The recently held orientation programme for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) helpers marks yet another official event that highlights lofty visions and fine words about nurturing young minds. However, beneath the ceremonial speeches lies a pressing question — has early childhood care in Jammu and Kashmir truly been accorded the attention it deserves, or do such programmes remain limited to token exercises in optics and rhetoric?
Early childhood education forms the bedrock of an individual’s intellectual and emotional growth. Yet, the state of infrastructure, training, and support for those directly engaged in child care — particularly the helpers and Aayas — remains far from satisfactory. Many of them work without proper remuneration, recognition, or career progression, despite being the primary caregivers in pre-primary settings. While officials speak of “capacity building” and “child-centred learning,” the absence of consistent policy implementation and accountability makes these initiatives short-lived and superficial.
The idea of “Poshan, Pyaar aur Parvarish” is indeed noble, but it must translate into a sustainable mechanism that uplifts those at the grassroots who nurture children daily. This requires more than a day’s orientation — it calls for continuous training, better wages, and institutional respect for these workers. Moreover, the government must ensure that every anganwadi and early education centre is equipped with essential learning materials, safe infrastructure, and nutritional support, rather than leaving these centres dependent on goodwill and occasional donor interest.
If early childhood education is to truly serve as the cornerstone of development, it must move beyond slogans and ceremonial pledges. What is required is a sustained, ground-level transformation — one that empowers caregivers, modernizes learning environments, and puts the child, not the bureaucracy, at the centre of policy.
