Meenraj Panthee

Offering adequate nurturing care to small children for their age-appropriate development and early stimulation in a responsible manner remains incredibly important in their physical, cognitive, social, emotional and linguistic development. Studies carried out in the field of Early Childhood Development (ECD) suggest that a human brain develops at its fastest rate the younger the human is.
A three-year-old child's brain is twice as active as an adult's. In a three-year-old child, neurons form new connections at the rate of 700 to 1000 per second, which influences the child’s physical and mental health, their lifelong learning and adaptability to change, and also their psychological resilience.

Though a child can possess great potential, numerous challenges arise in providing proper and adequate care both in urban and rural Nepal owing to different reasons. In urban areas, earning a living may necessitate both parents to work long hours' full-time jobs which result in early age children being exposed to neglect and deprivation. As children living in villages are not exempt from this problem, the parents and guardians are failing to give adequate quality time and proper nurturing care to their children due to work pressure.

The lack of nurturing care knowledge and skills among caregivers compounds the problem further, although periodic disaggregated data is yet to be generated to demonstrate this prevailing issue and concern.
Nepal’s rapid urbanisation along with massive migration of people from rural villages into urban settings and other countries in search of a better job and education for their children, as well as urban facilities including health and transportation over the last several years is a substantial problem yet to be solved particularly for low and middle-income families. Surviving and thriving in city areas is not easy due to the high cost of living which compels both parents to go to unstable jobs. For example, construction, working as a porter, cleaning houses, street vending etc. leading children to be vulnerable, neglected and potentially at risk of

Malnutrition, Child abuse
Those children who have family members including grandparents to look after them in the absence of their fathers and mothers, cannot be considered fully fortunate as these family members may well not be fully supportive due to the dearth of training and skills to provide nurturing care for small children. 

Existing gender norms and discriminatory customary practices associated with acute poverty and backwardness exacerbates the problem further. It is observed that the widespread practice of caregiving and the way of welcoming a new baby boy and a new baby girl are different, including nutrition and care in our society where patriarchal norms and values are deeply ingrained. 

For example, parents' tendency to conceive more often when a daughter is born as a first child (or two daughters in a row) seems to noticeably contrast to a more comfortable birth spacing if a son is born as a first child.
The significant engagement of male members (father and grandfather) in raising and caring holds paramount importance for early stimulation and holistic development of children, instead of giving this role to mother and grandmother
Children with disabilities are subjected to being further vulnerable due to deeply rooted discrimination and stigma against disability and also parents with disabilities (parents with seeing, hearing and even physical disabilities) may require external extensive support and nurturing skills to raise their children, which are often overlooked and ignored.

According to the ECD, experts providing nurturing care remains a common responsibility of every adult family member and all caregivers must be trained with the latest knowledge on how to give responsive care and how to provide better stimulation to children from the pregnancy period up to eight years of age, particularly for the full potential of brain development. The care of small children by older 
Children are another harmful practice that exists in our rural communities for child development, as it can create a lot of risk among children.
 
Despite the implementation of the ECD programme over many years in Nepal, only minimal nurturing care skills and development training opportunities exist in the country indicating a discouraging picture in this arena.
ECD centres operate under many different names and are critical for childhood development. Too much focus can be given to the literacy and numeracy development of children, and not enough to the missing essential nurturing care and support for holistic development of young children. According to the ECD facilitators, the overarching challenges facing the ECD centres include 
Keeping ECD as a low priority by school administration and others concerned, the absence of learning resources particularly within the classroom setting, minimal funding, lack of skill development opportunism, and the inadequacy of the involvement of parents. The challenge of providing responsive nurturing care indicates a critical future for children and our country in this competitive world. 

If children are not growing up healthily, the development of genuine human resources to keep up the pace with the fast-developing world will be derailed and jeopardised. Undoubtedly Building a new and prosperous Nepal relies on investment over a strong childhood development.

A healthy mind and body for our children are needed for peace and prosperity in society, leading to the full potentiality of economic development and innovation among other things for our country. By contrast, the majority of Nepalese children are still not nurtured in that direction shows a problematic picture for our competitive future. 
However, one of the advantages of the Covid-19 pandemic was to keep working parents at home allowing time and nurturing care and necessary support for their small children. 
Considering this fact, Nepal's ECD strategy (2077-2088) was prepared and formulated under the leadership of the National Planning Commission in collaboration with different stakeholders adhering to compliance with several national and international legal. 

Commitments and frameworks could be a breakthrough in realising the importance of ECD significantly in a comprehensive and integrated way if its provisions and priorities are duly implemented with focus.
Various legal provisions, the number of articles of the constitution of Nepal, the Act Related to Children 2018, the Convention on the Rights of Children highlight the mounting importance of nurturing care for all children with a particular emphasis on children living in exclusion. An overarching objective of the ECD strategy is to provide opportunities for health, nutrition, safety, protection, and early learning for the holistic development of children (0 to 8 years).

Role Of Stakeholders
This strategy meticulously acknowledges the roles of various stakeholders and sectors i.e. federal, provincial, local level, non-governmental and private sectors, and alongside education, health, nutrition, security and protection programmes to play their role from their part effectively. Hence Various stakeholders including different government agencies, civil society organizations and development partners, are required to make concerted and multi-sectorial efforts to ensure children's rights of receiving adequate nurturing care and concurrent learning Opportunities as well as implementing all ECD strategy provisions for the holistic development of our precious children across the country. The national ECD strategy must be regarded as a guiding document to achieve this ambitious goal. Bringing this issue into attention is becoming genuinely important as little children are unable to claim their rights and opportunities by themselves. Municipalities and ward offices are more responsible to devise necessary policies, programmes and funds to ensure the national ECD strategy and to provide adequate nurturing care to every child without further delay.

(The author is development expert and human rights activist.
meenraj.panthee@gmail.com)