Centre for Early Childhood Development and Research (CECDR) was established at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi in February 2010 as a unique collaboration between Jamia Millia Islamia and Save the Children, India. The Centre’s work is informed by child’s rights perspective which recognizes children not only as future productive adults, but also appreciates childhood as a value in itself. Keeping this in view, the Centre’s vision is to bridge the existing gap between theory, practice and policy formulation in India. The Centre aims to identify contemporary concerns in the field of Early Childhood Development (ECD) and undertake research, advocacy and capacity building.

Keeping in view the interdisciplinary nature of work in the field of ECD, the faculty at the Centre is a group of professionals from diverse academic backgrounds such as Child Development, Education, Psychology and Social Work.

The Centre has been engaged in teaching-learning, research and capacity building activities since its inception. Each of these activities were interrelated and aimed to achieve the goals, objectives and vision of the CECDR.

The larger aim of the Centre is to develop as a national resource in ECD. To achieve this, the Centre offers a Masters Programme in Early Childhood Development (ECD) which has been designed as a cutting edge course to develop in the students the knowledge, attitudes and varied skills to work as ECD professionals in diverse settings and to critically apply theoretical constructs to practice.

The Centre is actively engaged in research in the field of ECD and has a Research Advisory Committee (RAC) which comprises prominent experts in the field of research. The Centre has been identified as a partner by the Ministry of Women and Child Development and NIPCCD to develop curriculum of the world’s largest integrated early childhood programme—ICDS. A major study titled “Mapping Early Childhood Development Service Provision in selected districts of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu” was undertaken which was followed by the second phase of the study which focused on correlating child development outcomes with ECD service provision. A minor research being taken up at the Centre is “Mapping of ECD services within 5 km radius of Jamia Millia Islamia”. The Centre is also actively engaged in improving the quality of ECD programmes offered at Jamia Nursery, Day Care Centre and School by involving them in capacity building activities like workshops and training programmes. Besides these research activities, many minor studies are being proposed by the faculty of the Centre.