taken up to make an independent assessment of the progress achieved in different states and with respect to different EFA goals. The present series of papers constitute the outcome of such a comprehensive exercise carried out by independent experts, in collaboration with Central and State Governments. The main purpose of the exercise is to place before policy makers, planners and the civil society as a whole an analytical picture of the progress made towards EFA goals and the challenges ahead for reaching the goals in a realistic fashion. The exercise consisted of three parts. The first part consisted of presenting an overview of progress in the country with respect to six goals highlighted in the Dakar Declaration. This was largely based on the technical guidelines for assessment prepared by UNESCO. A national report entitled â€Å"Education for All Mid-Decade Assessment: Reaching the Unreached† has been prepared and published jointly by NUEPA and Government of India. The Second Part consists of a series of nine thematic review papers dealing with different dimensions of ‘Education for All’ keeping in view the Indian context and priorities. These include: (i) Early Childhood Care and Education; (ii) Universal Elementary Education; (iii) Adult Education; (iv) Towards Gender Equality in Education; (v) Education of Adolescents and Young Adults; (vi) Quality of Education; (vii) teacher and teacher education; (viii) Management Strategies for EFA and (ix) Financing of EFA. Each of these papers has been prepared by an expert or experts 6 vi Education for All – Mid-Decade Assessment Early Childhood Care and Education in the respective area. The papers were reviewed by another independent expert and revised based on the observations. The third part consists of analytical papers covering all states of India. Each thematic review as well as state-specific analytical review was prepared by an established expert in the respective area/state in close collaboration with national and state governments. The state level reviews are prepared on lines similar to what was followed for preparing the national review. Each of them deals with comprehensively on all six goals of EFA specified in the Dakar Declaration. The present paper by Venita Kaul and Deepa Sankar examines the situation with respect to Early Childhood Care and Education comprehensively dealing with school based pre-primary education programmes as well as the more widespread ICDS programme. In fact, this is an area of critical importance as increasing empirical evidence points to the value of providing pre school experience to children not only for improving their readiness for schooling but also as part of meeting their basic growth and development needs. Providing early childhood care and education is the first goal stated in the Dakar Framework for Action, and the National Plan of Action promises to take an integrated view of early childhood care and education. This elaborate exercise of assessing the progress in EFA should be viewed in the context of repeated assertions by the UNESCO Global Monitoring Report on EFA that Indian is at the risk of not making the global targets with respect to several EFA goals. The findings of the review clearly points out that the situation across the country is very diverse. While some States have registered fast progress on all fronts, some others continue to lag behind. Also in general, access to schooling has improved every where even though much remains to be done with respect to other goals of EFA. It is hoped that the various volumes brought out through the exercise would together present a realistic analysis and a disaggregated picture of the Education for All process and achievements in the country. R. Govinda Professor and Head Department of School and Non-formal Education National University of Educational Planning and Administration Education for All – Mid-Decade Assessment. vii 7 Early Childhood Care and Education Acknowledgements This comprehensive exercise of reviewing the progress of EFA has been done through active involvement and support of a large team of experts and officials from Government of India as well as various State Governments. The exercise was carried out under the constant guidance of the members of the Technical Advisory Group under the leadership of Professor A. K. Sharma. The task could not have been completed without the commitment and support of Professor Ved Prakash, Vice Chancellor, NUEPA. Special thanks are due to Smt. Anita Kaul, Joint Secretary, MHRD, Government of India who played a central role in conceiving and implementing the whole exercise. Financial support for the exercise came from UNICEF and UNESCO; in particular, thanks are due to Mr. Samphe Lhalungpa who took personal interest in ensuring that the