Implementation science for early childhood development in Jharkhand and Odisha, India

在生命的头三年，良好的照料、营养和学习机会对儿童的身心和情感发展至关重要。世界上有四分之一的儿童可能无法充分发挥其潜力，他们生活在印度。其中，生活在农村地区的儿童和来自土著（部落）家庭的儿童面临的风险最大，因为他们是最贫穷的，为三岁以下儿童及其照顾者提供托儿所和父母小组是帮助儿童在早期生活中获得所需营养、照顾和激励的可能战略。不幸的是，很少有研究表明，托儿所和团体是否、如何以及以何种代价能够有利于土著家庭众多的农村地区儿童的发展。我们已经确定了一个新的政府资金来源，为印度各州的托儿所和团体提供大量的土著社区;这些被称为地区矿产基金会。地区矿产基金会的资金旨在使12个州受采矿影响的社区受益，其中一半有大型农村和土著社区。从区矿产基金会的资金可以用来资助托儿所和团体，如果我们的研究表明，他们有儿童的development.In这项研究中，我们将适应现有的模式，托儿所资助区矿产基金会，使其可以接受的农村，土著社区的贾坎德和奥里萨邦，印度东部的两个国家，超过一半的土著儿童长期营养不良。我们还将把在牙买加和孟加拉国试验的成功的父母小组模式适用于贾坎德和奥里萨邦的农村土著社区。有很少的工具来衡量儿童发展适应与土著印第安人社区的工作，所以我们将翻译和修改六个工具，以便能够捕捉照顾者的知识的变化对儿童的发展，他们与儿童的互动，以及儿童自身的发展。最后，我们将测试托儿所，无论是单独还是与团体一起，是否能改善贾坎德和奥里萨邦西辛布和基翁贾尔地区60个村庄儿童的发展。在这些乡村中，20条只设有育婴院，20条设有育婴院和小组，20条将由政府提供正常服务。我们将比较干预后这三组村庄两岁儿童的心理、身体和情感发展。在整个研究项目中，我们将通过现有的宣传网络和我们自己在印度不同邦10年来扩大团体干预的政府联系，与地区和国家层面的托儿所和育儿团体的倡导者进行接触。我们的目标是在印度五个有大型土著社区的邦（贾坎德、奥里萨邦、中央邦、拉贾斯坦邦、恰蒂斯加尔）的农村地区，以及项目研究伙伴已经开展工作的地方，增加由地区矿产基金会资助的托儿所和团体的数量。

Good care, nutrition and opportunities to learn during first three years of life are crucial for children's mental, physical and emotional development. One in four children in the world at risk of not developing to their full potential live in India. Among them, children living in rural areas and those from indigenous (tribal) families are at greatest risk, because they are the poorest.Creches and parenting groups for children under three and their caregivers are possible strategies to help children get the nutrition, care and stimulation they need in early life. Unfortunately, there is little research on whether, how, and at what cost creches and groups could benefit children's development in rural areas with a large number of indigenous families. We have identified a new source of government funding for creches and groups in Indian states with large indigenous communities; these are called District Mineral Foundations. Funds from District Mineral Foundations are meant to benefit communities affected by mining in 12 states, half of which have large rural and indigenous communities. Funds from District Mineral Foundations could be used to finance creches and groups if our research shows they have benefit for children's development.In this study, we will adapt an existing model of creches fundable by District Mineral Foundations to make it acceptable to rural, indigenous communities of Jharkhand and Odisha, two states of eastern India where over half of indigenous children are chronically undernourished. We will also adapt a successful model of parenting groups tested in Jamaica and Bangladesh for these same rural, indigenous communities in Jharkhand and Odisha. There are very few tools to measure child development adapted for work with indigenous Indian communities, so we will translate and modify six tools to be able to capture changes in caregivers' knowledge about child development, their interactions with children, and children's own development. Finally, we will test whether creches, either on their own or together with groups can improve the development of children in 60 villages of West Singhbhum and Keonjhar districts, in Jharkhand and Odisha. Twenty of these villages will have creches only, 20 will have creches and groups, and 20 will have normal services provided by government. We will compare the mental, physical and emotional development of children aged two years across these three groups of villages after the interventions.Throughout the research project, we will engage with advocates for creches and parenting groups at regional and national levels through an existing advocacy network and our own government contacts gained through 10 years of scaling up group interventions in different Indian states. We will aim to increase the number of creches and groups funded by District Mineral Foundations in rural areas of five Indian states with large indigenous communities (Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh), and where the project's research partners already work.