Statement of Intent with NITI Aayog

Bal Raksha Bharat India has signed a SoI (Statement of Intent) with NITI Aayog on March 29th to contribute towards aspirational districts across three states (Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha) to improve indicators on early childhood care and education and health & nutrition. The SoI was signed by NITI Aayog’s DDG (Eval.) Rakesh Ranjan, and Bal Raksha Bharat’s CEO Bidisha Pillai in the presence of NITI Aayog’s CEO Shri Amitabh Kant.

The partnership is of two years. We believe that with this collaboration we will be able to reach the last mile in the selected aspirational districts with a focus on early and right start that children need for better outcomes on health and education indicators that are under monitoring at the District level.

The SoI includes the following

• Evidences from ECCE programmes towards school readiness, better retention, learning outcome and transition to higher grades.
• Be part of District Review meetings and support district Administration on ECCE and nutrition programmes through capacity building of district officials.
• Support District Administration in converging funds from different schemes impact children between 3 to 6 years of age.

A focus on ECCE is one of Bal Raksha Bharat’s Centenary Commitments. By providing ‘the right start’ in the early years, when it matters most, ECCE has immense potential to change the lives of children from the marginalised section and groups of society. Bal Raksha Bharat believes working towards provision of Early Childhood Care and Education as one of the key strategies that will prepare children with the required school readiness skills which will thereby improve the quality of learning in primary schools.