Executive Summary

The age group of 3-6 years is very critical for the overall development of a child. During this phase, the
life of a human being has the maximum growth in terms of development of cognitive, gross motor, fine
motor, language and social skills. More importantly, nutritional requirements of the children should be
taken care to ensure their holistic development, as India seems to be having child stunted growth as a
major issue. India is close to achieving universal enrolment for children in the age group of 6-14 years.
Even though the children are enrolled they fail to score on learning.

This project is a pan India campaign with all United Ways across India. It happened with the success
story of United Way’s Born Learning Campaign in 2012 in Bengaluru reaching out to 250 students as a
pilot project. United Way of Chennai then followed the path of UWB and implemented a Born Learning
Campaign in 10 anganwadis supported by the HT Parekh Foundation. (Annexure: 1) The overall goal
of United Way of Chennai is to directly reach out to over 400,000 beneficiaries across 10,000
Anganwadis in 5 major districts of Tamil Nadu. The project would be executed over a period of five to
ten years depending on the funding position. The total budget for the entire program costs 5,000,000,000
INR, while UWC’s request to L&T Construction is for 10 Anganwadis at the rate of 5 lakh rupees
each (Annexure II).
The key areas would include enhancing early learning skills with ECCE (Early Childhood Care
and Education) in place, preparing mothers on early child care through education, improving
the infrastructure of the Anganwadis and strengthening a community led ownership towards
sustenance of the project.

1
The project will be executed by United Way of Chennai with our wide expertise while the actual
implementation will also be carried forward jointly and in partnership with the Department of ICDS
who has been credibly working for the cause for several years. UNICEF will handhold UWC with the
required training on ECCE to the teachers and the staff who will be placed at the centres. They will
have a grass root hold in the rural areas along wide experiences in working with child centric programs
having education and learning as their prime focus areas. United Way of Chennai will also use related
NGO partners, who have implemented joint programs/projects in the past. (Refer: UWC Annual
Report). The ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) under the leadership of Mr. Manivasan
IAS will strategise the project for UWC.

Project execution will include stakeholder identification, government-linked relations, training the
trainers, capacity building, laying the project strategic outlay, monitoring and evaluation, documentation
and reporting, would be some of the key areas that UWC steers to ensure the cohesiveness of the project
implementation.

The Total estimate budget for the 10 Anganwadis is INR 50,00,000/- with the budget estimate per
Anganwadi (Annexure II) being INR 5,00,000/-. 


2
Index

1. Introduction ...........................................................................4
2. United Way of Chennai and CSR Partnerships ................. 4
3. Review of Literature .............................................................5
4. What we aim and what it should be.....................................10
5. A. Goal 11
A. Specific Objectives............................................................11
B. Strategies 11
C. Baseline Study................................................................... 12
D. Major Activities ................................................................13
E. Project Location ................................................................15
F. Beneficiaries 15
G. Stakeholders 16
H. Expected Outcomes........................................................... 17
I. Monitoring and Evaluation Indicators ............................18
J. Sustainability and Scalability Plans ................................19
K. Roles of Organizations, Individuals and UWC……… 20
M. Budget 21
N. Branding ............................................................................21
Annexure – I: Pilot Project by United Way of Chennai on Born Learning
Annexure – II: Detailed budget break up for 10 Anganwadis for L&T
Construction

3
1. Introduction

United Way of Chennai (UWC) is a part of United Way Worldwide which is a $5.18
billion network of more than 4,000 local non-profit organizations operating in 46
countries and territories that work to advance the common good of communities by
focusing on education, income and health.

As the national representative of United Way Worldwide, United Way of India works
to improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities. Local United Ways
are located in Baroda, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai
and each chapter works independently to create long-lasting community change by
addressing the underlying causes of the most significant social issues.

United Way of Chennai (UWC), a registered society in Chennai, is a secular, non-

partisan, non-political, non-profit, non-government, organization dedicated to
improving lives in Tamil Nadu by identifying and addressing the long-term needs of
communities. UWC aims to help develop, support and strengthen community service
projects and improve lives by acting as an intermediary between the corporate and the
development sector, promoting corporate social responsibility and working as a catalyst
to increase the flow of resources from all parts of society for community and social
development projects.

2. United Way of Chennai and CSR partnerships: UWC is seen as a change maker,
working to fight for the Health, Education, & Financial Stability of EVERY
community, by tackling the biggest and most pressing issues of society. In addition,
UWC also works an interface between corporate houses and the NGOs who together
implement some of the strong and stabilised projects/programs in Tamil Nadu those
which are sustainable and scalable. UWC pays special attention to the due diligence
processes it follows while supporting a project.

Factors such as past track record of an NGO, internal competencies, operational

4
efficiency, & urgency of the need are taken into account while NGO partnerships occur.
The unflinching desire to give to society enables us to foster strong and lasting
partnerships which inevitably go on to create an even larger impact in the years to
come. United Way of Chennai has been implementing Corporate CSR initiatives for
Symrise Private limited, HCL Technologies, Caterpillar Private Limited, CAMS online,
KPMG, GE, ICICI Pru, HDFC Bank, etc. in partnerships with credible NGOs. There is
an enormous value add service that is rendered in our partnerships in ways of correct
and uplifting strategies to the projects, strong monitoring and impact indicators (MIS)
to be maintained which then assures you 80% of the planned implementation,
additional and shared resources that are required from time to time, accuracy,
sustainability etc. The partnerships are always lauded and documented.

