In 2013, there were almost 25,000
creches
with over 6 lakh beneficiaries under the National Creche
Scheme
. By February 2023, there were just 3,900 creches with under 84,000 beneficiaries. If even the poorest third of the estimated 25 million babies born every year in India are to be provided creche facilities, it would need several lakh creches.
From the first decade of this millennium, several studies and surveys funded by the government showed the huge unmet
demand
for creches and the impact that creches for children aged six months to six years could have on preventing child malnutrition and in pushing up
women
's work participation, which is notoriously low in India.
TOI reached out to the women and child development ministry through email for its views on the issue, but has got no response even two days after the mails were sent. The story will be updated online if we get a response.
Why did the number of creches under the scheme crash so dramatically? A combination of factors was at play. Till 2017, the funding pattern for the scheme was 90:10 with the Centre footing 90% and NGOs running the creche providing the rest. Then came allegations of financial irregularities by the NGOs, which led to the central government cutting off funding to them and transferring the creches to the Central Social Welfare Board.
Around the same time, in January 2017, the cost-sharing formula was revised. The implementation was shifted to state governments following an increase in the share of union taxes for the states from 32% to 42% in keeping with recommendation of the 14th Finance Commission. The fund sharing pattern amongst Centre, states and NGOs was changed to 60:30:10. It was 80:10:10 for northeastern states and 80:0:10 for union territories. Not all states supported the scheme enthusiastically and it progressively shrank till most creches shut down during the pandemic.
From over 87% of budget allocation being used in 2013-14, fund utilisation steadily worsened till it was less than 25% in 2018-19. That led to a slash in allocation from the centre.
Several states which had hundreds of creches now have none, according to government data given to Parliament in February 2023. These include the states with the highest number of births, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. UP had 2,149 creches with more than 50,000 children in 2013, Bihar had over 930 creches and more than 23,000 children.
Post-Covid, in July 2022, the women and child development ministry announced that NCS was being renamed Palna Scheme under the sub-scheme 'Samarthya' of Mission Shakti, which aims to strengthen interventions for women's safety, security and empowerment. The anganwadi-cum-creches were moved to the Palna scheme and existing creches under NCS were included under it as standalone creches. The scheme seems to be struggling to get off the ground with barely 2,200 functional standalone creches as of till October 2023 and approval being given for 5,000 anganwadi-cum-creches.
"ICDS (integrated child development scheme) has the administrative outreach to reach the poorest. So the anganwadi-cum-creche model is the most viable and scalable model. ICDS already has under-three children within its mandate for providing take home rations. Now it has to additionally provide day care. But many administrative and bureaucratic challenges have to be tackled before this can run smoothly," explained Sumitra Mishra of Mobile Creches, which runs creches for children of migrant workers and works on early childhood development of marginalised children.
The new Palna scheme envisages 17,000 anganwadi cum creches in the country by 2025-26. When 22,000 creches were functional in 2013, to aim for 17,000 creches more than ten years later might be too little to meet the demand. In the 15th Finance Commission (2021-22 to 2025-26), a total of Rs 20,989 cr including central and state share has been allocated under Mission Shakti. There is apprehension that if enough creches do not become functional and states do not show utilisations of funds, allocation for the creche component could be cut in the 16th finance cycle.
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