Pratidhwani the Echo

A Peer-Reviewed International Journal of
Humanities & Social Science

ISSN:
2278-5264 (Online) 2321-9319 (Print)

Impact
Factor: 6.28 (Index Copernicus
International)

Volume-V, Issue-IV,
April 2017, Page No.81-90

Published by Dept.
of Bengali, Karimganj College, Karimganj,
Assam, India

Website: http://www.thecho.in

Impact Assessment of Rajiv Gandhi National
Crèche Scheme in Kumargram Block of West Bengal

Pritom Das

M.A. in Development, Azim Premji University, Bangalore

Nabin Das

M.A. Social Work in Livelihoods and Social Entrepreneurship, Tata
Institute of Social Science, Guwahati

Subhasis Mondal

Abstract

The
childhood period of any child is very important physical and mental development
or growth. But, the inevitable changes like women entering the work field have
an effect on the child care and development. So, childhood requires protection,
care and support from the society and the state also. Government frames and
gets various legislations, policies, and programmes implemented through its
machinery and other organizations. Due to slow growth of different child care
facilities, it was felt that women among all socio-economic groups in both the
organized and unorganized sectors need support in terms of quality, substitute
crèche/day care services for their young children while they are at work. Rajiv
Gandhi National Crèche Scheme launched to accomplish these objectives. The
present study is an outcome of an in-depth fieldwork on the impact assessment
of seven crèche centres’ functioning as well as the beneficiary families. These
centres of Kumargram block of Alipurduar, West Bengal were operated by an NGO
named KREDA. As this work is totally based on primary data. Pre-structured
questionnaire was used for data collection from crèche centres, while villagers
were probed with survey schedule, FGDs, and observation tool. Simple statistical
tools were used to analyse and interpret the data.

Keywords:
Crèche, Rajiv Gandhi National Crèche Scheme, Impact Assessment.

Introduction: Early childhood is the underpinning period of
life. Basic attitudes and behavior patterns get developed in the first five or
six years of life (Hangsing, 2011). National Policy on Education (1986) has
explicitly recognized the importance of Early Childhood Education and Care
(ECCE) as a crucial input for human development. In this regard, Rajiv Gandhi
National Crèche Scheme for the children of working mothers (launched in 2006)
was one of the pioneer programmes which strongly articulated the need and
importance of early childhood education. It was proposed to provide day care
facilities to the children of working mothers. The reason behind approaching
this particular scheme in action can be traced with social need rather than
just providing basic education foundation to early childhood. Since last few
decades of the twentieth century, there has been observed dual inevitable
changes in Indian society which justified the need for these type of service.
Firstly public and private sectors have started to provide increased opportunity
to them. On the other hand, the breaking up of joint family system and the
increased phenomenon of nuclear families, working women need support in terms
of quality, substitute, and care for their young children at working hour.
There were existing services from private enterprises, but with the limited
number and very slow growth rate resulting in failure to meet the needs of
working mothers in terms of extent, content, and quality of services. Apart
from this, women belonging to poor families also required support and relief
from childcare as they struggle to cope with the burden of activities, within
and outside the home (WCD, 2012). It is well understood that life success,
health, and emotional wellbeing have their roots in early childhood. Effective
day care for young children is essential and a cost-effective investment as it
provides support to both the mothers and young children. Investing resources to
support children in their early years of life brings long-term benefits to them
and to the whole community. Early childhood development is very important for every
kind of children and it can predict the future welfare of every child. (Awofeso
and Rammohan, 2011). Studies by Reynolds et al. (2001) and Young(1996) revealed
that early childhood development programmes benefit children with higher and
timelier school enrolment, higher school completion rates, improved nutrition
and health status, child morbidity and mortality, improved social and emotional
behaviour, and increased earning potential and economic self-sufficiency as an
adult. Apart from this, these types of programmes also act as a protection
measure as it addresses issues such as child labor, school drop outs, child
prostitution, outreach for medical and health programme female literacy etc.

