Government aims to set up 17,000 creches across India
- The Union Women and Child Development Ministry aims to establish 17,000 creches in Anganwadi centers across the country out of which 5,222 have been approved to date.
Key Points
- These initiatives are being taken under the ‘Palna’ scheme.
- Objective
- To address the urgent need for quality day-care facilities/creches for the children of working women
- by providing a safe and secure environment for the nutritional, health and cognitive development of the children
- It will help enable more women to take up gainful employment amongst all socio-economic groups both in the organized and unorganized sector, irrespective of their employment status.
- According to government data, participation of women in the workforce has increased to 37% in 2022.
- As of March 31, 2021, 13.87 lakh Anganwadi and mini-Anganwadi centers are operational across the country.
The National Creche Scheme
- It is a centrally sponsored scheme being implemented by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
- The scheme was earlier named as Rajiv Gandhi National Creche Scheme.
- It aims to provide day care facilities to children (age group of 6 months to 6 years) of working mothers.
The salient features of the National Creche Scheme are as follows
- Daycare Facilities including Sleeping Facilities.
- Early Stimulation for children below 3 years and pre-school Education for 3 to 6 years old children.
- Supplementary Nutrition (to be locally sourced)
- Growth Monitoring
- Health Check-up and Immunization
Prelims Takeaway
- National Creche Scheme
- Anganwadi