Government aims to set up 17,000 creches across the country

The Ministry also plans to depute two additional creche workers in Anganwadis along with the existing staff.

The Union Women and Child Development Ministry aims to establish 17,000 creches in Anganwadi centres across the country out of which 5,222 have been approved to date.

The Ministry also plans to depute two additional creche workers in Anganwadis along with the existing staff.

These initiatives are being taken under the ‘Palna’ scheme. The objective of the scheme is 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, thereby enabling more women to take up gainful employment amongst all socio-economic groups both in the organized and unorganized sector, irrespective of their employment status.

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On Thursday, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani released new Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for Anganwadi-Cum-Creche centres being set up under the ‘Palna’ scheme.

They outline a comprehensive framework for the administration and implementation of the scheme, including administrative hierarchy, roles, and responsibilities of the workers and monitoring checklist.

“Our priority is to reach out to the woman who earns her livelihood, by leaving her own house to work in another, a woman who works as an agricultural labourer, a woman who works as a construction worker, under Palna and provide an opportunity to participate in economic activity, so that along with her livelihood she can provide a safe and secure environment for her children,” Ms. Irani said.