Integrated Child Development Service
(ICDS), Mid-Day-Meal, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Rajiv Gandhi National Crèche
Scheme were the flagship programmes working with child development, protection,
education etc. However, there has been the low priority in programme child
development for children care & protection. Integrated Child Development
Service (ICDS) scheme focuses on the basis of services provide to the children
group. Through this scheme, the community workers & helpers provide
supplementary nutrition, non-formal, pre-school education, health check-up etc.
While Rajiv Gandhi National Crèche scheme working mother is providing
comprehensive day-care services to young children (0-6 years) of working other
deserving women belonging to the low-income category.

The word ‘Crèche’ originated from French
word which means infant bed. A crèche is defined as provide occasional security
and protection for less than 8 years old children, and these facilities are
provided on by Crèche worker in particular platform. According to its French
origin, crèche refers to the crib. The crèche has been displayed in churches
during the period from Christmas Eve since the Middle Age. It is a kind of
tradition of Cristian home even before the custom of Christmas Trees. The
crèche has become popular in modern days in several countries as it provides
proper care and protection to young children. The crèches structurally maintain
and provide a safe environment for young children, for their healthy growth,
nutrition, play materials, cradles, sanitation, beds and a supervisor of the crèches
provide support and take care of every child in absent of their parent. (Supath
Gramyodyog Sansthan, 2013).

The history of crèche scheme in India is
not the very old concept. In 1969 at a construction site in Delhi first mobile
crèche was set up (Pattnaik, 1996). Rajiv Gandhi National Crèche scheme was
implemented during 2006 throughout India. The scheme was implemented through
the Central Social Welfare Board and a national level Voluntary Organisation,
namely Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW). Emphasis was particularly put
in the BPL areas. The structure of the scheme was specially designed for
children of working mother. The main objective of the scheme is to provide the
good quality child care facility. The space required for a child is 6-8 sq.ft.
in a crèche center. All facility like electricity (fans, lights), sanitation,
toilet as well as the sleeping facility was to be present in a crèche center.
The scheme also proposed for a free space for playing with playing materials as
well as teaching material present in the centre. Conversely, several studies
have been conducted by scholars to benchmark the real impact of crèche schemes
(Sharma et al., 2013; Supath Gramyodyog Sansthan, 2013). Crèche services have
been recommended also in different studies on health and nutrition status of
working mothers’ children. (Abbi et al.,1988; Nyberg, 2000). According to Das
(2014), the Rajiv Gandhi National Crèche Scheme for the children of working
mothers sets an example for other programmes that are not up to the mark to
take good care of the children’s nutrition. In fact, this scheme has been
considered for convergence as a social security scheme for the elimination of
child labours (Nath et al., 2013). In this backdrop, the present study has been
conducted in Kumargram block where an NGO named KREDA is running centres under
this scheme for working women of different tea estates. The study aims towards
assessing the impact of the scheme by measuring the achievable goals. Moreover,
a socio-economic study was carried out with the families whose children were
attending the crèche centres.

Context, Community, and Method: The study area was selected with the prior
direction of the project director of Khagrabari Rural Energy Development
Association (KREDA). It operates in mainly three districts of West Bengal
namely Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar. KREDA took the scheme as
implementing agency and started the centres in 2008 in selected tea estate
areas of Kumargram block where the labours live in colonies. Kumargram
community development block is situated in Alipurduar sub division of
Alipurduar districts. This block consist 11 Gram Panchayats. The total
population of this block is 199,609 with a sex ratio of 945. (2011 Census) The
total literacy rate is 63.79%. The entire block has 36.77% SC population while
ST population is 30%. Seven crèche centres studied in this work belong to
Turturi and Rydak panchayat. Entire study area commonly comes under Dooars
region of North Bengal. Undulating, hilly topography covers the region along
with forest and seasonal rivers. As labours of local tea estates have migrated
from their ancestral homes in different parts of Jharkhand and West Bengal
decades ago for the cause of employment, they have developed a unique culture.
They reside in spaces provided by tea garden enterprises with houses
constructed of wood, bamboo and tin. Communicative languages of the villages
are Saadri and Bengali. Nepali language is also observed in some villages.
There is no space for agricultural operation in the villages. In some cases,
the villagers cultivate some climbers and other horticultural crops in their
small kitchen gardens. They collect timber and non-timber forest products from
adjoining forests. Almost all the families have at least one tea garden
employee which is the main source of income.

