National Creche Scheme - Number of creches down by 60% in 5 years
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 6, 2020
The National Creche Scheme was formulated to serve an important need of the working mothers from poor & low-income families. Because of change in the scheme pattern and the consequent changes in funding pattern, the number of operational creches in the country has fallen by more than 60% in 5 years.
With the objective to empower women by providing day-care facilities to their children, the Indian Government implements National Creche Scheme across the country. Through the scheme, not only does the government aims to provide a safe place for the mothers to leave their wards while they are off at work, but also attempts to improve the health of children while promoting holistic development of children. The scheme serves an important need of working mothers from poor & low-income families.
This story takes alook at the evolution of the National
Creche Scheme and why the numbers fellover the years.
National Creche Scheme is the continuation of
erstwhile Rajiv Gandhi National Creche Scheme launched in 2006
Named after theformer Prime Minister of India, Rajiv
Gandhi National Creche Scheme was launched on 01 January 2006, to provide day-care facilities to children ofworking women and other deserving women based on their net annual income.Children aged between 6 months to 6 years are nurtured here.  The central sector scheme was later revised andmade a centrally sponsored scheme called National Creche Scheme in 2017. Thescheme now falls under the umbrella of Integrated Child
Development Services under the Ministry of Women and
Child Development.
The facilities are provided for seven and a half hours each day for 26 days a month.
In addition to daycare facilities, nutrition, health and education are also looked into
Under this scheme, daycare facilities, including facilities to sleep are provided to children. In order to optimize cognitive, physical, emotional, and social skills for the holistic development of the child, for children below three years of age, early stimulation programs are also implemented. For those children above three years of age, pre-school education is provided.
In addition tothis, to provide nutrition and improve their health, the government alsoprovides locally sourced supplementary nutrition to the kids. Regular healthcheck-ups and immunization (such as polio vaccines) are also a part of thescheme. Further, educational programs are to be conducted to educate parentsabout childcare.
Funding structure was revised in 2017
The current funding
structure of the scheme is split among theCentral government, State governments and Non-Governmental Organisations orVoluntary Organisations.
Who can avail facilities under this scheme?
The children ofthose women who are employed for a minimum period of fifteen days in a month orsix months in a year, from both rural and urban areas are eligible to avail thefacilities under the scheme. A nominal
fee of Rs. 20 per child per month iscollected from BPL families. In case of families with a total income up to Rs.12,000 (both parents), Rs. 100 is collected per month per child. For familieswith income greater than Rs. 12,000 a fee of Rs.200 per month is collected foreach child.
Government has fixed honorarium for those employed in
creches
It is mandatoryfor each crèche to have at least one crèche worker and a helper. An ex-gratiapayment of Rs. 3000 is given to the crèche worker every month. The helper ispaid Rs. 1500 per month. An annual provision of Rs. 2000 is also allocated forthe Pre School Education Kit. Every day, each child’s nutrition supplement isallocated Rs.12 for the 26 days a month.
7930 creches are functional under the scheme across
the country
As on 03 June2019, a total of 7930 functional creches were operating under the scheme. Inthe Himalayan and North Eastern states, there were 3024 functionalcreches.  A total of 4672 were operatingin other states. UTs accounted for the remaining 234 creches.
West Bengalreported the maximum with 770 creches followed by Maharashtra with 757 creches.Tamil Nadu and Karnataka reported 611 each. The states of Bihar, Jharkhand,Odisha, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh did not report any functional crèche.
Among the Himalayan and North Eastern states, Jammu and Kashmir had the highest number of creches (670), followed by Assam (640) and Manipur (533). In the case of Union Territories, Puducherry had 104 functional creches under the scheme and Delhi reported 85 creches.
Huge difference between data shared by the government
in 2015 & 2017
Under the erstwhile Rajiv
Gandhi National Creche Scheme,a total of 23,588 creches were operating covering over 5.9 Lakh children. Ofthese, more than 15,000 creches which covered more than 3.78 Lakh children wereoperating in rural areas. This information was provided in response to aquestion in the Lok Sabha 2015. However, this number is down to 7930 as per the information
provided by the ministry in 2017. Reasons formore than 60% drop in the number of creches are known.
Number of creches under the scheme has declined over
the years
As per the dataprovided by the Ministry
of Woman and Child Development in 2017 in Lok Sabha, it was observed that the number of creches under the scheme decreasedfrom 2013-14.  This set of data is alsodifferent from the data shared in response to another question as notedearlier. Despite such variance in data, the drop in the number of operationalcreches is clearly observed.
The number ofbeneficiaries has also dropped owing to the decrease in the number ofoperational creches. From 4.74 lakh beneficiaries in 2013-14, the number ofbeneficiaries came down to 4.46 lakhs in 2014-15, 4.2 lakhs in 2015-16 and 2.9Lakhs in 2016-17.
The revamped scheme is now implemented through the
State Governments since 2017
From the year 2017,following the change in scheme, the government is implementing the schemethrough the state
governments. The reason for thedecline in number of creches could be because of the change in funding pattern.Earlier the central government took care of 90% of the expenses but now it hasbeen reduced to 60%.
Owing to thedecline in the number of operational creches, the budget allocation to thescheme has also reduced over the years.
Change
in scheme guidelines & visible lack of awareness leading to reduced uptake
The scheme serves an important need for working mothers from poor & low-income families. The scheme if implemented properly could also encourage greater participation of women in the workforce. But two broad issues seem to be affecting the implementation on the ground.
Firstly, since the scheme was modified from being a central sector scheme with 90% central funding to a centrally sponsored scheme with 60% central funding, state governments do not seem to be showing the same level of interest in implementing the scheme. Secondly, the list along with the address of such creches in various parts of the country is not available in the public domain. Such lack of publicity seems to be affecting the beneficiary numbers as well.
Featured Image: National Creche Scheme