Effectiveness of Group counselling and home visits for Early Childhood Development among children aged 0-3 years in urban slums of Bhubaneswar: A cluster Randomised trial

This cluster-randomised trial aims to evaluate the effectiveness of structured group counselling and regular home visits by trained frontline workers (AWWs, ASHAs, ANMs) in promoting early childhood development (ECD) among children aged 0–3 years living in urban slums of Bhubaneswar. Sixteen Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) will be randomly assigned to either the intervention or control arm. The intervention includes training FLWs and MAS members on ECD modules, followed by monthly group counselling sessions of parents and home visits over a 9-month period. Developmental milestones, anthropometric growth, will be measured at 3rd, 6th and 9 the month of the baseline survey and morbidity of children will be assessed at baseline and endline. Additionally, knowledge and attitudes of FLWs and caregivers toward ECD will be evaluated. This study uses existing health infrastructure and workforce, making it scalable and policy-relevant for similar low-resource urban settings.