This independent study is based on primary
data which was collected through several tools. Fifteen each family were
randomly selected from all the households whose children are enrolled in the
centre. Household survey schedule was primarily used to collect data on general
information, livelihood pattern, parents’ perception of the scheme, their
satisfaction level and general suggestions for the betterment of the scheme.
Subsequently, focused group discussions were conducted with each centre
beneficiary families to find out problems and their suggestions to make the
centres run better. Contrariwise, crèche workers (recruited by KREDA from
colony families) were probed with pre-structured questionnaires. Inferences,
results, and conclusions have been drawn out from the analysis of data with
simple tools. Repeated and same type of queries was asked from respondents to
validate the data.

Demographic Profile of the Villages: The villages under study area are mostly
tribal dominated except the two of Fashkhawa and Jayanti Tea Estate. During
field survey, it was found that all centres enrolled 25 each child in their
register. In some families, there was more than one child. Therefore, 25
separate families were not evenly present in each centre. Accordingly, 15 each
household were randomly selected from whatever number of guardian families were
there with the help of crèche workers.

Table 1:  Literacy status of the surveyed households

Name
of the Village

Male

Female

Total

Illiterate

Literate

Illiterate

Literate

Fashkhawa

23

13

21

23

80

Jayanti

16

24

21

17

78

Rahimabad

18

22

25

15

80

Turturikhand

18

17

24

13

72

Kartik
Poulus line

18

25

15

25

83

Kartik
Jaduline

22

19

25

15

81

Rydak

20

24

27

17

88

Total

135

144

158

125

562

There were total 105 families surveyed
consisting 562 souls with sex ratio of 1014 in part of male. Literacy rate was 47.86%
which was more in male members of the households. Village children usually go
to nearest villages or small towns for high school education.

Table 2: Family wise information of surveyed
households

Name of the Village

Family type

Family size

Nuclear

Joint

Extended

Total

BPL Card Status

Fashkhawa

8

5

2

15

5.33

7

Jayanti

11

1

3

15

5.20

5

Rahimabad

13

1

1

15

5.33

0

Turturikhanda

14

1

0

15

4.80

7

Kartik Poulus line

9

2

4

15

5.53

6

Kartik Jaduline

9

4

2

15

5.40

3

Rydak

9

4

2

15

5.87

8

Total

73

18

14

105

5.35

36

About three fourth of the families being
nuclear, joint families are more than the number of extended families. Family
size is largest in Rydak village. Most families have at least one case of
migration to nearby cities. 36 families have BPL card issued by panchayats,
among which Rydak village is maximum. There are some families whose BPL Card
status is pending for years. 74.28% of families’ belonged to tribal communities
(mostly Santhal, Oraon and Munda), 19.05% OBC and remaining from general caste.
About one-third of families are associated with SHGs formed in the village.
Among them Jayanti village has one family linked with SHG and Kartik PL do not
have such families. During the study, it was found that the labours of tea
garden get the wage of Rs. 90 per day along with the facility of electricity,
drinking water etc. in most areas. As they do not have any agricultural land
for cultivation, they grow some fruits and vegetables in their home garden.
Apart from this most of the studied families have domestic animals. Rahimabad
village does not have any electrical connectivity and sanitation facility. The
villagers of Rydak do not have drinking water supply facility from the factory.
They have tube wells instead. Total 65.71% families have the electricity facility
while one-fourth of them have the facility of the low-cost latrine.

