The government would start 250 new creches in the State, Minister for Health and Social Justice K.K. Shylaja said here on Wednesday.
She was speaking after inaugurating the State’s first-of-its-kind mobile crèche for the children of migrant workers here at Willingdon Island on Wednesday. It functions alongside an anganwadi in division 26 of Kochi Corporation.
She said that caring the children of migrant workers was also the responsibility of the State. The mobile crèche will take care of children aged between six months and three years.
Transportation of children to and from the crèche is also being provided. The crèche will be open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Four workers in two shifts have been appointed as staff in the crèche. The Centre had withdrawn the assistance to 561 crèches under child welfare committees, out of which the Social Justice Department adopted 250 to avoid their closure. The rest would also be adopted after due verifications, she said.
She bemoaned the gradual reduction in Central funds allocated under Integrated Child Development Services with each passing year. Currently, it is shared in the ratio of 75:25 between the State and Central governments respectively.
‘Centre’s ploy’
She said this was a ploy of the Centre to shut down anganwadis and called for opposing it. Many States had already privatised anganwadis. However, the State government had no such plans, she said.
She added that measures were being taken to improve the standards of 33,000 anganwadis in the State. Over 8,000 anganwadis in the State did not have own buildings. Central aid had been sought to address the issue. However, only 800 odd anganwadis had land at their disposal.
Measures had been taken to improve the quality of food and care being provided in anganwadis. Training would be given to improve children’s communication skills for which a training manual was being developed with the help of experts. The training modules would be published in Hindi, Kannada and Tamil languages as well to benefit children of migrant workers, she said.
