The National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development, popularly known as NIPCCD, is a premier organisation established by the government for the promotion of voluntary action, research, training and documentation in the overall domain of women and child development. It was set up in New Delhi, in the year 1966, as an autonomous Institution under the Societies Registration Act of 1860, and functions under the aegis of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India. The Institute is currently headquartered in the national capital and has five Regional Centres in Guwahati (1978), Bengaluru (1980), Lucknow (1982), Indore (2001) and Mohali (2019) to cater to region-specific requirements.
The Institute focuses on essential and need-based programmes for the holistic development of children and their protection, and for creating awareness regarding women’s empowerment and gender issues, especially women’s rights—political, social and economic. The current focus areas of the Institute relating to child development are maternal and child health and nutrition, early childhood care and education, childhood disabilities, positive mental health in children and child care support services. The activities of the Institute in the area of women’s development are geared to support national policies and programmes for women’s empowerment through training, research and documentation. The Institute is also focusing on gender planning and mainstreaming, gender- budgeting, economic and political empowerment of women, prevention of sexual harassment at work place, prevention of gender-related violence such as female foeticide, female infanticide, trafficking of women and children, child marriage, etc.
OBJECTIVES
The vision of NIPCCD is to be seen as an Institute of global repute in child rights, child protection and child development by developing partnerships and linkages with National and International agencies and making its training and research activities relevant to the needs of its varying stakeholders. The Institute has two main constitutional bodies namely, the General Body and the Executive Council. While the General Body is responsible for formulating overall policies of the Institute, the Executive Council is responsible for management and administration of the Institute. Both these bodies have representation of government and voluntary organizations. The Union Minister for Women and Child Development is the President of the General Body and Chairperson of the Executive Council.
The NIPCCD’s goals include: 1. Developing and promoting voluntary action for social development; 2. Promoting and developing relevant need-based programmes in pursuance of the National Policy for Children; 3. Evolving measures for coordinating between governmental action and voluntary action in social development. 4. Developing framework and perspective for organising children’s programmes through governmental and voluntary efforts; and 5. Establishing liaisons with international, national and regional agencies, research institutions, universities and technical bodies engaged in activities similar to those of the Institute.
DEPARTMENTS
There are two Departments, each headed by an Additional Director, under which six divisions are functioning.
Department of Mother Care and Child Development: Oversees child Development, public cooperation and child protection, and women’s development.
Department of Training and Common Services: Responsible for training programmes, monitoring and evaluation, and Common Services.
TRAINING PROGRAMMES UNDERTAKEN
Broad categories of the Training Programmes: Training is one of the core activities of the Institute. The Training Programmes conducted by NIPCCD cover the major schemes introduced by the Ministry. All the major schemes of the Ministry have been classified under three umbrella schemes, including, Mission Poshan 2.0, Mission Vatsalya, and Mission Shakti for effective implementation. During the year (from April to December, 2022), NIPCCD organised 370 online and offline programmes which included orientation courses, sensitisation and skill training programmes, workshops and consultation meets/ review meets covering various schemes and programmes of MWCD as well as contemporary need-based themes. A total of 28,090 participants attended the training programmes from April to December 2022.
Out of the 370 programmes organised by NIPCCD, 145 Programmes (39.1 percent of programmes) were organised for Capacity Building of Anganwadi Services Scheme Functionaries under Umbrella ICDS followed by 100 programmes (27.0 percent) in the areas of Child Protection, 62 programmes (16.7 percent) on issues related to Women Development, and 63 Programmes (17.0 percent) organised on issues related to Child Development including Mental Health issues.
Major programmes that were undertaken in 2022-23 include: A webinar on the National Consultation on “Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill 2021” for elected representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions; an online national Consultation on Anti-Human trafficking of Women and Children; a training of trainers programme on prevention of Human trafficking for personnel’s of Railway Protection Force in Uttar Pradesh; Comprehensive training programmes for Anganwadi Workers on Saksham Anganwadi/Mission Poshan 2.0 for UT of Ladakh under Saksham AWSs; webinar on National early Childhood Care and education (eCCe) policy, 2013 and National Education Policy, 2020; training of trainers programme on Poshan tracker and Height and Weight Measurement for ICDS Functionaries; and Poshan Tracker Programme in Utkarsh Districts.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
As per directions of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the NIPCCD undertook a special campaign for Swachhata from 2 October to 31 October 2022. The special campaign was organised in two phases: Prepatory Phase from 14-30 September, 2022 and Implementation Phase throughout October that year.
In the Pre Assessment Phase of Special Campaign 2.0, NIPCCD identified 36 campaign sites in the field and carried out outreach activities at Child Care Institutions (CCIs), Specialised Adoption Agencies (SAAs) and Women Shelter Homes or Swadhar Grehs or Ujjawala Homes. In addition, at NIPCCD Headquarters and its Five Regional Centres Weeding of e-Waste, Old records and other obsolete items including furniture and electronics were identified for disposal as per laid down rules/procedures. Convergent activities were carried out in collaboration with the National Archives of India for archiving old books, videos and documentaries. A special Cleanliness Drive in Selected Rooms of NIPCCD, New Delhi was carried out and over 1887.7 sq ft. of area was cleared at NIPCCD Headquarters.