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Problem

Early childhood education is delivered through two separate government systems that produce no common national count of participation

  • National

Pre-school education runs through Anganwadi centres under the Ministry of Women & Child Development and through school-attached pre-primary sections captured by UDISE+ under the Ministry of Education. The two systems are not integrated in official reporting, so no single figure describes how many children are actually in early childhood education. This makes it difficult to assess progress against NEP 2020's universal-ECCE goal, and it obscures the participation of children served only by Anganwadis, who are typically from poorer and rural households. Evidence confidence: Medium — the two-system structure is well established and uncontroversial; the specific coverage figures cited in secondary syntheses have not been verified against MWCD/ICDS primary publications.

This is the most specific entry on this branch of the catalogue. The evidence behind it is below.

Who is responsible

  • Ministry of Women & Child Development · Ministry or DepartmentAnganwadi centres under ICDS
  • Ministry of Education — Department of School Education & Literacy · Ministry or DepartmentUDISE+ and school-attached pre-primary

Evidence and sources

  • National Education Policy 2020 — foundational stage provisions · Government documentBasis for bringing ages 3–6 into the school system's foundational stage.
  • UDISE+ — Unified District Information System for Education Plus · Official data or datasetThe school-side data system; does not capture Anganwadi-delivered ECCE.

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