3. Review of Literature:
A. India Achieving Universal Education - With the percentage of school enrolment
staying at 96 percent or above for six years in a row as of 2014, it is encouraging to
note that India is close to achieving universal enrolment for children in the age group
of 6-14 years. The January 2015 Davos report on Corporate Social Responsibility
for India points out that 100 top Corporate’s and 21 public sector undertakings
(PSUs) contributed USD 57.9 million in education related Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) activities, between 2011 – 2012. These are very encouraging
figures that shows critical stakeholders’ keen interest to educate children in India.

B. Quality of Education Deplorable - While reaching universal enrolment is a

significant milestone, the daunting reality is that there are immense unmet
challenges. Children are enrolled but fail to learn.
The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2014 points out that, about half of
the children enrolled in Standard V in schools across India cannot read Standard II
level books. Furthermore, the report highlights that there is a visible decline in

5
 reading abilities of children in upper primary grades. Understanding Mathematics is
another more serious concern. The percentage of children in Std. II, who still cannot
recognize numbers up to 9, has increased over time from 11.3 percent in 2009 to
19.5 percent in 2014. There are several factors which affect the quality of students’
school experience in India. One of the major challenges has been providing a
foundation for learning, listening and speaking in children, studying between
standard I & II.

C. Reasons for the deplorable situation - World Bank research points out that,
between the age group of 3 – 6 years, the child develops very critical skills which
determine how he or she will perform in regular schools when they enter standard
One. The skills are socialization, psychosocial interaction, play and readiness for
school. If these skill-sets are encouraged at a young age, it helps improve a child’s
performance by increasing interest in learning, school readiness skills (language,
numeracy and psychosocial skills), activeness, self-confidence and awareness of the
environment, all of which increase the child’s self - esteem and predict later life
success. Pre-school programs are crucial for not only providing children with these
skills but also to monitor and manage nutritional security, intermittent diseases or
any identified disability.

D. Children out of Early Childhood Development and Care - Census 2011 data
shows that, out of 158.7 million children in the below six years category, only 75.7
million children i.e. 48 per cent are covered under Integrated Child Development
Scheme (ICDS) of Government of India, which focuses on children under six. At a
broader level, the Census 2011 data points out that, 52 per cent children are enrolled
in schools without going through Early Childhood Care and Education in ICDS
centers.
It has been noted that this gap affects the children’s performance in school which
often leads to several complications at later stage such as, struggling to cope-up with
6
 studies, low self-confidence, peer pressure etc. resulting in school dropouts at a
young age.

E. Government Intervention: Launched on 2nd October 1975, ICDS Scheme

represents one of the world’s largest and the most unique programs for early
childhood development. ICDS is the foremost symbol of India’s commitment to her
children – India’s response to the challenge of providing pre-school education on
one hand and breaking the vicious cycle of malnutrition, morbidity, reduced learning
capacity and mortality, on the other.

The ICDS Scheme was launched in 1975 with the following objectives:
• To improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age-group of 0-6
years.
• To lay the foundation for proper psychological, physical and social development
of the child.
• To reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school
dropout.
• To achieve effective co-ordination of policy and implementation amongst the
various departments to promote child development.
• To enhance the capability of the mother to look after the normal health and
nutritional needs of the child through proper nutrition and health education.

The above objectives were sought to be achieved through a package of services

comprising:
• Supplementary nutrition,
• Immunization,
• Health check-up,
• Referral services,
• Pre-school non-formal education and

7
 • Nutrition & health education.

F. Decline in Government Commitment - While this holistic scheme was launched

every year, the budget allocation from respective State and Central Government and
effective utilization of the allocated funds have been always a challenge. The
situation has become grimmer in 2015 – 2016, where the central Government has
further reduced the overall allocation of funds for children. ‘Down to Earth’ an
International Magazine on Development Issues Globally has termed this reduction
“The most drastic cut in child budget so far”. It is worrisome that the allocation for
Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) has declined from Rs 18,195 crore
in 2014-15 (BE) to Rs 8,335.77 crore in 2015-16 (BE). This decline in union budget
is going to negatively impact ICDS program further and, would make early learning
and development a distance dream for parents of about 187.5 million children in
India.
With the central budget coming down in 2015-2016 for children under six, the
challenges to ensure holistic early childhood development will increase many folds.
Some of the challenges are mentioned below:
• Unequal Financial Allocation – The burden on respective State government
has increased due to decline in the central Government budget for children
less than six years of age. This would result in deteriorating conditions of
infrastructure and overall operations of the Anganwadi centres.
• Appointing and training Anganwadi workers – Anganwadi workers are
very critical in ensuring that children grow healthy in our community.
Anganwadi workers are less paid, overburdened with, at times as they are
asked to manage other centres. Also, they are asked to undertake other ‘Non-
Anganwadi’ tasks such as family planning target, formation of self-help
groups, cooking mid-day meals at the school, election duties, census, pulse
polio and other government related work. This negatively impacts the work

8
 at the Anganwadi centre. With all this the anganwadi worker has a less
recognition of her wok status too.
• Supplementary nutrition and early learning – Since the entire burden has
come on the State Government, providing supplementary nutrition and early
learning would also be a challenge and would impact negatively. The base
line shows that the early learning and supplement nutrition cannot be
simultaneously performed with quality.
• Stake holder engagement – Ensuring that our children are growing healthy,
have access to age appropriate learning is not only parents and teachers
responsibilities. It is critical to ensure that the society is aware of the
challenges and play a role in addressing these issues. While it is built in the
Government Anganwadi program, effective implementation has been an
issue. Moreover in the light of the situation, at present the prevailing
situation in our country is witnessing increase in migration to big cities from
rural India, this model needs to be re-looked. This would need more
resources.
• Monitoring – Monitoring the physical growth and early learning abilities of
st
children always has been a challenge. Today, being in 21 Century, data is

stored in clouds and online spaces however, children data in Anganwadi

centers are yet to be digitalised. This is a huge challenge in monitoring
children’s’ growth.

