Scarcity to Abundance

Ekstep’s mission is to help parents and carers go beyond a scarcity mindset (my child is not enough) and see the abundance of learning and growth in the early years of childhood (0-8 years). The film aims to showcase this abundance and encourage carers to celebrate this opportunity.

Feel childhood

The film poetically yet purposefully brings alive this vision. Carers feel transported into a child’s world and climb the hill with them because of the direction, local casting, lilting soundtrack, soulful cinematography, and the magic of the fireflies. The viewer feels the message of the film.

Intergenerational disadvantage

More than 25 million children are born each year in India. With good ‘Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)’ in the first 8 years of life, we can nurture holistic development. A childhood without this leaves the child with a weak foundation for their future. This disadvantage passes over generations leading to years of disparity and poverty.

Equity starts early

India’s is a young nation with a lot to offer to the world. However, this advantage will be lost if we don’t act now to drive equity – and work towards that has to start in early childhood itself. It is crucial to make the most of these years to break the intergenerational cycle of disadvantages and remove inequity. Our campaign is built around promoting the importance of the early years as a learning and growth opportunity – a festival of growth that needs to be celebrated.

Reaching for change

Given the fast-growing digital landscape of India, the opportunity for outreach is vast. India has more than 820 million active internet users (2023) and over half of them come from rural parts of the country. Social change campaigns can reach the marginalised sections of society better. As of January 2024, India was the country with the largest YouTube with approximately 462 million users engaging with it. However this also means that our film has to stand out from the clutter of content. That’s where the authenticity in direction, fresh casting, music and fireflies surprise comes in.

Climb

We see a group of children, holding something in their hand, as they climb a mountain together. We see one kid annoying the other, another helping the other, and one who is taken in by the starkness of a bare tree. Another child is attracted to a bunch of flowers. As he gets closer, he sees that the centre of the flower looks like a monkey’s face and is stunned by nature’s surprises.

Situation

Ekstep Foundation has been working in early childhood to bring about more equality across India. They have made several efforts to get carers more involved, but the response has been disappointing.

Brief

To help spur demand for better ECCE (Early Childhood Care and Education) and drive behaviour change for a stronger foundation for India.

Objectives

Ignite - Raise the level of conversation on early childhood

Interact – Build an ecosystem committed to best practices driven early childhood care and education through connections between implementation actors, researchers, market players, designers, policy actors, civil society, and others.

Invite – Get carers to recognise this golden opportunity of the early years as the ideal time for learning and growth and to change behaviour in these years. This will help build a strong foundation for their children and India’s future.

This mission is a solid and lasting step against inequity.

The film helped carers take a step back and reflect on how they approach early childhood. It created more attention and interest in the work being done in this sector. And it helped get more partnerships and initiatives funded across India.

The 'Bachpan Manao, Badhte Jao' brand has become a rallying cry to embrace these early years and help children and India get a stronger foundation.

Ignite: 42,000 screenings across 1,000 theatres in 113 cities across 24 states of India.

Invite: Brought together a collaborative of over 100 corporates and non-profits to further the mission.

As a result of this work, we have been able to contribute towards larger policy discourses such as the National Curriculum Framework for Foundational Stage and support various government-led public goods like ‘The e- Jaduui Pitara’ (The Magic Box), which is a digital aid for early childhood and foundational learning.