Learning · Sub-pillar 1.1

Early childhood and foundational learning

Nutrition, early stimulation and care in the first years of life, and whether every child can read and do basic arithmetic by age ten.

What is early childhood and foundational learning?

Early childhood and foundational learning is sub-pillar 1.1 of the 47 BH framework for a developed Bharat by 2047, the first of four sub-pillars under the Learning pillar. It asks whether children are nourished, stimulated and cared for in their first years, and whether every child can read with understanding and do basic arithmetic by age ten.

Why it matters for 2047

A child born in 2026 will be 21 in 2047. The children in anganwadis and early classrooms today are the young workforce, parents and citizens of the Bharat that 47 BH hopes to see at a hundred years of independence.

The first years matter most because the brain develops fastest then, and because learning compounds. Until about Class 3, children learn to read; after that, they read to learn. A child who cannot read by then falls a little further behind every year, in every subject, and the gap is far harder and costlier to close later than to prevent.

That is why 47 BH places this sub-pillar first. Almost every other part of the framework, from skills and jobs to civic sense and public discourse, rests on people who learned to read, reason and count as children.

Where India stands

  • 23.4%

    of Class 3 children in rural India could read a Class 2 level text in 2024, up from 20.9% in 2018.[2]

  • 33.7%

    of Class 3 children in rural India could do subtraction in 2024, up from 28.2% in 2018.[2]

  • 29.3%

    of children under five in India were stunted in 2023-24, down from 35.5% in 2019-21.[1]

  • 77.4%

    of three-year-olds in rural India were enrolled in some form of pre-primary education in 2024, up from 68.1% in 2018. Anganwadi centres are the biggest provider.[2]

The direction is right. Reading and arithmetic in the early grades have recovered from the fall during the Covid-19 school closures and are now above their 2018 levels, more three-year-olds are in some form of pre-school, and child stunting has fallen by more than six percentage points between the last two national family health surveys. [1][2]

The distance still to go is large. In 2024, more than three in four Class 3 children in rural India could not yet read a text meant for Class 2, and two in three could not yet do a simple subtraction. [2] The national NIPUN Bharat mission aims for every child to reach foundational literacy and numeracy by the end of Class 3 by 2026-27. [3] On the figures above, that goal remains far off.

A note on the numbers: the reading and arithmetic figures come from ASER, a household survey of rural India run by ASER Centre, so they do not describe children in cities. The stunting figure is national and comes from the National Family Health Survey.

On the 47 BH report card

Every 15 August, 47 BH reports how far India has come on each sub-pillar. For this sub-pillar, the headline indicators are:

  • Share of Class 3 children who can read a Class 2 level text (ASER; PARAKH National Achievement Survey).
  • Share of Class 3 children who can do subtraction (ASER).
  • Share of children under five who are stunted (National Family Health Survey).

Two lenses on early childhood and foundational learning

City and village

47 BH asks whether a child in a city slum is as likely to reach an anganwadi or a good early-grade teacher as a child in a village, and whether a child in a remote village is as likely to read by Class 3 as a child in a town. Much of the best-known data on early learning describes rural India only, so the urban picture needs equal attention.

Learn, avoid, protect

Learn
What can India learn from education systems that teach early reading step by step, in the language the child speaks at home, and check every child's progress early enough to help?
Avoid
Which mistakes should it avoid, such as pushing formal academics and rote learning onto three-year-olds before they are ready, or counting enrolment and attendance as if they were learning?
Protect
What of its own should it protect, such as the anganwadi network that reaches villages across the country, the storytelling of grandparents and the home, and the many mother tongues that children bring to school?

What this sub-pillar does not cover

Each topic has one home in the framework. These related topics sit elsewhere:

Questions about early childhood and foundational learning

What is foundational learning?

Foundational learning is the ability to read with understanding and to do basic arithmetic. It is the base on which all later learning rests, which is why 47 BH asks whether every child has it by age ten.

How many children in India can read by Class 3?

In rural India in 2024, 23.4% of Class 3 children could read a text meant for Class 2, up from 20.9% in 2018, according to the ASER survey summarised by the Government of India's Press Information Bureau. [2]

Has child stunting in India fallen?

Yes. According to the National Family Health Survey, the share of children under five who are stunted fell from 35.5% in 2019-21 to 29.3% in 2023-24. [1]

Why is nutrition part of a Learning sub-pillar?

Because nutrition, stimulation and care in the first years shape how a child's brain develops and how ready they are to learn. 47 BH measures child nutrition as a health outcome under Mothers and children, and looks here at what it means for learning.

Sources

  1. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, "Union Health Ministry Releases National Family Health Survey - 6", Press Information Bureau, 29 May 2026. NFHS-6 was conducted in 2023-24; NFHS-5 in 2019-21. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2266600&reg=3&lang=1
  2. Press Information Bureau, "Leap in Rural School Enrollment", factsheet, 4 February 2025, summarising the Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2024 by ASER Centre. Full report: asercentre.org. https://pib.gov.in/FactsheetDetails.aspx?Id=149118
  3. Ministry of Education, NIPUN Bharat: National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy, guidelines, July 2021. https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/2021/jul/doc20217531.pdf

47 BH cites every figure so that it can be checked. If you find an error, it will be corrected openly and the date below will change.

All sub-pillars of Learning

Back to the Learning pillar  ·  47 BH home