4. What we aim at and what it should be:

a. School Readiness- Are children entering school (literally 1st standard) with
adequate social, linguistic and cognitive skills to reach optimal school
achievement? It becomes essential to differentiate between readiness to learn and
readiness for school. The former is in-born and present from birth till death,
while the latter is preparedness to succeed in a formal institutional set-up and as
such is a sub-set of the former. School readiness encompasses broad

9
developmental achievements as well as specific skill sets and competencies.
Most definitions will include:

• Physical well being

• Social and emotional health

• Independent learning habits

• Language development for age-appropriate expressive and receptive

communication, and vocabulary

• Cognitive processes like attention, memory, problem solving, creative

thinking etc.
• General knowledge regarding the environment surrounding the child

• Pre-academic skills for learning of literacy and numeracy

10
b. Anganwadi Center Infrastructure
In order to ensure optimal benefits from education and to deliver all the
following developments and competencies in the children, an Anganwadi Centre
requires certain basic facilities to be provided to the children. A sample list of
the infrastructure needs is given below:
▪ Safe - construction and playground
▪ Secure- complete absence of punishment, abuse or violence
▪ Inclusive - to all genders, religions, and socio-economic backgrounds
▪ Healthy - delivering correct nutrition, vaccination and deworming
▪ Hygienic- sanitation, drinking water, clean Anganwadi Centre and cooking
areas
▪ Stimulating environment- linguistically and intellectually

c. Community Involvement
As is a popular belief, it takes an entire village to bring up a child, so it takes the
entire community to ensure maximum outcomes from educational inputs to
children. This effort must start right from birth.

▪ Positive child-care behaviors- regarding all areas like health, nutrition and
psychological well-being in the parents (specifically mothers, as they are the
designated primary care-giver).
▪ Stimulating home environment - healthy, linguistically and intellectually
rich.
▪ Parental awareness of the importance of health, hygiene and early education.
▪ Activation of the community towards early childhood health, hygiene and
education- through the revival and energization of the Bal Vikas Samitis/
Equivalent community monitoring agencies of each Anganwadi Centre.

11
5. A. Overall Goal: Ensuring school readiness through holistic development among
children under six using the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) model.

B. Specific Objectives:
In the Districts of Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, & Chennai the project will target at least
80% of children fewer than 6 years at the Anganwadis, over a period of three years.

a. Ensuring access to a conducive optimal learning environment by

strengthening the supplement service delivery mechanism and supporting the
training and development in Anganwadis.
b. Ensuring critical stakeholders participation by providing access to
appropriate health, hygiene and nutrition awareness through the active
involvement of the community stake holders themselves with special
emphasis on the parent groups, as health, hygiene and nutrition have a
significant impact on the learning outcomes among children.

C. Strategies: Thus the project aims to identify and fulfil the needs in the environment
in order to ensure that each child enters the formal primary schooling system “ready
for school”. This will be done by applying a dual-component model for holistic and
sustained intervention.

Component 1 - Engagement at the center level, with the direct beneficiaries being
children in age group of 3-6 years. This component of the program will ensure
adequate infrastructure in the Anganwadi Centre required for optimal learning to
occur in the children. This involves identifying and addressing the gaps in the
Anganwadi Centre which may disrupt the learning processes for children aged 3-6
years’ vis-à-vie
• Learning space- adequate, clean, hygienic and well ventilated
• Teaching learning equipment’s- Age appropriate and
pedagogically sound
• Facilities - outdoor space, kitchen, safe water and sanitation

11
Practices of health, hygiene, nutrition and sanitation in the

Anganwadi Centre.


12
! !
• Providing a supportive staff to the Anganwadi centers that will

model and conduct the learning transactions in the centre at a

fixed frequency and for a specific duration.

Component 2- Active engagement with the community to create awareness and

sustainable action on the factors affecting school readiness and learning outcomes in
children from birth to 6 years - child health and hygiene, and Nutrition. This will involve
the following:
• Actively engaging with the primary caregivers of children such
as the mothers under 6 years of age with specific attention to
child-rearing practices addressing - Child health, hygiene,
nutrition.
• Actively engaging with the community in the care and
development of children aged birth- 6 years of age focusing on
the activation and energizing of the Bal Vikas Samiti, for the
purpose of sustained engagement by the Bal Vikas Samiti in areas
of child health, community hygiene, nutritional practices and
effectiveness of the preschool education and school readiness.

