Uttarakhand State Commission for Women (USCW) is planning to resume implementation of the national crèche scheme in the State. The scheme was operational across earlier but was halted due to fund related issues in 2018. Keeping the needs of working women in focus USCW is planning to resume this facility by October.
As per information provided by officials, the service will be facilitated through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode for which the department has already sought proposals from the private companies and non Governmental organisations which will likely be finalised in the coming two months.
The scheme, however, is not new for the State. It was started in December 2016 but due to some financial issues, the scheme was stopped midway in the year 2018. The USCW is now planning to resume the facility in all districts of the State this year. It is important to mention here that the scheme focuses on helping the working women especially those from a deprived background.
About 80 per cent of the total money spent on the scheme is borne by the Central Government, 10 per cent is borne by the State Government while the remainingcent is borne by the NGO or company appointed by the State Government to facilitate the service. The service focuses on providing daycare facilities for children in the age group of six months to six years. It also focuses on improving the nutrition and health status of the children along with helping in their holistic development. The preschool education is also provided to the children in the age group of three to six years. The service gives facility to the working women working in rural and urban areas who are employed for a minimum period of 15 days a month or six months in a year. Below Poverty Line (BPL) families can pay Rs 20 per kid per month in the crèche.
Families with monthly income of both parents amounting upto Rs 12,000 have to give Rs 100 per kid per month and families with a monthly income of more than Rs 12000 have to pay Rs 200 per child per month. Director of USCW, Satish Singh said, “The crèche service will be helpful to working women in any part of the State.
For example, Dehradun is seeing a rise in number of women working in various sectors for whom this service can be quite helpful. We have circulated advertisements in which about a dozen NGOs have responded to us so far.
Finalising an NGO is yet to be done. One NGO will be looking after all the crèches in a district. Various NGOs will be selected for the 13 districts in the State. An amount of about Rs 1,45,000 is allocated to each crèche.”
