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Acknowledgements
My first and heartfelt thanks to the children, the mothers, teachers and young people in
the three states who gave us so much of their time, their love and affection. This study
would not have been possible without their contribution.
I would like to thank the Department of Elementary Education and Department of
Women and Child Development, Government of India and their counterpart
departments in the Governments of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh for
permitting us to interact with the teachers and children in schools and ICDS centres.
Many thanks to Mahila Samakhya Programme in Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and
Karnataka, in particular Shalini Prasad, National Project Director, Nandini Prasad,
State Programme Director Andhra Pradesh and Manju Agarwal, State Programme
Director, Uttar Pradesh for facilitating our work in the field.
Sincere thanks to Venita Kaul, Meera Priyadarshi, Vandana Sipahimalani Rao, Sudesh
Ponnappa of the World Bank. Many thanks to Ward Heneveld, Kesav Desiraju, Mary
E Young, Suzanne Allman, Aparna Sahay and Firoza Merhotra for reviewing the draft
report. Shveta Kalyanwala of HealthWatch Trust was a wonderful sounding board and
a ready volunteer when deadlines were on our head.
This synthesis draws upon the Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh state
reports (state-wise acknowledgements in respective chapters) and the inputs of experts
on the team. Collating such rich qualitative data into a synthesis report was not easy –
a lot of valuable insights have been left out. While every single member of the team
has contributed to this document, I take full responsibility for mistakes and
inaccuracies.
Vimala Ramachandran 18 April 2003
Educational Resource Unit
Delhi, Hyderabad and Lucknow
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