Real funds, virtual existence

Even as it celebrates its golden jubilee, the Indian Council of Child Welfare ICCW, which has the President as its patron-in-chief and Son...

Even as it celebrates its golden jubilee, the Indian Council of Child Welfare ICCW, which has the President as its patron-in-chief and Sonia Gandhi as Chairperson, has uncovered large-scale irregularities in the functioning of its creche programme in Madhya Pradesh.

The Madhya Pradesh Council for Child Welfare MPCCW has been asked to return its grant-in-aid of nearly Rs 44 lakh after a two-member committee found that the vast majority of its creches meant for 8216;working and ailing8217; mothers exist only on paper.

The creche programme, set up in 1975 by the Department of Social Welfare, Government of India, is meant to provide 8216;8216;creche facilities to working and ailing mothers below the poverty line whose family8217;s monthly income does not exceed Rs 1,800. Each creche is meant to look after 25 children under the age of five.8217;8217; Of the 1,594 such creches in the country, MP runs the maximum number at 256. The Department of Women and Child Development, HRD Ministry, releases grants for the ICCW creches.

A two-member committee, comprising Manmohan Kaur, vice-president of ICCW, and Anil Kumar Bhunia, a member of the executive committee, visited MP and found that of the 133 creches visited by programme officers and the committee, only 39 creches do exist. 8216;8216;The remaining creches could be considered as not functioning as per the schematic pattern of the ministry concerned.8217;8217; Even the existing creches, the committee found, need a lot of improvement in terms of hygienic conditions, nutrition etc.

According to S.D. Sharma, vice-president of the MPCCW: 8216;8216;We know that such an inquiry did take place but we have not received a copy. Actually they have gone to the addresses of the organisations running these creches and mistake these to be the actual places where the creches are run8230;When we receive a copy, we will send a detailed reply.8217;8217;

However, the report makes it clear that even where the registers were signed, most of the facilities and conditions to be met for a creche were simply not fulfilled.