Khalakdina - Early Child Care in India

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: BRITISH IN INDIA

Volume 6

EARLY CHILD CARE IN INDIA

Margaret Khalakdina

First published in 1979 by Gordon and Breach

This edition first published in 2017
by Routledge
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1979 Gordon and Breach, Science Publishers, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is availble from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-138-22929-7 (Set)
ISBN: 978-1-315-20179-5 (Set) (ebk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-24362-0 (Volume 6) (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-23244-7 (Volume 6) (ebk)

Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.

Early Child Care in INDIA

by
Margaret Khalakdina

GORDON AND BREACH
London New York Paris

Copyright 1979 by Gordon and Breach, Science Publishers, Inc.

Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, Inc.
One Park Avenue
New York, NY 10016

Gordon and Breach Science Publishers Ltd.
42 William IV Street
London WC2N 4DE

Gordon & Breach
7-9 rue Emile Dubois
Paris 75014

This report was made possible in part by funds granted by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the author.

This monograph was also published as a complete issue of the journal Early Child Development and Care, Volume 5, Numbers 3/4 (1979).

• Khalakdina, Margaret. Early Child Care in India.
• (International monograph series on early child care; v. 9)
• 1. Child development. 2. Socialization. 3. Child welfare - India.
• I. Title. II. Series.
• (DNLM: 1. Child care. 2. Child welfare - India. 3. Child, Preschool. WS113 K45e)
• HQ769.K46 362.7'954 77-27267
• ISBN 0-677-05140-9

Library of Congress catalog card number 77-27267. ISBN 0 677 05140 9. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Printed in Great Britain.

In most countries of the world, the decades of the 1960's and 1970's have witnessed intensified efforts to safeguard and enhance the development of infants and young children. Among nations which differ widely in their material and human resources, their industrialization and urbanization, their economic, political, and social systems, the era of early childhood is being viewed with increasing interest. A new worldwide consensus has emerged about the crucial nature of these early years and their role in the future well-being of the individual and, implicitly or explicitly, the nation. Some countries have had extensive programs for infants, young children, and their families for many years and have devoted substantial public resources to ensuring the care of the young; others have more recently established programs to serve broad sections of their populations; still others are now beginning to embark upon ambitious programs. Whatever the degree of their previous engagement in this area, however, today there tends to be a heightened enthusiasm for the potentialities of the infant and very young child.

Despite the international consensus regarding early childhood, there has been surprisingly little international communication. There have, of course, been visitors from one country to another, and especially in the fields of health care and early education there has been some interaction among professionals. For the most part, however, when windows have been opened, the viewing eyes have been those of the foreigner making all-too-brief a visit or reading literature aimed at those who already understand the social and cultural "givens." Programs viewed out of context and distorted by a foreign point of view are difficult to comprehend and significant errors of perception are a hazard often overlooked.

Yet, in all these countries there exists a hunger to learn, a conviction among responsible persons that they could profit from a thorough understanding of the systems which have emerged elsewhere. They realize, too, that knowing "the facts" alone is not sufficient, that many factors outside a program affect its effectiveness.

Recognizing this situation, and in the hope that meaningful communication among the world's professionals, citizens, and planners might be enhanced, the International Study Group for Early Child Care was established in 1969. This group of concerned professionals in early child care, each a voluntary participant and none an official representative, is comprised of specialists in education, medicine (pediatrics, psychiatry, and social medicine), psychology (developmental and social), sociology, and social welfare. The countries from which they come are, for the most part, highly urban industrial nations. Countries as diverse as France, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States take their responsibilities to their youngest citizens very seriously. Some, however, have had much more extensive experience in this field than others, and their solutions to common problems represent a broad sampling of those to be found throughout the world.

As a first step in promoting international exchange, members of the International Study Group have prepared a series of monographs describing child care in each of their countries. Each author has concentrated in particular upon his own country's arrangements for the partnership between family and state in the care of the young child. Describing specific programs has been considered only a part of this task; the focus has been upon the system of early child care within its total contextpast and present, tangible and intangible. Each of the monographs has been written according to a common outline. The reader is not expected to be knowledgeable about the country nor is it expected that he is a professional in any of the disciplines related to children; on the other hand, it is assumed that he is concerned with the welfare of children everywhere and it is hoped that he is open to new ideas and alternatives.

The distinguished group of professionals who constitute the International Study Group for Early Child Care have been exceedingly generous with their time and energies in the pursuit of an exchange of ideas and in their commitment to improving conditions for all children. They have created a hearty and viable coalition evidenced not only by the work they have accomplished but by their continuing collaboration in writing and in research. It has been our great pleasure to have been associated with them individually and collectively, and to have been a part of the sedulity and camaraderie which have characterized their activities. We should like to take this opportunity to express the gratitude of all the members to the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which has been so generous in its support of this project since its inception, and most particularly to Mrs. Barbara Finberg, Executive Associate of that organization, who has been an active participant in many of our deliberations. We should also like to thank the Rockefeller Foundation, the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, and the Institute for Social Work of Croatia, Yugoslavia, which have helped to support the annual meetings. Our primary debt, however, is to the participants in this association. They are a very special group of human beings.