D. Baseline Study – A detailed survey of the situation in the Anganwadi Centers will
be undertaken by United Way of Chennai. A 10% of the total number of centers will
be covered under the base line survey. The survey will focus on the services being
provided at the Anganwadi centers, namely:

• Physical condition of the Anganwadi Centre

• Knowledge of parents especially of mothers on early development requirements
of the children.
• Skill sets of Anganwadi teachers and helpers

12
• Access to early learning materials
• Access to healthy nutritious supplementary food

13
! !
• Availability and effectiveness of instruments to monitor child’s growth
• Methods of documenting child’s progress
• Child health and nutrition
• Role of Bala Vikas Samiti and details of implementation
The base line survey will be done with the help of the Anganwadi teachers of the ICDS
centers at every block development office. However, if there is an availability of a
readymade Base Line and if it suits the parameters mentioned in the document, the data
could then be used.

E. Major Activities:

a. Objective 1: Ensuring access to a conducive optimal learning environment

by enhancing the supplement service delivery mechanisms and supporting
the training and development in Anganwadis.
▪ Improve the physical condition of the Anganwadi Centers – Assessment
will be done to identify important infrastructural gaps and erect them.
▪ Ensure clean drinking water facility – Low cost purification
▪ Enough utensils to serve & cook food –low weight utensils for easy
cleaning
▪ Toilet and hand wash facilities – WASH program to be implemented
▪ Proper lighting and ventilation – smokeless kitchen

▪ Provide early learning materials to the children – follow the ECCE

methodology
▪ Install a Pratham Books library for children between 3 – 6 years of age
▪ Train the teachers and volunteers to read the stories and ensure they
follow the correct methodology.
▪ Ensure the instruments to monitor child’s growth is functioning
effectively
▪ Provide additional staff support to shoulder responsibilities of the teacher
for documentation (electronically)

13
 ▪ Spread awareness among the mothers on nutritional requirements of the
children – set up individual kitchen gardens
▪ Ensure food served in the Anganwadi centre are hygienic and nutritive –
Monitoring and Evaluation process.
▪ Facilitate regular health check-up campaigns and record the children’s
health status.
▪ To support training and development requirements of the Anganwadi
workers.
▪ Baseline study of training requirements will be undertaken with the help
of experts
▪ To identify Government run training programs and strengthen the
program.
▪ Identifying the gaps in training requirements and make availability for
refreshing courses and presentations.
▪ Re-designing the training module if essential and administrating the same

b. Objective 2: Ensuring critical stakeholders participation by providing access

to appropriate health, hygiene and nutrition awareness through the active
involvement of the community stake holders themselves with special
emphasis on the parent groups, as health, hygiene and nutrition have a
significant impact on the learning outcomes among children.

▪ Demographic Analysis of the stake holders of the project.

▪ Bal Vikas Samiti Surveys
▪ Monthly mothers meetings with to address health, hygiene and nutrition.
▪ Regularizing and supporting regular meetings of Bal VikasSamiti
▪ Organizing health camps under 6 with Bal Vikas Samiti
▪ Organizing regular awareness drives for health, sanitation and nutrition
with Bal Vikas Samiti
▪ Constant discussions with stakeholders
▪ Right identification of stakeholders and their motivation

14
 ▪ Stakeholders to be included within the system and their involvement to
be rightly specified and followed.
▪ Ensure risk perceptions and mitigating them now and then so as to have
a strong system of stakeholder’s participation.
▪ Form / reactivate mothers forum
▪ Facilitate monthly meeting with teachers and mothers
▪ Hold quarterly meeting with CDPO
▪ Mobilize volunteers from neighborhood to participate in children’s
activities on the regular basis.
▪ Corporate Volunteers Engagement – Supporting learning activities in the
anganwadi centers, Painting Anganwadi centres, creating early learning
materials, activities with children in the centers, Supporting community
to celebrate Mother’s day, children’s day, intra Anganwadi centre
activities, organizing competitions and sports events.
F. Project Location: The overall project would look at covering 10,000 anganwadis
rural and urban keeping Chennai as the focal point. However, for L&T
Construction, the project will cover 10 Anganwadis in Chennai.

District No. of
Anganwad
i centers
Thiruvallur 2040
Chennai 1166
Kancheepuram 2130
Villupuram 2788
Cuddalore 1876
Total 10000

15
G. Beneficiaries:
We will be able to reach out to nearly 10,00,000 people directly which include
5,00,000 children aged 3 – 6 years, 1,50,000 mothers, 60,000 lactating mothers/
pregnant women along with infants and about 10,000 adolescent girls apart from the
secondary and tertiary stake holders. (Data for total Project). For L&T
Construction, we will reach out to more than 400 families, 400 children in the age
group of 0-6 years and nearly 200 adolescent girls.

16
H. Stakeholders: Following are the critical stakeholders which this project will
engage:

Primary • Children - Anganwadi is the only multipurpose centre which

can give them an affordable and easily accessible space with
health, nutrition and education at no cost.
• Mothers – Primary care givers for whom the ICDS is the
only affordable and accessible option. They are from low
social income usually the labor communities with very less
or no education.
• Families – Emotional bonding being supplied to children for
better living.
• Anganwadi Teachers and Helpers – Primary care givers next
to mothers. Foundation of learning, health and nutrition are
supplied by these people.
• Village health nurses – Easy reach to ante natal mothers
through anganwadis.
• Elected Councilors and panchayat leaders -

• Government Department – Generally the policy and funds for

Secondary the anganwadis are supplied by the government to nearly
75% of the people.
• Community Leaders – Elected and Traditional
• Subject Matter Specialists – will disseminate all information
and growth, challenges faced with the children and
anganwadi, research etc.
• Civil Society Organizations working for children below six –
NGOs who can be used to implement the programs
at large levels.

