Integrating Child Protection and Mental Health Concerns in the Early Childhood Care and Development Program in India

Adverse childhood experiences and protection risks such as neglect and abuse and family psychosocial and protection vulnerabilities, beginning in early childhood, are linked to negative development and mental health. Child protection is becoming an increasing concern in India, creating new imperatives to address it amongst all children, but particularly among children below the age of 6 years, who due to their age and developmental abilities, are rendered more vulnerable than older child populations. It is therefore imperative, particularly in developing contexts such as India, for early childhood development (ECCD) to integrate child protection and mental health services into their existing intervention package. Although early childhood programs work with multiple sectors, they have limited collaboration with child mental health and child protection systems. This article addresses the question of how to integrate child protection and mental health interventions into existing ECCD programs by describing the experience of a pilot project in the Indian context. It provides the rationale, methodology and content of service delivery for integrating child protection and mental health interventions into the existing ECCD program, the Integrated Child Development Scheme, highlighting emerging concerns and challenges and drawing from the interventions to show how some of these were addressed.