This exploratory and illustrative study focuses on children, their family, larger community, the available education and health services in an effort to understand the causality and social processes that affect, partially or wholly, children's full participation in schooling. It explores the continuous and cumulative nature of social and economic exclusion that poor children face and the impact this has on their ability to complete primary schooling. Areas that could make a difference, the study suggests, are well-functioning schools with basic facilities and motivated teachers; an adequate pre-school education component within the ICDS programme; heightened public awareness of health and nutrition and equally importantly, strengthening of traditional community structures.
