Provide quality childcare services in different settings with different stakeholders

State Daman and Diu Delhi Haryana Jharkhand Rajasthan Tamil Nadu Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand West Bengal

The MC day care model lies at the heart of everything we do and stand for. Protection and care, that integrate interventions in nutrition, health and hygiene, and education and community awareness, address the multi-dimensional needs of the child through an eight-hour programm, six days a week. These interventions are carried out flawlessly by trained and experienced cadre of child care workers. Impact of the intervention is sustained by support from the parents, community, employers and local state agencies mobilized by our front level functionaries on the core principles of Early Child Care. In 2017-18, MC worked with various builders/real estate developers, at 62 different locations, to reach almost 10,000 children. The partnership models varied: (1) At 13 centres MC worked directly in partnership with the builder to demonstrate the running of a quality centre; (2) At 10 centres the employer (builder) took over complete financial and management responsibilities from MC, after the initial set up and troubleshooting; (3) At 39 locations the services were provided by 11 NGOs, identified and trained by MC. While the funds from the builder are being routed through MC for most NGOs, in two cases the builder is funding the NGO directly. The remarkable feature this year was the predominance of the third model, that accounted for 60% of the children reached. Total budget for this program was more than 5cr.

Enhancing capacities of State Government and CSOs for quality ECD provisions

State Jammu and Kashmir Madhya Pradesh Odisha Rajasthan Uttarakhand

Quality childcare, without investing in a knowledgeable, skilled, sensitive childcare worker holds no meaning for MC. Exactly like quality higher education is a pipe dream without highly qualified teachers. Under the ICDS scheme, the largest programme for children under six years of age, there are 14 lakh functioning Anganwadi Centres (AWCs). We need at least 28 lakh trained childcare workers to run these centres. In India, this ECD resource is totally inadequate, both, in quantity and quality. In keeping with our commitment to building ECD cadres, in 2017-18, MC developed capacities of almost 400 childcare workers for crèches, as day care professionals. This resulted in an outreach of an additional 7,800 children. Our training portfolio comprised many conceptual and practical dimensions of ECD: orientation and crèche management, community engagement, training NGOs to train their peers in supportive supervision, pre-school component in the ICDS, etc.

Influencing policy makers on entitlements for the young child

“Mobile Creches’s approach is not of philanthropy, patronizing charity or even noblesse oblige, for those approaches are antiquated; but simply of the right of an Indian child, no matter where he is born or what background he is from, to care and education.” Indira Mahadevan, in Ekalavya, 1973 The ‘rights language’ in the child sector gained prominence after the UN Convention on Child Rights was ratified by India in 1992. For MC, it has been an article of faith from the very early days. Our interventions on the ground inform collective action, aimed at influencing law, policy and programme, to ensure entitlements of young children. MC strengthens its hands and the voice of the young child by working with partners working on related issues. In 2017-18, MC worked with FORCES, (national body, Delhi chapter), Alliance, the Right to Food (RtF) Campaign, the RtE Forum, Bharath Gyan Vigyan Samithi (BGVS) and women’s collectives. On the ‘implementation’ end of the law-policy-programme spectrum, Delhi FORCES,a network of 43 grass roots organisations, focused on the following: reached out to local MLAs, Councillors and members of the DCPCR and the DCW to put the spotlight on the lack of childcare options in the slums of Delhi; formed 30 Anganwadi Support and Monitoring Committees (ASMCs) in Delhi, a provision under Restructured ICDS, in a bid to involve the community in monitoring the functioning of AWCs.

Sumitra Mishra

Chief Executive Officer

mail@mobilecreches.org

Show +

Telephone 91-11-23347635
	Hide -

Garv Nagar

Thematic Lead RM

garv.n@mobilecreches.org

Show +

Telephone 91-11-23347281
	Hide -