COWE India and UNDP launch workplace-based childcare pilot in Hyderabad

The Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs of India (COWE India) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched a workplace-based childcare collaboration in Hyderabad.

UNDP will support two Aveksha childcare centres, in Pashamylaram and Suraram, as pilots of a self-sustaining model. Each centre will provide children with three nutritious meals a day and early learning education.

The centres use Sajag AI, a system developed by Grade 10 students Shloak Bihani and Aryaman Taparia. It analyses CCTV feeds and sends SMS and email alerts to centre staff and monitors when it detects an unsafe or potentially abusive act.

Notable Points

• ICDS and Anganwadi centres: The Integrated Child Development Services programme began in 1975, was discontinued in 1978 and was later relaunched under the Tenth Five Year Plan. That Plan linked the programme with Anganwadi centres, mainly in rural areas.
• Anganwadi construction funding: During the Twelfth Five Year Plan, Anganwadi construction costs were shared 75:25 between the Centre and states, or 90:10 in the North-Eastern Region. Construction was also a permissible activity under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.