Key • Corporate Partners – Volunteering in anganwadis

Stake holders • Colleges and other institutions – students who come under
CSR reporting.
• Media
• Bal Vikas Committee - is a committee of Community
representatives who are expected to monitor and support the
community Anganwadi Centre. This committee includes
local elected representatives and parents along
with the staff of the centre.

17
I. Expected outcomes:
• Growth appropriate development of all the children - enhanced early learning
abilities such as gross motor, fine motor, sensory, cognitive, social, linguistic and
personal skills.
• Enlightened mothers and young girls with adequate knowledge on nutritional
techniques and early childcare practices which include hand wash and sanitation.
• Fathers showing interest in the betterment of the child’s future especially if they are
the first generation learners expected to complete under graduation or post
graduation.
• Better learning environment for children at the Anganwadis and full use of the
centre.
• Government departments having several schemes to encourage mothers involving
with the anganwadi maintenance and environment.
• Visibility of the presence of nearby Anganwadi to the entire community in a 5 kms
radius from the Anganwadi itself.
• All children will be provided with a conducive learning environment and teaching

learning materials to achieve the school readiness required for entry to formal
schooling (Primary Grades).
• All Bal/AnganwadiVikas Samitis will be constituted and activated to support the

local Anganwadi Centre in all its activities including early childhood education,
health and nutrition.
• All Bal / AnganwadiVikas Samitis will run and monitor regular programs for health
checkups for children below 6 years of age.
• All Bal / AnganwadiVikas Samitis will run and monitor regular programs for awareness
regarding hygiene and sanitation and optimal nutrition for children below 6 years of age.
• All Bal / AnganwadiVikasSamitis will provide a platform for mothers’ meetings for the
awareness building regarding good practices for health, hygiene , sanitation and nutrition
at home children below 6 years of age.

17
J. Monitoring and Evaluation Indicators:

Resourced Mobilized:
- No. of new
infrastructural
components added to
the anganwadis
- No. of learning materials
provided
- No. of volunteer hours spent
- No. of volunteer participation
- No. of hours given by
the community stake
holders
- Community contribution
- Company Contribution
Total no. of hours and
money invested into the

Systems Improved Interim Outcomes

- No. of participating Anganwadis - No. of children with

- No. of participating mothers decreased incidences
- No. of meetings held by of gastro intestinal
Bala VikasSamiti
diseases
- No. of trainings had for teachers
- No. of volunteers serving
- No. of children
as mentors
- No. of health camps had with increased
for children and no’s growth
attended developmental
- No. of sports activity had skills
for children and no’s
attended - No. of children who
could repeat words,

Services Reached

- No. of children
attending anganwadis
- No. of mothers involved
with anganwadis
- No. of volunteers involved
with the anganwadi work
- No. of media reporting on
the project

18
K. Sustainability & Scalability Plans:
• Mothers’ Committee will be trained to monitor the functioning of the Anganwadi.
The goal would be such that the respective mothers have an ownership towards the
functioning of the anganwadi. The mothers would be considered to be the major
enablers of this project.
• Mothers will also be taught to cook nutritious meals from locally available food
grains. They project will enable them to realize the worth of their children being
benefitted through the intake of nutritious food which is chemical free. The attitude
thereafter will encourage them to take in charge of establishing the quality of food
been given to their own children in the Anganwadis.
• The teachers of the Anganwadis will be trained to use early learning materials. The
teachers would have to be made to feel that they are the first masters of feeding
children on learning which is then going to be what they are in the future. The feel
of responsibility and productivity will increase midst the teachers when they begin
to feel that the outcome of every child he/she would be in the future lies in her nurture
and molding. Constant recognition of these early bird teachers in the lives of children
will go a long way in their productivity.
• Collaboration with the concerned Government departments to ensure quality
services. Sensitization of the fact that most children fail to learn when they grow
older, becomes a drop out or performs badly in academics is because they are either
badly molded while they are young or the foundation is not so strong on learning
and development in their younger years. It is much easier to bring about effective
results within the rural sectors with the involvement of Panchayat leaders using the
self help groups and NREGA where in the primary stake holders such as the mothers
and fathers are a part of the group.

19
 Pumping in the responsibilities within the primary stake holders should be done at
levels where they see commercials like the self help groups and the NREGA so that
a commitment can be developed. This can be facilitated by creating a sense of
responsibility midst the respective sector officials to incorporate the necessary
boosting and motivational factors within the sectors. For instance NREGA would
give an additional benefit of 500/- to each mother who ensures 100% attendance of
their children within anganwadis.
• Working with Bala VikasSamiti - Regularizing and supporting regular meetings of
Bal VikasSamiti, Organizing Regular health camps for children aged 0-6 years with
Bal VikasSamiti, Organizing Regular awareness drives for health, sanitation and
nutrition with Bal VikasSamiti.

