National Creche Scheme

The Government of India has initiated the ”National Creche Scheme” for the children of working mothers which provides daycare facilities to the children. This scheme is being implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme through States and Union Territories under the Ministry of Women and Child Development. Under this scheme, the creches that provide daycare services to children in the age group of 0 to 6 years of working mothers in the community. Let us look in detail about the National Creche Scheme in this article. To know about the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Scheme

Objectives of the Scheme

The objectives of the National Creche Scheme are given below:

This scheme facility enables the parents to leave their children while they are at work and where the children are provided with a stimulating environment for their holistic development.
This scheme ensures to improve the health and nutrition status of the children.
It promotes physical, social, cognitive and emotional/holistic development of the children.
It also educates and empowers parents/caretakers for the better childcare.
The scheme is being structurally revised with the enhanced financial norms, stringent monitoring and sharing pattern between the Government of India and the implementing agencies and NGOs.

Services Under the Scheme

The scheme will provide an integrated package of the following services:

Daycare services including sleeping facilities.
Early stimulation for the children below 3 years of age and provides pre-school education for the 3 to 6 years old children.
Supplementary nutrition (to be locally sourced)
Growth monitoring
Health check-up and immunization.
Drinking water and sanitary facilities
Food and cooking facilities
Equipment and play material
Medicine and First Aid Kit

Eligibility Criteria

The State Government, Voluntary Institutions, Mahila Mandals with the know report of service in the field of child welfare department and registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 or registered as a Public Trust at least for the period for last 2 years are eligible for applying for the financial assistance from the fund.

Target Group

The National Creche Scheme that focuses on the children of age 6 months to 6 years, of working women in both rural and urban areas who are employed for a minimum period of 15 days in a month, or 6 months in a year.

Documents Required

To apply for the National Creche Scheme, submit the below listed required documents along with the scheme application form.

Audited accounts for the last 3 years along with a copy of their certified balance sheet for the previous year
A statement giving details such as year, purpose, amount etc. of assistance that is received during the last 3 years from the Central and State Government, Central Social Welfare Board, local bodies or any other quasi-Government foundations including the requests made thereof to any one of these or any other organization for the project under the consideration or for any other projects.
A copy of the registration certificate duly attested by a Gazetted Officer
A copy of Memorandum of Association (MOA)/Bye-Laws of the Organisation duly signed/attested by the application.
List of members of the managing committee with their qualifications and occupations.
Copies of the annual report and audited statements of accounts for the last two years duly signed/attested by the applicant.
Qualification of Creche Worker and helper
Certificate of Training of Creche Worker and helper.
Any other documents if required

Note: Withholding of any details or furnishing incorrect information can lead to cancellations of sanction recovery of the grant and/or other actions under the law. User Charges The user charges are necessary to bring in an element of community ownership and would be collected as under:

S.No.	Families Type	Charges
1.	BPL families	Rs.20/- per child per month.
2.	Families with the monthly income (Both Parents) of up to Rs.12,000/-	Rs.100/- per child per month
3.	Families with the monthly income (Both Parents) of above Rs.12,000/-	Rs.200/- per child per month

The collection of user charges will be placed in a revolving fund with the implementing agency which, in consultation with local bodies, would be used for the welfare of children and upgradation of facilities of the creches.

Training Provided under NCS

The creches should provide custodial care to children and also contribute to the overall development of the child.
It requires to be fully recognized that running of a creche is not an unskilled job but needs proper and appropriate training.
Thus, the trained creche worker and helper are a pre-requisite for opening a crèche.
The training must have preferably been done within the last 3 years prior to their appointment.
The training will be provided by implementing Mother NGOs/agencies from their own resources.
A training certification of crèche worker and helper will have to be furnished by the organization.
A training module prepared by the NIPCCD would be used for providing training to all creche workers and helpers after their appointment to the orient them to provide best daycare services and to build up the child-friendly environment in the Creche Centre.
The training would enable crèche worker and helper to emphasize on areas like childcare, health care and first -aid.

After completing the training period, the Crèche worker and helper will be expected to perform the following functions:

Organize stimulation activities for child below 3 years.
Prepare low-cost teaching, learning material for children.
Organize pre-school education pursuits for children between 3 to 6 years of age.
Monitor the growth of children and accordingly provide counselling to parents
Create awareness about more reliable childcare in the community through mothers’ meetings
Maintain records and registers
Ensure visits by doctors and health workers

Implementation of Scheme

The Rajiv Gandhi National Creche Scheme (RGNCS) will be implemented as a Central Sector Scheme (CSS) where Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) which provides 90% of the required funds for all the components as per the norms scheduled under the Scheme and the balance 10% will be granted by the NGOs actually running the crèches at ground level. The implementing agencies will ensure the contribution of 10% contribution from the NGOs and will provide documentary proof/evidence of a 10% share. The implementing organisations/agencies must fulfil the following eligibility conditions:

The organisation has to be registered under the law and must have a properly constituted Managing Body with its powers, duties and responsibilities, clearly defined and laid down in its Constitution.
The organization should not work for the profit of any individual or body of individuals.
It must ordinarily have 3 years experience in the relevant field after its registration.
Its financial position must be sound.
It must have facilities, resources, experience and personnel to initiate the RGNCS scheme for which the assistance is sought.

Schematic Pattern of Assistance

This scheme will provide assistance to Implementing Agency/Mother NGOs for running crèches for various components as tabulated below:

Financial Assistance/Recurring Grant (For a creche of 25 children)

S.No.	Item	Ceiling of expenditure	Expenditure per annum	Implementing Agencies/NGOs share per annum	Government share per annum (Grant)
1.	Honorarium
	Creche worker	Rs.3000/- per month	Rs.36000/-	Rs.3600/-	Rs.32400/-
	Creche helper	Rs.1500/- per month	Rs.18000/-	Rs.1800/-	Rs.16200/-
	Doctor	Rs.250/- per visit per quarter	Rs.1000/-	Rs.100/-	Rs.900/-
2.	Supplementary nutrition for a maximum period of 26 days in a month
	Rs.12 per child per day for 25 children	Rs.7800/- per month	Rs.93600/-	Rs.9360/-	Rs.84240/-
3.	Other Items
	Medicine Kit	Rs.500/- half-year	Rs.1000/-	Rs.100/-	Rs.900/-
	PSE Kit	Rs.2000/- per year	Rs.2000/	Rs.200/-	Rs.1800/-
	Monitoring by independent agencies (once in a year)	Rs.1000/- per creche per visit	Rs.1000/	Nil	Rs.1000/-
4.	Total Expenditure		Rs.152600/-	Rs.15160/-	Rs.137440/-

Non-recurring Grant

The funding pattern of the non-recurring grant has been made in this scheme to enable implementing agencies to provide with the basic minimum facilities to ensure that the children in the creche have a hygienic and healthy children friendly environment for the proper growth and development.

S.No.	Item	Ceiling of expenditure	Expenditure per annum	Implementing Agencies/NGOs share per annum	Government share per annum (Grant)
1.	Non-recurring grant for a period of five years	Rs.10,000/- once at the beginning of new creche and a subsequent grant of Rs.5000/- at an interval of every 5 years towards the replacement/purchase of equipment/furniture, water filter, etc.	Rs.10,000/- Rs.5,000/-	Rs.1000/- Rs.500/-	Rs.9000/- Rs.4500/-
2.	One time grant for Monitoring Agencies	Rs.10,000/- once	Rs.10,000/-	Nil	Rs.10000/-
3.	One time grant for the mobile or web-based monitoring	Rs.5 crores (For the implementation on pilot basis)	Rs.5 crores	Nil	Rs.5 crores

Release of Funds

The grants will be released on a quarterly basis to the Implementing Agency or Mother NGOs on receipt of the request and requisite documents. The grants will be released depending upon the actual number of children being provided with the facilities on a monthly basis under this scheme. In the cases where the number of children in a particular month falls below 10, then no grants will be released. In cases where the number of children for a particular month is less than 25 but more than 9, cost towards the Supplementary Nutrition will be provided on a pro-rata basis. The application form for the release of grants would be accompanied by a statement of accounts by Implementing Agency/Mother NGOs and a Utilization Certificate, signed by a Chartered Accountant. The Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB) will also provide a documentary proof/evidence of 10% share coming from the non-central government sources at the time of every request for the release of the grant.

Procedure for Applying

To apply under the National Creche Scheme, the implementing agency/Mother NGOs will forward the application form of National Creche Scheme for the opening of a creche to the Ministry duly recommended by their State Units. It will be open to the Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB) to entertain an application directly from an organization/institution of an All India character and then, send the application form to the Ministry. No crèche will be relocated/opened without the approval of the Ministry. However, new crèche would be opened or relocated with the approval of the Ministry only in lieu of the closed creches, where the Anganwadi Centre-cum-Creche under ICDS does not exist or is not proposed to be established. In case implementing Agency or Mother, NGOs decide to close any of its crèches due to malfunctioning or else, a report of the same to be sent to the Ministry. Note: The scheme form can also be downloaded online from the official website of the Ministry of Woman and Child Development. The National Creche Scheme application form has been reproduced below for the ready reference: [pdf-embedder url="https://www.indiafilings.com/learn/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Application-Form-For-National-Creche-Fund.pdf" title="Application Form For National Creche Fund"]