CLR and HCL Foundation have collaborated to implement good quality ECE in 15 Anganwadi centres in Lucknow. Under this program, CLR trains and supports the Anganwadi workers to implement ECE in the Anganwadi centres. Incremental cyclical trainings of the workers are conducted to focus on pedagogical understanding of ECE, engagement in Play and other activities to promote development across domains – cognitive, social, language, physical and creative.

As part of the Anganwadi strengthening project, CLR directly trains and provides on-going support to the anganwadi workers (AWW) to implement holistic early childhood care and education practices for children between three to six years.

It involves developing a daily routine for children with activities to enhance their physical (gross, visual and fine motor) development, creativity, cognitive skills, social and emotional skills and early literacy and numeracy.

The anganwadi staff are trained in cycles which introduce different domains based on difficulty levels. After each training they have some time to implement the training ideas, and are supported by CLR’s mentors during this time.

The visibility of a vibrant ECCE program in the anganwadi also helps develop credibility for the anganwadi in the community, thus helping AWWs to connect with community members.

Impact of the project is assessed on the basis of Quality of the ECCE centre environment and interaction by measuring various constructs such as physical environment, teaching learning arrangement, teacher child interaction, and children’s engagement.