Project is completed smoothly. We would like to record our appreciation for the technical support and cooperation given by the NUEPA Publication Unit and for printing and publishing the volumes. EFA Project Team National University of Educational Planning and Administration 8 Education for All – Mid-Decade Assessment. Early Childhood Care and Education Technical Advisory Group Professor A. K. Sharma Former Director NCERT Chairperson Professor Ved Prakash Vice Chancellor NUEPA Member Joint Secretary (EE) MHRD Member Professor R. Govinda Head Department of SNFE NUEPA Member Deputy Secretary MHRD Coordinator NUEPA Project Team Professor R. Govinda Head Department of SNFE NUEPA Project Director Dr. Mona Sedwal NUEPA Project Associate Fellow Education for All – Mid-Decade Assessment 9 Early Childhood Care and Education About the Authors ix Venita Kaul is Senior Education Specialist in World Bank. Prior to joining the Bank she was Professor and Head of Department of Preschool and Elementary Education at the NCERT. She has written extensively in the areas of Early Childhood Education and Early Primary education in the Indian context and has several books and papers to her credit. Deepa Sankar is an Education Economist with the South Asia Human Development Department of the World Bank. 10 Education for All – Mid-Decade Assessment Management of Elementary Education Contents Preface iii Editorial Note v Acknowledgements viii Technical Advisory Group ix About the Authors x Section I Introduction 1 Section II. Early Childhood Development (ECD) – The Indian Context 2 Section III ECCE –An Equity Issue 9 Section IV Providing for the Child in India Section V Coverage of ECCE Services 25 Section VI Public Spending on Children 30 Section VII Some Significant Issues and Concerns in ECCE 36 References 11 15 43 Education for All – Mid-Decade Assessment Early Childhood Care and Education SECTION I INTRODUCTION The first six to eight years of a child’s life last a lifetime!! Known as the early childhood stage, these years are considerably, and often irreversibly, reduced. This research finding places a very large percentage of children in  globally acknowledged to be the most critical years for life-long development, since the pace of development in these years is extremely rapid. Recent poverty contexts, particularly in the developing world, ‘at risk’, in terms of their life chances. â€Å"By the time poorer children in many countries reach school research in the field of neuroscience has provided convincing evidence that â€Å"experience-based brain development in the early years sets neurological and age, they are at a significant disadvantage in cognitive and social ability† (The World Bank, 2005b:132). This early childhood stage is also biological pathways that affect health,  learning and behaviour throughout life†. (Mustard, 2007:40) It is in these early years of life that critical periods are important as a foundation for inculcation of social and personal habits and values, which are known to last a lifetime. It follows logically that these located for development of several cognitive, social and psychomotor competencies, which significantly contribute to later success in life. If years are crucial and important for investing in to ensure an enabling environment for every child and thereby a sound foundation for life. This is not these critical periods are not supported by, or embedded in a stimulating and  enriching physical and psycho-social environment, the chances of the child’s only the right of every child, but will also impact in the long term, on the quality of human capital available to a country, like India, whose main asset in the brain developing to its full potential are years to come will be its ‘youth power’. Education for All – Mid-Decade Assessment 1 Early Childhood Care and Education SECTION II EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT (ECD) – THE INDIAN CONTEXT Our Cultural Heritage: Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs for children in the age group of prenatal to 6 years, derive their importance from the next. This  wealth of developmentally appropriate childcare practices is gradually becoming extinct, in the humdrum of more modern this rationale, and from the changing social, economic and demographic contexts over the last few decades that have often rendered homes ill-equipped provisions for children and changing social realities. to ensure optimal childcare. A look into India’s past cultural heritage indicates that traditionally, the early childhood years (from prenatal to five years) were are more specifically associated with changes in the family structure, from joint to nuclear, so that parenting, which was earlier a shared family  considered to lay the foundation for inculcation of basic values