Making a Difference

In July 1993, much before Govt of India adopted the Early Childhood Care & Education (ECCE) Policy 2013, Late Dr. Usharanee Choudhury, retired Reader of the Political Science, Gauhati University shared with like- minded fellow citizens such as Dr. Nirmal Kumar Choudhury, Late Prof. Jyoti Prasad Medhi, Dr. Anil Kumar Goswami & Dr. Alaka Goswami and family members, at her residence in Guwahati -Assam-India, her plan to take up the moral and social responsibility to serve the society the best way she can.

Being a well informed working mother, she understood that society was rapidly undergoing great changes in so far as family norms, education of children and standard of living were concerned. The joint family system where grand- parents are generally in charge of looking after children has almost disappeared from urban areas. Both husband and wife, have to work away from home leaving their children under care of some untrained people. To mitigate this problem, Dr. Choudhury felt the urgent need of an institution which may well take care of children under direct supervision of trained caregivers and educators. Thus came into being Sishu Bikash Kendra(SBK), a society registered under Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860 on 23rd May 1994. 

With patronage from her husband Dr. Debi Charan Choudhury and children an ideal extensive premise was set up at Maniknagar Guwahati, to establish SBK. Since 1st January 1995, with support from family, well-wishers, employees, guardians of children and the community at large, SBK in the form of a crèche and preschool has been working on the basis of some of the best recommendations of Ministry of Women & Child Development, Govt of India and Early Childhood Development (ECD) objectives of UNICEF and providing comprehensive affordable services in childcare, health, nutrition, play and early learning.

Apart from having free regular health check-ups, organising periodic Free Health Camps for both Mother & Child, Interactive sessions of guardians with experts, providing hygienic nutritional meal, etc are some of the highlights of Sishu Bkash Kendra in Health & Nutrition.

In our attempt to ‘unlock full potential’ of the women members of SBK and engage their energies towards their economic empowerment, “Matri Udyog” was created by encouraging and guiding them to exhibit their skill in producing homemade items and set up sale counters for their products.

For the last 24 years Sishu Bikash Kendra is working on transforming Guwahati, particularly for “Women in the Changing World of Work” by focusing not only on our flagship ECCE program but also providing opportunities for economic empowerment, vocational training and employment for unskilled / skilled workers, caregivers (aayas) and preschool educators. 

Today, at SBK we are resiliently influencing positive change in our community through education, healthcare -Nutrition and economic empowerment, thus contributing to the growth of all the parameters of India’s Human Development Index (HDI) since 1995.

Through our professionally designed Crèche and Preschool for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Program, provide comprehensive affordable services in childcare, health, nutrition, play and early learning within a protective and enabling environment to children from 6 months to 8 yrs. Our approach is based on some of the best recommendations of Ministry of Women & Child Development- Government of India ECCE Policy, ICDS objectives -Directorate of Social Welfare, Government of Assam and Early Childhood Development (ECD) objectives of UNICEF.