Perception of the Key Stakeholders of the
Crèche Centres: As
crèches are to provide a warm, welcoming, safe and stimulating environment for
young children, they must meet the required standards. According to the norms,
the parents are obliged to pay (Rs. 20/months and Rs 60/month per child) for
additional facilities in the crèche. The centres studied in the research
started after formation of a local sub-committee with educated peoples in the
society as well as from NGO. Then, it was decided in the meeting that, the
villagers will pay Rs. 20 for services at monthly basis. Nevertheless, the
system did not last longer. Soon, the parents stopped funding. Throughout the
study, it was observed that the children brought study materials from their
homes. Villagers’ perception on the scheme respondents were enquired about
their perception on the scheme through schedule as well as in FGDs. The centers
usually run in the houses of crèche mothers if they are from the same village.
As at least one family member is engaged in tea garden labour works, all
mothers are not full timely working whose children are enrolled in crèche
centres. Rather, they get employment seasonally. But, whether the mothers go to
work in the factory or get engaged in unpaid household works, their children go
to centres regularly.

Table 3: Time of sending children to crèche
centres

Age of child for sending to centres

6-9 months

9 months to 1.5 year

1.5 -3 years

3-5 years

Frequency

20

38

31

16

During the household survey, the parents
were asked about the age in which they send their children to centres. They
were provided the option to respond freely. Later their responses were
categorized consequently. Most of the guardians send their children in ages
from 9 months to 18 months. According to them, in this age, their children
learn to be separated from mothers for few hours. Nearly one-fifth of guardians
send their children even before 9 months. 31 respondents told that they send
their children in 18 months to 3 year age as in this age children become keen
to interact with fellow children.

Table 4: Major reason behind sending children
to crèche

Childcare at work

Education

Safe environment

Sanitation and health care practices

Supplementary nutrition

Following neighbours

37

28

7

12

16

5

The respondents replied that they have
been motivated by multiple reasons for sending their kids to crèche. Right from
the inception of those centres in the tea estate labour colonies, they observed
its benefits. Table no. 4 states the major reason emphasized take them the
decision of enrolling their children in respective centres. Most of them
responded that they get relief at work if their children are at crèche.
According to one-fourth of parents, basic education and inculcation of study
habit are the major reason which helps children in future to get success in
life. Other good habit developments, safe environment, and neighbours’ activity
are also motivating factors in this.

Table 5: Source of money for expenditure on
children

Labour work

Service

Forest product

Animal rearing

vegetable cultivation

54

11

29

8

3

Though the guardians were not paying
money for crèche services during the study, they were spending money on
educational expenditure of children. Most of them used to save some amount from
their wage. Apart from this, they spend money from their services (Government,
private and entrepreneurial), marketing their forest, animal and vegetable
produce.

Crèche Workers’ Perception on the Scheme:  Most of the members have been working since
2008. After recruitment, they were taken for training on basic teaching
methods, childcare, health and hygiene, and nutrition. They were personally
interviewed about the functioning of the centres. The primarily responded that
they were not satisfied with the salary provided to them. It was Rs 1000 per
month which often paid irregularly. Therefore, they usually get engaged in
other part time jobs. Moreover, the fund for supplementary nutrition is not
satisfactory and irregular and villagers have stopped their contribution,
therefore, tiffin for children is not time and again prepared and children of
elder age group rush to ICDS centres for food. Project implementing NGO has
also complained the same problem of the irregular recurring grant from state
authority. Crèche mothers had several suggestions to improve the scheme like
regularization of fund flow, updating of teaching learning material,
improvement in centre building and additional basic facilities.

Assessment of Crèche Centres: Implementing agencies are accountable to
provide the basic minimum facilities to ensure that the children in the centre
have a hygienic, healthy and child-friendly environment for their proper growth
and care. In the present study, the crèche workers were probed with the
pre-designed questionnaire regarding the functioning of the centres.

