Early Childhood Care

Children in the area are neglected lot as the government run anganwadi centres are defunct all over. The area has high fertility rate and there is complete lack of awareness on the part of parents regarding care of children. Sarvodaya Sewa Ashram lays considerable emphasis on the early childhood care. The children are given proper health care and nutrition and also pre-primary education.

For the operational reasons, young children are divided into two categories: One, 0 to 3 years, and, two, 3 to 6 years.

For the children in 0 to 3 years, Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Centres have been set up. These ECCD Centres are locally called Balwadis. The children are provided health and nutrition from these Balwadis. All the children enrolled in ECCD Centres are fully immunised against the six killer diseases.

For the children in 3-6 years, Early Child and Development Centres (ECDCs) have been set up. At present 32 ECDCs are running in three districts, seven blocks and 95 hamlets, catering to 1,118 children, out of whom 441 are girls and 677 boys. The ECDCs have 32 female teachers and four male teachers.

The remarkable feature of ECDCs is that entire families of the children enrolled is taken care of by providing services like livelihood and health.