L. Roles of Organizations, Individuals and United Way of Chennai:

United Way of Chennai will be overall in charge of the project in terms of its
concept, activities, outcome and impact. The major donor will have all information
and discussions done only with United Way of Chennai. UWC will also be in charge
of high level discussions with the State Government and the implementing NGOs.
UWC will be in charge to implement the joint decisions taken by the Tamilnadu
Government with the help of NGOs. UWC will be in charge to ensure the decisions
being filtered through the implementing NGOs to the beneficiaries. The overall
trainings, meetings, strategies for the implementation will be done by UWC for all
the implementation NGOs. UWC will bring about the overall branding and
communication materials supported and agreed upon by all stake holders. Overall
monitoring and evaluation indicators will be developed and maintained by UWC
and will ensure done by the NGO partners. UWC will also be in charge to
identification of NGOs, due diligence performed, finalization of the implementing
NGOs after the transparent selection process is carried on. UWC will also have the
final say on the utilization of resource persons and specialists to be involved with
the project all through the implementation process.
20
21
M. Budget: The total cost to run one Anganwadi benefiting approximately 120 people
including children, mother and adolescent girls will be around INR. 5,00,000 per
annum (Five Lakhs of Rupees only).
Extrapolating this, the total cost to cover all the anganwadis district-wise will be:
Thiruvallur INR 1,026,000,000
Chennai INR 588,500,500
Kancheepuram INR 1,072,500,000
Villupuram INR 1,400,000,000
Cuddalore INR 944,500,000
Please find the detail break-up of the budget in Annexure II

N. Branding:
• All collaterals such as learning materials, posters, infrastructural developments,
correspondence to all concerned regarding the project will have the born learning
logo which will be publicised widely.
• Two colours will be chosen as the born learning colours to be used in all
collaterals throughout the project.
• There will be a ceremonial and a customised tune/song that will start the day in
all Anganwadis reminding all on school readiness. This theme song will be sung
with all programs that is associated with the born learning/school readiness
events.
• There will be a brand ambassador selected for the born learning program who
will talk on school readiness in his/her professional up lift as well he/she will
take part in the major programs that would propagate school readiness as a part
of the born learning program. The brand ambassador will be a celebrity from any
one of the following which includes but not limited to education, media, UN
agencies, Corporate heads, etc.

21
• There will be items such as pens, T.Shirts, books, pamphlets; pen stands etc,
which will be publicized with born learning logos and information. This will be
used as propagating items for the cause.
• Every Anganwadi could be painted with one uniform colour so that it is branded
throughout.
• NREGA cards that are given to rural people can be branded on the cover page
with the information and with the choice of the branded color used for painting
all Anganwadis.
• There would always be a slum nearer to the Anganwadis in the urban centres –
can brand one side of the walls of the houses within the slums and with
information on born learning and readiness to schools.
• The youth in the urban slums closer to the Anganwadis may have youth clubs
and tuition centres which can be branded as follows – messages on early learning
and school readiness painted on the walls of the tuition centres, pictures of the
Anganwadi activities stuck on the multipurpose room – towards a great
visibility.
• A day could be dedicated for born learning and celebrated in the L&T
Construction offices in Tamil Nadu where the project is being implemented with
various branding materials and communication programs.

22
Annexure – I : Pilot Project on Born Learning with
United Way of Chennai & HT Parekh Foundation

| |

23
 Titl Page
e Number

1 About Born Learning Project 25

2 Before and after report status of Anganwadis 26

3 Previous situation of Anganwadi (Before 26

March)

4 Converting to Community driven 26

Anganwadi (March 2017 –
May 2017)

5 Converting into a holistic child 27

development (May 2017 –
August 2017)

6 Key highlights of events conducted in 30

Anganwadis – Vegetable
Print

7 Key highlights of events conducted in Anganwadis 31

– Annual day event

8 Details of Anganwadi refurbishment project - 37

Chetpet

9 Before and after look of Mural Painting 40

10 Summary 45

24
Introduction
United way Chennai in its born learning programme adopted 10 Anganwadi centres
in and around the Chennai city to refurbish, develop and upgrade the Anganwadi
Centres. UWC partners with ICDS and UNICEF in achieving the goals of the project.

Partnership with UNICEF

UNICEF plays a major role in guiding and making all the decisions related to
Anganwadi development and in addition funds all the training programme for the
field extenders and other ICDS staffs.
Partnership with ICDS
The Anganwadi centres are executed by the integrated child development service.
Any discussions, decisions or further steps with regard to any line items of the
Anganwadis will be proceeded with the help and permission of the ICDS.

Goal
Around 80% of the children enrolled in 10,000 Anganwadis will excel in school
readiness as they move on to regular schools from the Anganwadis from the age of
7years.

Objective
At least 85% of the children in the community are enrolled for the ECCE

programme. At least 90% of children regularly attend or participate at least

three days per week

At least 80% children improve their hygiene behaviour of using toilets and washing
hands with soap before eating.

At least 90% parents have informed knowledge on developmentally appropriate ECE practices

At least 80% parents have appropriate knowledge on the linkage between the
hygiene practices and health.

25
The status of Anganwadi

Before After

✓ Anganwadi teachers are ✓ United Way Chennai have

unable to focus on Early
childhood care and education
since they have other
miscellaneous works done in
community
✓ Since the condition of the
Anganwadi is not that good
the percentage of children
coming to Anganwadi is
reducing
✓ Only half of the children can
come by themselves the rest
of them are bought by
A n g a n w a d i h e l p e r. T h i s
create a gap in following
ECCE syllabus properly.
recruited one Field Extenders
for each Anganwadis so that
they can work and coordinate
together to strengthen
the
communityparticipation.
✓ Infrastructure and mural
work is going on to make the
school child friendly so that
the children will be excited
to come to school.
✓ By organising the monthly
event parents are getting to
know more about the
Anganwadi and making an
impact on children.
✓ Field Extenders are
requested by the UWC to
maintain a baseline survey
to measure the impact.