and social skills in children. It is believed that these values are imbibed from the responsibility, is now solely the responsibility of the parents; this responsibility is again often further delegated. While children from the family as the ‘sanskaras’ and the scriptures advocate an attitude of lalayat or indulgence, as the desirable mode of child rearing at this stage, as compared higher socio-economic strata are often left with paid surrogate care givers, in the lower socio-economic communities the responsibility of childcare gets to more disciplinary approach for the  older child! Much of the early care and education of the child was informal, within the family and largely through loaded on to the older sisters, thus keeping them often out of school and robbing them of both their childhood and basic education. In addition, the grandmothers’ caring practices, stories, lullabies and traditional infant games, handed down from one generation to growing urbanization and increase in maternal employment outside the home has further affected the possibilities of 2 Education for All – Mid-Decade Assessment In India, as elsewhere, these changes Early Childhood Care and Education  ensuring â€Å"quality informal early care and education’ for the young child within the home. It was this changing social context, over the years, which laid the however, the concept of early childhood care and education (integrating health, nutrition and education aspects) has been widely accepted. India has in this seeds for the introduction of the concept of organized Preschool Education /Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in the country. context, been able to put together a fairly supportive policy framework and has launched some major initiatives for children for this stage of development, ECCE-The Beginning: The earliest  formal documentation of preschool/early childhood education, as an organized which are discussed later in the paper. As a result, there has been noticeable, though not adequate, progress over the last fifty years, in both public and private initiative in India, dates back to the latter half of the nineteenth century when Gijubhai Badheka and Tarabai Modak, among others, became the pioneers of provision for young children. this movement in the country. Influenced by Madame Montessori’s visit to India, they established preschool education centers in Gujarat. In 1946 Three important principles of Child Development, substantiated by  research, have steered the evolution of programs for young children from just Madame Montessori met Mahatma Gandhi, who asked her to ‘indianize’ her method to make preschool education available to a large majority of children. ‘preschool education’ to the concept of more integrated and holistic Early Childho od Development programs. These principles assert that: (i) A child’s That was the beginning of ‘pre basic education’ in the rural parts of the country, largely through voluntary effort. Till India’s independence in 1947, early experiences and outcomes will determine the extent to which s/he will gain from subsequent interventions,  since child development is a continuous voluntary agencies and private institutions primarily fulfilled the need for ECCE, particularly in the form of preschool education. The first and cumulative process. A recent study in US demonstrated that by the age of 3 years, gaps in learning as measured by vocabulary are already large among government initiative in this area was the setting up of a Central Social Welfare Board in 1953, which started a grant–in–aid scheme for voluntary children from different social groups (The World Bank, 2005b); (ii) A child’s cognitive learning is affected by his/her socio-economic status, through the  agencies. Over this half century, child’s health (malnutrition, iron and Education for All – Mid-Decade Assessment 3 Differentiating ECD, ECE and ECCE Early Childhood Care and Education micronutrient deficiency, and parasitic infections) and the quality of the home environment. Health, nutrition and education/ psycho-social development education has been one of its six components, in addition to health and nutrition. The nomenclature, Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) are all synergistically inter-related, and this makes a case for addressing all needs of children through a holistic approach; and (iii) The child’s  found its due place in the policy framework in India later in 1986 when an exclusive chapter of the National Policy on Education was devoted to it. development gains will be optimized and more sustainable, if the programs address not only the child, but the child’s overall context, including the ECCE was defined, in the policy in ways similar to ECD, as an integrated and holistic concept of care and education