Table 6: Centre wise functioning of different
centres

Centre

Fashkhawa

Jayanti

Rahimabad

Turturikhand

Kartik PL

Kartik JL

Rydak

Crèche
unit no

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

Starting
year

2008

2008

2008

2008

2008

2008

2008

Location
changed

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Willing
to change location

Yes

No

No

No

Yes

No

No

Timing

8:30 am to 12:00 pm

8:30 am to 12:30 pm

8:00 am to 11:00

am

7:30 am to 11:30 am

8:00am to 11:00 am

9:30 am to 12:30 pm

7:30 am to 11:00am

Facilities

Play
area

No

No

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Sleeping

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

Play
materials

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Cooking
utensil

Provided

Provided

Provided

Provided

Provided

Provided

Provided

First
aid kits

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Drinking
water

Supply Water

Supply water

Handpump

Supply Water

Supply Water

Supply water

Handpump

Foods
provided

Suji, biscuit, khichri

Suji, biscuit, khichri

Biscuit, suji

Suji, biscuit, khichri

Suji, biscuit, khichri

Suji, biscuit, khichri

Suji, biscuit, khichri

Mothers
linked to SHGs

35%

11%

40%

43%

0%

50%

40%

Link
to PHC

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Tie
up with Anganwadi

No

No

Very good

Good

No

Good

No

Local
sub committee

Not in
proper function

Not in
proper function

Not in
proper function

Yes

Yes

Not in
proper function

Yes

Display
board

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

As all the centres started functioning
soon after recruitment of the crèche workers with 25 children, most of them
have remained in same place. The location of crèche centre has been changed in
Kartik Jaduline due to frequent elephant attack. Fashkhawa centre has been
shifted to Chuniyajhora. But the change has yet not been registered in WBSWB.
In Turturikhand the center was changed for a time but later it running in the
extra room near MSK where it started earlier. Most of the centres were found to
be running with one single room. The play area is there in most of the centres
but it is not adequate anywhere. As per utensils, one dekchi, one bucket, 25
plates, and stove were provided during starting and no replacement has been
done later. As Tiffin, the mentioned items are provided but due to the
irregular release of the recurring grant, it has been stopped. So the children
are not provided adequate food every day. Most of the centres collect water
from supply water. But there is not any separate water source only for a crèche
centre. The local subcommittee was formed in every centre but due to the
problems in supplementary nutrition arrangement, the mothers have reduced their
interest in meetings. The crèche workers were found to maintain attendance
register on a regular basis. They keep first aid box for emergency use. All of
them had convergence with Primary Health Centres and Anganwadi Centres.

Conclusion and Recommendations: Children need access to nutrition, basic
social services, such as health, education, protection, and care to improve
their welfare and their capacity. They are the asset for future. Delivery of
social services requires increasing financial resources and particularly, the
quality of public expenditure in these areas. Additionally,
Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model is also required along with
administrative reforms and children’s centric development approach. The study
reveals that the families are economically poor as well as they spend very less
in education. Though crèche is not the only place to take care of their
children, the parents keep their children during the morning to noon time and
use the benefit of the scheme well. The centres face several problems during
bad weather and natural calamities too. Nonetheless, the guardians were found
to be satisfied with the educational improvement of their children. They
recognized the benefit of the scheme on developing better habit and culture in
their kids. During guardian- crèche worker meeting of most villages, they were
found to be motivated in later stage and were willing to improve the situation.
They proposed several recommendations in this regard:

1.      Recurring grant should be regularized from
government and NGO side.

2.      Parents should contribute an amount for the
development of the centres at a regular basis which will be acceptable and
bearable by all.

3.      Local government bodies (panchayat) should
support the centres by facilitating their emergency needs.

4.      Convergence should be strengthened with the
schemes like ICDS, ASHA, Mid-day Meal etc.

5.      Separate room should be constructed for each
centre to ensure protective environment during all weather.

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