Previous situation of Anganwadi (Before March)

• Anganwadi teachers are unable to focus on Early childhood care and education
since they have other miscellaneous works done in community.
• Since the physical condition of the Anganwadi’s had major gaps in their
structures, children were not ready to attend nor were their mothers ready to
send them.
• Only half the children attend the anganwadis on their own where as the rest are
brought in by Anganwadi helpers. Therefore majority of the children are not
exposed to all components of ECCE.
• Since they don’t have a proper community support they are unable to conduct
regular meetings with the beneficiaries.

Converting to Community driven Anganwadi (March 2017 – May 2017)

✓ One Field extender for each anganwadi was recruited in the mid of March 2017.
✓ Monthly events were conducted for children with the involvement of
community members. This could help us with the setting up of the Bal Vikas
Seva Samiti and equally strengthening them.
✓ Currently only few parents are attending the community events. Most of

26
them do not attend as they bring in work as an excuse.

27
✓ Field extenders and the teachers will visit the community usefully,
meaningfully and increase their number of visits to the anganwadi. This will
help to build a good rapport and to increase the involvement of community
at the Anganwadis.
✓ The Anganwadi will be in such a way that they have their community
supporting the teachers and the children.
✓ Apparently the level of community involved in Anganwadi will stay high.
✓ Six Anganwadis have Murals done by Cognizant volunteers and other College
students and paints sponsored by Nippon paints.
✓ The entire refurbishment of the anganwadis are completed.

Converting into a holistic child development

(May 2017 – August 2017)

✓ Health Measurement will be done by monitoring the everyday food menu

that is available in each of the anganwadis, while the helpers of the
anganwadis will also ensure that the child consumes at least 70% of the
food given to them on a daily basis.
✓ Distribution of protein powder will be recorded.
✓ The aspects of the Hygiene is measured by the use of clean vessels,
hand wash, washing legs after visiting the bathroom, toilets kept clean
etc.
✓ Effective training of the teachers helps in curriculum building and follow up.
✓ Increase of community participation through joint events.
✓ To bridge the gap between the Anganwadi and the community through
Field extenders so that there will be a smooth flow of functioning at
the Anganwadi.
✓ Refurbishment of the anganwadis, giving a good ambience through mural
paintings, availability of play materials and toys, conducing effective events
for the children through community engagement will strengthen the
attendance levels of the children at anganwadis.

27
 COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITIES

Venue - Ashok Nagar (2nd Avenue -2 centers), Kilpauk (T.P.Chathiram,

KVN.Puram) ,Chetpet, Velachery, Besant Nagar, Thousand Light, Pudupet,Chepauk

Introduction -
United Way Chennai in its Born Learning Campaign appointed and trained 10 field
extenders who officially started working in their respective Anganwadi centers from
13th March, 2017. The Field extenders in collaboration with the Anganwadi teacher
and helper plan and organise each month, a community activity as an Anganwadi
Group Activity with the support and participation from the community people.

Objective -
· To encourage and attract the children of the community.
· To promote the Anganwadi center into a community-owned central location
within the community.
· To understand the relationship between the Anganwadi workers, Field
extenders and members of the community.
· To understand the challenges faced by the Field extenders while engaging
with the local communities.
· To understand the difficulties faced by the Anganwadi worker, helper and the
field extenders in organising the activity.

28
March 2017

ACTIVITY NAME : Holi Celebration

Outcome -
· The 10 Anganwadi centers had a very good response from the community people.
· This activity encouraged the community people to start getting involved with
the Anganwadi more frequently.
· A few of the mother's/parents were helpful and supportive only for few
centers until the end of the activity.
· Field extenders introduced themselves to the Community on this event .

29
April 2017

ACTIVITY NAME : Vegetable colour print

Outcome -
· The 10 Anganwadi centers had a good response from the parents.
· This activity encouraged the parents to start getting involved with the Anganwadi more
· The mother's/parents were very helpful and supportive until the end of the activity
· The participants of the activity, took charge of the programme and helped in
cleaning the Anganwadi.

30
May 2017

ACTIVITY NAME : Annual Day:

Outcome -
· The 10 Anganwadi centers had a good response from the parents.
· This activity encouraged the parents to start getting involved with the Anganwadi more
· The mother's/parents, the adolescent girls, community boys participated and
made the event a grand success.
· The mother's took charge in preparing refreshment for the participants and
the other community members.

31
June 2017

ACTIVITY NAME : Fancy dress:

Outcome -
· The 9 Anganwadi centers had a good response from the parents. One of them
did not participate as the construction work was going on in the anganwadi.
· This activity encouraged the parents to start getting involved with the
Anganwadi more often. This was evident since the mothers had come to the
anganwadi despite their work to dress up their kids for the fancy dress
competitions. They had dressed up like Ghandhiji, Nehru, Bharathiyar and
Krishnan etc.
· The mothers took charge in preparing refreshments for the participants and
the community members.

32
 Key points from UWC observations
SN Anganw Positive Negative Possible Changes
O adi
names
1 Chepauk # H e a l t h y # None of #Recommendation
e n v i r o n m e n t the children to the government
maintained around to give off uniform
the area were that fits them
# C u r r i c u l u m wearing #Community
Uniform participation can
is maintained on a because be
daily basis it high by having
# Baseline is didn't fit events with
maintained and them. parents of the
updated # community
Pa r e n t s members
participation separately once
is less a
compared to month.
the other
Anganwadi.
2 Chetpet # Baseline is #curriculum #Facilitator should
maintained and is not take responsible
updated regularly. maintained till the new
#facilitator takes the on a daily teacher gets
lead. basis. recruited.
# Teacher is # Request
not able to government to
t a k e Recruit new
responsible teacher for this
for the Anganwadi.
Anganwadi.
#EB is very
slow in
giving
electricity
connection
for
Anganwadi.

