Preserve those Little Smiles for a Lifetime Date:   Wednesday , December 21, 2016 Couple of years ago, three-year-old Jahnvi was one of the topics to discuss on Facebook and other media; not for a glorious achievement, but she was missing from the high security India gate, Delhi. After dedicated social media and door-to-door campaigns, Jahnvi returned home on Sunday. Her parents, relatives, neighbors and even the whole country were happy at the end of this lost-and-found tale. However, not every such incident has this stroke of luck, which Jahnvi had. Estimates shows that, 20 children go missing from Delhi every day and one fourth of them never find their way back home. If this is the case of capital city of India, then it is obvious that other cities in the country have worst statistics to share than Delhi. According to the reports from UNESCO, India is home to the largest number of children in the world, significantly larger than the number in China. The country has 20 per cent of the 0-4 years child population of the world. Estimated number of live births in the country is 27 million, which again constitutes 20 per cent of the total number of live births in the world. With this kind of massive growth in child population and increase in number of nuclear families in the society, the concept of preschool education has emerged as one of the most lucrative segments. Preschool education generally refers to the organized and well-structured pre-primary education programs for toddlers, particularly in the age group of 2-4 years. Increasing acceptance of the importance of education and the proven success of franchising education in India has led to a boom in the number of entrepreneurs, who wish to expand their brands through franchising education. In a market perceptive, this could be a promising sign, however, parents need to understand that, security of the kid is more important than the academics. Therefore, pay as much attention to the school\'s security paraphernalia as its academic achievements. Important Security Measures While most of the parents prefer a preschool, which is closer to their workplace or residence for an easy pickup and drop, it has been seen that many of them do not give much attention to the safety measures. The first and the most important thing are to assess how safe the school is. It is essential to know what safety precautions are in place in case of an emergency and the school\'s capability to deal with any kind of situation. Following are some of the important safety measures while selecting a preschool for a child. Trained Teachers and Tidy Supporting Staff: It is true that, after mother, a teacher is the next person who can mold the personality of the child. Therefore, it is important for a preschool to have trained teachers to guide the kids. Ideally, a standard preschool will have a teacher: student ratio of 1: 10, so that each child has the maximum attention of the teacher during these formative years. Apart from teachers, a preschool will have many supporting staffs too. While visiting the preschool before admitting the kids, parents need to keep an eye on them to make sure that they are keeping themselves tidy and warm in behavior to the kids. Secure Infrastructure: Kids are curious in nature and they learn things around them using their all senses like touching, watching, listening, smelling and tasting. However, it is not necessary to penetrate those little fingers into plug points to understand the intensity of electric shock. Parents need to make sure that things like electrical fittings are not reachable to the kids. It is also important that, the play areas and other important areas where kids regularly go do not have any sharp corners or materials, which can injure them badly. Food Security: Many preschool now provide food to the kids, which is prepared in their own kitchen. When preparing food for a huge number of kids on daily basis, the management needs to have adequate facilities and enough kitchen staffs in the school premises. Parents need to make sure that, the kitchen is hygienic and food prepared is healthy in their frequent visits. Restricted Entry for Outsiders: When Jahnvi went missing from Delhi, one of the difficulty police faced to trace out the culprits was the inadequate number of CCTV cameras in the India gate. While preschool is an institution and there are possibilities for random people to come and meet the kids. Make sure that the preschool has a good number of security guards and other aspects like restricted entry for outsiders and complete CCTV camera coverage. If family is a tree, kids are the blooming buds always tender and a joy to watch. Everyone is busy with their own life, however, nothing is more important than spending time for the little ones. A diminutive carelessness may fade their smiles for the entire life.