Working in poor villages and informal urban settlements in India since 1974, we have often witnessed how poverty and deprivation seriously affect children’s capacity to learn. A recent article published in The Economist’s neuroscience and social deprivation section (4 April 2009), titled I am just a poor boy though my story's seldom told, reports the results of revealing research studies carried out by Dr. Martha Farah of the University of Pennsylvania and subsequently by Drs. Gary Evans and Michelle Schamberg of Cornell University, which substantiate the evidence gathered from our daily experience among deprived communities. The studies show that working memories of children raised in poverty have smaller capacities than those of middle-class children’s. Working memory is the ability to hold bits of information in the brain for current use - the digits of a phone number, for example. Developing a working memory is a prerequisite for learning permanently, as a child seeks to do when s/he undergoes school education. It is crucial for comprehending languages, reading and solving problems. The studies demonstrate that reduced capacities in the memories of the poor are the result of stress affecting the way that childish brains develop in conditions of deprivation.
CINI seeks to bring about human development by creating Child and Woman Friendly Communities, physical and social settings where children and young people can grow up in a protected, enabling environment. Health, nutrition, education and child protection services are provided with the mobilisation of key community members, starting from the family, the service providers and the local self-governments.
Dr. Samir Chaudhuri
Director
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