Ambedkar Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, February 8, 2011
	Simdega, Jharkhand, January 29, 2011
	Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, January 12, 2011
	Banda, Uttar Pradesh, December 31, 2010
	Lohardaga, Jharkhand, December 18, 2010
	Gumla, Jharkhand, December 12, 2010
MEETINGS Steering Committee Meetings
	CWDS, New Delhi, September, 2009
	CWDS, New Delhi, 29 October, 2007
Policy Committee Meetings
	Bhubaneswar, 3-5 April, 2010
	Patna, 20-21 November, 2008
	ISI, New Delhi, 20 December, 2007
	NEDA, Lucknow, November 2004
	Gujarat, November 2002
	New Delhi, 17-19 May, 2002
Meetings with State Chapters ICDS Social Audit
	Lucknow, 19 January, 2010
	Jharkhand, 29 January, 2010
NREGA
	Madhya Pradesh, 9-13 May, 2010
	Orissa, 12-16 December, 2009
State Level Advocacy Meetings
	Sharing of NREGA study in Haryana, Delhi, 25 June, 2010
	Sharing Meeting, Lucknow, 22 June, 2010
	Sharing Workshop, Ranchi, 17 June, 2010
	Sharing Meeting, Shimla, 10 June, 2010
	Sharing Meeting, Dehradun, 8 June, 2010
WORKSHOPS
Training Workshop
	Capacity building workshop on Early Childhood Care and Development, Sahbhagi Shikshan Kendra, Lucknow, October 30– November 1, 2009
Media Workshop on ECCD and Status of Young Child
	Lucknow, 29 May, 2009
	Jaipur, 27 May, 2009
	Guwahati, 24 March, 2009
	Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, 2007
	New Delhi, 19-20 June, 2006
CONFERENCES/ CONSULTATIONS Consultations on the Status of the Young Child in India   North-East Regional Consultation, IIBM, Guwahati, 23-24 March, 2009 << download full text  >>   National Consultation, IIC, New Delhi, 24 February, 2009  << read full text report >>   Southern Regional Consultation, Asha Nivas, Chennai, 11-12 April, 2008 << read full text report >>   Eastern Regional Consultation, Social Development Centre, Ranchi, 12-13 March, 2008 << download full text  >>   Northern Regional Consultation, Sahbhagi Shikshan Kendra, Lucknow, 18-19 February, 2008 << download full text  >>
	Consultation on ECCD, June 2006
	Consultation on Declining Sex Ratio, 2006
	Consultation on ECCD, June 2005
	National Consultation on Declining Sex Ratio, August 2005
	National Consultation on Strengthening ECCD, June 2004
State Level Consultations
	Rajasthan Consultation, State Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Jaipur, 26 May, 2009
	Shimla Workshop, Agricultural Co-operative State Training Institute (ACSTI), Shangti, Shimla, 22 June, 2008
	Planning Meeting in Context of CRC Report, ISI, Delhi, 19 December, 2007
RESEARCH

    Alternate Report on the Status of Young Child for the UN Convention on the Rights of
      the Child

FORCES has been actively participating in evolving the Alternative Citizen’s Report to be presented at the UN Child Rights Convention as it has been observed that the issue of Early Childhood Care and Development is relatively marginalized in the context of reporting under CRC. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified convention in UN history. It covers all children under the age of eighteen years, regardless of sex, colour, language, religion or region. India ratified the CRC in 1992. Every State-party must report its national performance to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. The next CRC performance report is due in 2009.In this context, FORCES has also prepared a draft report on the Status of the Young Child in India.

The themes of the report have been selected based on the concluding observations of the periodic report of CRC. The Committee had expressed its concern at the decrease of funds allocated by the Government of India (GOI) to social services. The GOI expenditure (Plan and non-Plan) on social sectors (health, education and family welfare, water supply, sanitation, etc.) as a ratio of total expenditure had then marginally decreased from 11.26% in 1997-98 to 10.72% in 2000-01. The Committee expressed serious concern at the unavailability and/or inaccessibility of free, high-quality primary health care, the slow decline in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), the worsening of Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), the Low immunization rate, high incidence of low birth weight babies, the high number of children with stunting, wasting or who are underweight, the prevalence of micro-nutrient deficiencies and the low rate of exclusive breastfeeding. It also voiced its concern at the slow increase of budget allocations for education.

Based on these findings, FORCES decided to develop its report on the issues of programme /policies, health and nutrition, early education, budget analysis and the issue of girl child in area of declining child sex ratio. Our review of ECCD involves a survey of all the available government and official data along with other important secondary literature on the subject. This report is an outcome of various consultations, organized by FORCES at the regional level held in Lucknow, Ranchi, Chennai and Guwahati. A draft report was also shared at the National consultation in Delhi.

  Assessment of Child care services under NREGA

The other programme initiated by FORCES as part of research and advocacy is a study on An Assessment of child care services under National Rural employment Guarantee Act. NREGA is the only Act in the country that legalizes support for childcare (for children under six) in the unorganized sector, by including the provision for crèches and availability of safe drinking water in it. With effect from April 2008, NREGA is perhaps the largest public employment programme of its kind in the world covering more than 500 rural districts of this country. FORCES as a national network, committed to the survival and development of the young child and women working in the informal sector, feels that it is important for this act to succeed and most of these issues have to be addressed. In doing so, the provision of crèche at work site, employment of a helper/ Dai, access to drinking water and medical facilities and even the use of child labour at work sites would be thoroughly probed.

FORCES is collaborating with state partners and conducting this study in three states viz Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan.


  Status of the Young Child in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, 2005


  ACTION RESEARCH

  Social audit of ICDS/ ECCD in Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh