Govt to start 600 creches for adivasi children

The state will soon start 600 creches to look after adivasi children between the 6 months to 3 years in a bid to bring down infant malnutrition and school dropout among the adivasi population.

In a written reply to a question asked by 26 members of the Vidhan Parishad cutting across party lines, women and child development minister Varsha Gaikwad said that very often, infant of 6 months to 3 years are left alone at home and don’t get sufficient nutrition, or are left in the care of older children. This in turn results in the older children dropping out of schools.

While the state government has set up anganwadis (government-run nurseries) to look after children of working mothers, they cater to children in the age group of 3 to 6 years.
To provide relief to working adivasi mothers and improve the health of adivasi infants, the state government plans to set up creches that will take care of children from 6 months to 3 years for 8 hours a day.

In the first phase, 100 creches would be built in six districts - Thane, Nashik, Nandurbar, Amravati, Gadchiroli and Chandrapur - all of which have large adivasi populations. The zilla parishad (district council) would oversee the crèches, which would be run by the gram panchayat. Only women between the 22 to 40 years, who have cleared Class VIII and are local residents, would be eligible for employment in these creches, the minister said.

Moreover, she pointed out that as per the child development scheme, children of adivasi villages are provided midday meals worth Rs5 every day.