Funds meant for creche centres misappropriated
Childrens made to pay fees for running creche centres
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, October 07 2011: Funds for cr�che centres in the state set up under the Rajiv Gandhi National Creche Scheme of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, are being diverted on the way and as such these funds hardly reaches the children's in the cr�che centres, who are the real beneficiaries.

266 NGOs registered under the Manipur Social Welfare are running 266 creche centres and one NGO by the name of Manipur State Council for Child Welfare is running another 109 creche centres.

Two AYAHs (Female workers) look after the children in each cr�che centres.

According to guidelines there should be not less than 25 childrens in a cr�che centre.

Concern officials while talking to Hueiyen Lanpao said that an amount of Rs 42,384 is being sanctioned by the Union government on yearly basis.

Apart from these, toys and wall calendars are also being supplied under the scheme.

Though the scheme is being implemented throughout the country, there seems to be a whole lot of difference in its implementation in the state.

Here, even some of the NGOs running cr�che centres are allegedly collecting fees from the parents of the children saying that the amount given under the scheme is not enough to run the cr�che centre.

To survive, it is compelled to collect fees from the children at a minimal rate, they said.

An official of the Manipur State Council for Child Welfare speaking to Hueiyen Lanpao said that there are no children categorised as OBC, SC and ST.

But since the funds in the NGOs are delivered after every two months, children from BPL families are charged an amount of Rs 20 and APL families an amount of Rs 50 as fees.

Women who are loking after the children in the cr�che centres, known as AYAH, also complain of being deprived of their salaries.

They said that their salary for four months for the year 2010 have not been given so far.

For the current year, two months salary was given in the month of March and another in the month of September.

The concern NGO never disclosed the amount received by them yearly, even when enquired.

The AYAH further went on to say that they were made to answer falsely on the queries of the team of the Indian Council for Child Welfare who came for inspection in the month of April this year.

They even told AYAH that their due salaries will be paid and their monthly salaries will also be paid regularly, if they replied to the queries of the inspection team as told by the NGO.

Speaking to Hueiyen Lanpao, RK Noyonsana, Chairman of Manipur State Social Welfare Advisory Board, said that cr�che centres are set up for children between the age group of 0 to 6 years.

But in Manipur children in the age group of 0 to 3 years are kept under the strict supervision of their parents and they are normally not sent to cr�che centres.

Only after the age of 3 they are being brought out.

He further went on to say that since the AYAH are paid very less they are reluctant to come to work which is one of the reason for the non functioning of the cr�che centres.

The NGOs have also made several complains about the in adequacy of the fund, besides there are other problems which impedes the successful working of a cr�che centre.

Last year there were 327 cr�che centres in the state.

But now it has come down to 266 due to various reasons, best known by the NGOs.

The NGOs running cr�che centres in rural areas function more efficiently than those opened in and around Imphal area.

There has been no looking into the matter as of now, he said.

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