33
3 KVN puram # Baseline is #curriculum # report work
maintained and should be managed
updated. is not in such a way that
# food reaches the maintained it should not
children properly with on a daily affect the
the assistance of basis since curriculum.
helpers and the they have # Discussion with
teachers. enormous the corporation
reporting to has to happen
be done. about the leakage
#Healthy and request them
environment to remove it.
is not
maintained
in and
around
Anganwadi
due to
leakage of
waste
water

34
 from
other houses
passing in
front of the
Anganwadi.
4 Thousan #ECCE materials is #Hygiene # should involve
d light prepared and status of more community
children are taught the members through
well. Anganwadi more such events
# children are able to and children for hygiene like
eat on their own. is very bad, skit etc.
#Community # warm food
participation should be given
is less. instead of hot food
# no usage since children are
of toilet made to eat by
because of themselves helper
drainage should take the
problem initiative towards
the same.
# Request
government to
take steps in
removing drainage
block
5 Ashok #Events are # Curriculum #Recommendation
nagar 1 conducted very well is not to the government
w i t h t h e h e l p of conducted to give out
community members on a daily uniform that fits
and they started basis since them.
taking responsibility facilitator # R e q u e s t
for their anganwadi and helper government to
#facilitators takes are there. take steps in
the lead #None of the removing drainage
students block.
w e a r
uniforms.
# The toilets
are not
being used
due to
the drainage
problem.

35
6 Ashok #Events are # Curriculum #Recommendation
nagar 2 conducted very well is not to the government
wi th th e help of conducted to give off uniform
community members. on a daily that fits them
basis. # Request
#None of the government to
students take steps in
w e a r removing drainage
uniforms. block
# no usage
of toilet
because of
drainage
problem.
7 Velachery #Events are # relation # involves teachers
conducted very well with the in all the activities
w i t h t h e h e l p of teacher and and begin to
community and they t h e interact with
started facilitator teachers and try to
taking responsibility should clear the doubts
for their anganwadi. b e from her.
# A t t e n d a n c e improved.
Strength is
maintained well.
8 Pudupet #Materials are #Outside # R e q u e s t
prepared and used the corporation to
very well Anganwadi remove the
# Updated baselines the hygiene dustbin from their
condition is
very bad
Planter box
is damaged
by the
community.
#
corporation
d u s t b i n
creates a
mess in
front.

35
9 TP # events are # # The government
Chattiram conducted well children schools have
# parents strength is started pre schools
participation is good quite less and therefore
because they the admissions in
have many the anganwadis
anganwadi in have fallen down.
the same
area. # corporation does
# no usage not take steps for
of toilet drainage block
because of
drainage
problem
10 Besant #All the kids were # relation # organise an event
nagar wearing uniform. with the in the community.
# C u r r i c u l u m anganwadi
and
is maintained on a the
daily basis. community
should
be
improved.
# absence of
w a t e r
facility since
3 years since
the motor is
under repair.

36
Anganwadi Before Aft
Refurbishment er

Chetpet

!
!

Chepauk

!
!

KVN puram

! !

37
TP Chattiram

!
!

Ashok Nagar

! !

Chetpet

!
!

38
Ashok Nagar 2

!
!

Pudupet

!
!

39
 Infrastructure

· All the 10 Anganwadis were refurbished according to their needs and requirements.
· Out of 10, 2 were made functional after the refurbishment.
· The premises were made child friendly by installing Child gate, Child wash bowl etc.
· Safe and Conducive environment were made by constructing child ramps
initiating inclusive development of the differently abled children.
· Mesh were put beneath the floor to keep away the pest and rats.

40
Annexure – II: (Budget for 10 Anganwadis)

Budget for 10 Anganwadis

Total cost
Cost per No. of Cost per
S.No Activities for 10
Unit Months Anganwadi
Anganwadis
Learning Materials/ Play
1 75,000 One time 75,000 7,50,000
Materials
2 Salary for the Teachers 6,000 12 Months 72,000 7,20,000
3 Kitchen Utensils 20,000 One time 20,000 2,00,000
4 Mothers/ Community meet 4,000 12 Months 48,000 4,80,000
Training cost & teacher
5 4,000 12 Months 48,000 4,80,000
incentives

6 Monthly events 1,500 12 Months 18,000 1,80,000

Refurbishing of Infrastructure
(including child friendly WaSH
7 1,75,000 One time 1,75,000 17,50,000
facilities, safe drinking
water)

8 Staff coordinator 1500 12 Months 18,000 1,80,000

Project management,
9 2100 12 Months 25,200 2,52,000
reporting, evaluation
Total 4,99,200 49,92,000
Grand Total 49,92,000

• Major Activities - One trained teacher will stay for a year to give a
holistic learning experience for 25 children in each anganwadi.
• The teacher will also hand hold with the government teacher and train
her ECCE method of learning
• Mothers Meet – To generate awareness and sustain the activities
• Training costs – For helpers and teachers from time to time
• Refurbishing – Toilets, kitchens and classrooms in the order of preference
• Motivation through prizes and other visibility activities.
43
44