Social Development represents a process by which society, particularly its weakest members, sees an improvement in their health, economic, educational and legal conditions. A recent measure of socio-economic development is the Human Development Index (HDI). It is computed yearly by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) . HDI is a composite index of three elements of human development - life expectancy, literacy and standard of living. Corporates can work in the following areas towards socio-economic development:

Universal Primary Education
Education and literacy, particularly among women, is a key factor to explain differences in economic performance. However the Government's Primary education system does not reach 20% of the hamlets. Of those covered 40% do not have proper buildings, 70% do not have drinking water, 86% do not have toilet facilities and 37% of the Schools are one room Schools.

According to a World Bank Report, the levels of achievement in the Indian education system are low and millions of children in the school going age group are out of schools. Much needs to be done to see that the dropout children are readmitted into schools.

Public Health
India has performed poorly in Public Health which is revealed by the facts that many Indians do not get clean drinking water, only 14% of the rural population have access to proper sanitation and Diarrhoea alone kills half a million infants every year. Much can be done to provide clean drinking water and also to improve the sanitation in villages and take preventive steps to save the poor from diseases.

Empowerment
Empowerment is a process that enables disadvantaged people to become aware of their rights, their potential and the availability of opportunities to improve their social, political and economic conditions through their own efforts.

Initially there was welfare approach and now there is empowerment. Welfare (Charity) is the traditional approach. The charity approach is based on giving out doles to the poor and sees the relationship between the donor and the donee as a passive one-way. Charity can lead to a dependency syndrome. Empowerment leads to long-term and sustainable development solutions where the people can take control of their own lives.

A large proportion of the rural population is generally, engaged in agricultural wage labour. The implications of this vis-à-vis their children generally, are: The children accompany their parents to the latter's work site; or the elder brother / sister of a child, if any stays back home looking after his / her younger ones. The child and his / her elder sibling both are denied learning experience at a crucial part of their life. The situation makes it natural for the children to become dropout or to indulge as a wage labour while still in childhood ultimately culminating in child labour.

This situation makes wage labour as a children's perpetual occupation. Even if efforts were to be made to enrol the children at post school going age into the process of education, the costs in terms of time and energy to be spent in order to make the children meet with requisite standards would be substantial with doubtful permanent results. The project of Pre-schools addresses these issues in many ways.

The Concept
Pre-schools are a kind of "Day Care Centers" in the villages which will not only look after the children (aged 3 to 5 years ) while their parents are off to work but simultaneously provide them with orientation towards education in an informal and natural setting in such a way that the children do feel at home. A unique innovative and customized curriculum based on rural environment will be evolved where by simple-to-identify and easy-to-comprehend items like fables, stories, songs games and drawings are used as teaching aids that will fully tap the inquisitive and grasping skills of the children. Children are taken through a participatory learning process that will not only create a liking for education among them but also enhance and direct their curiosity towards education.

The objective of Pre-schools is to promote primary school readiness among rural children through informal and joyful learning process. Pre-schools combine the spiritual understanding of the child and a creative approach to early child education.

Our experience reveals that Pre-schools help:

• To bring out latent creative talents present in children.
• To develop physical strength of the children.
• To unfold the leadership qualities of the children in a positive way.
• To develop language skills and numerical skills among children.
• To develop habits of cleanliness and sanitation.
• To decrease dropout rate at primary school level and eradicate child labor.

Pre-school centers in rural areas is a very important field of activity which no corporate sector has so far given any serious attention. GMR Varalakshmi Foundation by taking up this activity can become a leader and a model to many other service agencies in the field of Pre-school education.

GMRVF welcomes the association of World Bank to establish Pre-schools and Pre-school resource centers in villages in a big way.