of children between 0-6 years from socially family. Consequently, Early Childhood Development (ECD) and/or ECCE as disadvantaged groups. This provision was seen as facilitating to lay the child’s foundation for life and also a support  service for girls and working mothers. understood by Indian professionals working with young children, refers to a holistic and integrated program of nutrition, health and early childhood The policy emphasized the joyful nature of ECCE, especially for the 3-6 years olds, and discouraged any formal instruction of the 3R’s at this early stage education which caters to children from prenatal to 6/8 years and which addresses the all round development of the child from a lifecycle perspective of education. In practice, however, ECCE programs for children have assumed various nomenclatures and definitions, depending on the priority a  (See Fig 1 for an Indian Conceptual Framework). While this nomenclature of ECD is relatively recent, India has the distinction of having conceptualized and particular program serves. These include Early Childhood Education (ECE) /preschool education programs which are focused only on preschool floated perhaps the world’s largest program for children, modeled on this definition, as early as in 1975. Known as the Integrated Child Development education for 3-6 years olds (e. g. prenurseries, nurseries, kindergartens, preparatory schools, pre primary etc). These do not have any health or Services (ICDS), this program targets  children, pregnant and lactating mothers and adolescent girls from a lifecycle perspective. Non-formal preschool nutrition component, are ‘stand –alones’ or part of primary schools and generally in the non-governmental or private sector. 4 Education for All – Mid-Decade Assessment Early Childhood Care and Education Figure 2. 1: An Indian Conceptual Framework for Integrated Child Development Determinants  ¦Maternal health, nutrition adequacy and quality of care of newborn  ¦Safe delivery, family and community support for the mother and baby  ¦Environmental hygiene, safe water and sanitation Prenatal to one month Outcomes  ¦ Healthy, responsive  newborn Indicators  ¦Mother not anemic or underweight  ¦Child weighs more than 2500 grams  ¦Child moves head side to side on being stimulated Determinants One month to three years Outcomes  ¦Freedom from intermittent diseases (diarrhea acute respiratory infection)  ¦Nutritional security  ¦Curiosity, sociability  ¦Confidence selfhelp and sensory motor skills Indicators  ¦Full immunization by end of year one  ¦Completion of all prophylaxis (e. g. vitamin A) by end of 3 years  ¦Toilet trained  ¦Ability to communicate clearly and confidently  ¦ Sociability and ability to stay away from family for a few hours  ¦Appropriate height and  weight for age  ¦ Age-appropriate gross motor and auditory-visual skills Three to six years Outcomes  ¦ Interest in learning school readiness skills (language, numeracy psychosocial skills)  ¦ Activeness, selfconfidence, awareness of environment  ¦ Freedom from intermittent diseases, nutritional security  ¦ Management of any identified disability Indicators  ¦Active participation in early childhood care and education activities.  ¦ Ability to narrate experience confidently  ¦Demonstration of curiosity  ¦Age-appropriate self-help social skills  ¦Age-appropriate height weight  ¦ Regular preschool attendance  ¦Nutrition adequacy, including  exclusive breast-feeding  ¦ Responsive complementary feeding, quality of mother/caregiver-child interaction  ¦Immunization, management of diarrhea and other illnesses  ¦Health and hygiene practices  ¦Sensory motor and language stimulation and opportunities for play and exploration  ¦ Cultural attitudes and stereotypes Determinants  ¦Quality early childhood care and education.  ¦Basic healthcare services including disability screening  ¦Nutrition adequacy and incidence of intermittent diseases  ¦Literacy level of parents, educational environment at home Education for All – Mid-Decade Assessment 5 Early Childhood Care and Education Determinants.  ¦ Early childhood care and education experience/ school readiness  ¦Access to schooling  ¦Nutritional adequacy  ¦Quality of school  ¦Socio-cultural factors – extent of inclusion (gender, tribe, caste, etc. )  ¦Early detection of learning disabilities  ¦Social norm, role models and supportive home environment  ¦Safe water and sanitation, incidence of infestation and infection affecting regular attendance  ¦Female teachers Six to eight years Outcomes  ¦Sociability, selfconfidence/ selfesteem  ¦Ability to read and write, with a continued interest in learning  ¦Freedom from anemia and intermittent diseases Indicators  ¦ Demonstration of  competencies for Class 2 by end of age 8  ¦Regular attendance  ¦No worm infestation or anemia Determinants  ¦Quality of school  ¦Socio-cultural factors – inclusion (gender, tribe, caste), social norm  ¦Health promoting school  ¦Early detection of learning disabilities  ¦Infestation and infection occurrence, nutritional levels, particularly in girls  ¦Supportive home environment, community Eight to twelve + years Outcomes  ¦Successful completion of primary school with appropriate literacy and numeracy skills  ¦Active learning capacity  ¦Good health, nutrition  ¦Positive self-image  ¦Coping and social skills Indicators  ¦Regular school attendance.  ¦Eagerness to learn  ¦Sociability, activeness  ¦Demonstration of competencies for Class 5 at end of age 11  ¦Motivation and confidence to continue education Source: World Bank, 2004, pp. 12. It is now being increasingly realized that the ECCE stage itself has within it more than two distinct sub-stages, each with the first sub-stage of prenatal to three years, the developmental priority is ensuring health and nutritional wellbeing its own developmental priorities (See Figure 2. 1). ECCE can thus be further classified into the sub-stages of (a) prenatal to two and a half to three years; of the mother and child, since this is the  vulnerable stage for growth faltering and is also critical for brain development. This stage requires more of home- (b) 3- 4 years and (c) 4 to 5/6 years. For targeted 6 Education for All – Mid-Decade Assessment parent counseling in nutrition Early Childhood Care and Education and health education and in ‘early psychosocial stimulation’. For the 3-4 years olds, the priority shifts to early learning and all round development include the more structured school readiness elements. Within this integrated framework, this paper focuses especially on the latter two sub- through a more organized center-based ECCE program, using the play way  method. For the 4-6 years olds, this program gets further expanded to stages within Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), i. e. for the 3-6 years olds. Graph 2. 1 Child Development Index 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 CDI- 1993 CDI 1999 Kerala Gujarat HP Haryana Punjab Orissa UP MP Bihar 0 CDI 2006 Graph 2. 1 shows that although almost all states showed improvements in child development related parameters, the improvements varied. The states, which had already reached higher levels of child development, improved marginally, while states with very low base indicators improved faster – like Bihar and UP. However, Bihar, UP, Rajasthan and MP continue to be below the all India average figures. These states are the laggard states in terms of child development and need more focused approach to develop child related outcomes. For that, it is also important to address their provision needs, as well as the socio-economic barriers to improve child development. Education for All – Mid-Decade Assessment 7 Early Childhood Care and Education Graph 2. 2 Comparative difference in CDIs using immunization Vs malnutrition indicators (2004-06) 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10  4 indicator CDI Nagaland JK Arunachal Rajasthan Assam Manipur Bihar Uttarakhand MP Mizoram Tripura Sikkim Meghalaya Punjab All-India AP UP Orissa Delhi Chattisgarh Goa West Bengal Karnataka Gujarat Haryana Maharashtra Kerala Jharkhand TN HP 0 5 indicator CDI However, if malnutrition indicators are taken into consideration in the CDI instead of immunization, the profile in terms of absolute CDI values changes. Interestingly, this shift is more significant in the case of states which are at the higher end, for example, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala (Graph 2. 2). Possibly, with better governance, literacy levels etc, these states demonstrate higher CDI levels when education and immunization indicators are included since both and related to the quality of service delivery. However, when impact in terms of child development outcomes are included (e. g. , underweight and stunted children), the inter-state variations get narrowed down. With states like Tamil Nadu, which have a history of effective feeding programs, the deterioration in CDI values indicated in Graph 2. 2 may well raise the question â€Å"Is feeding enough to address malnutrition in children? 8 Education for All – Mid-Decade Assessment Early Childhood Care and Education SECTION III ECCE –AN EQUITY ISSUE ECCE is now emerging as a significant equity issue in the Indian context. largely an outcome of a rapid expansion of private facilities, particularly in the Despite significant expansion of the ICDS program from the eighth plan onwards, the recent NFHS-3 data shows that the status of children in the urban sector. On the other, children from the lower socio-economic strata, whose need is perhaps greater due to impoverish.