Staff crunch at ISBT-43 creche by Archit Watts
Chandigarh, February 22The initiative of the UT administration to facilitate the working women by establishing a creche at ISBT-43 has almost failed due to acute shortage of staff and a poor response from the public.
Though the crèche started one year ago, the enrolment register shows only four children have been enrolled hitherto.
A visit to the crèche revealed a single lady was looking after children there and neither a teacher nor a doctor was available.
A working woman, Amrita, said: “I cannot drop my child here, because a single lady cannot take care of all children and any mishappening can take place.” If the authorities have set up a creche, they should pay some concern to provide better management, she added.
The education instructor, Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW), Tejinder K Bajwa, said, “The creche was established for the working mothers but when they are not willing to drop their children here, we removed our extra staff.”
Moreover, it started with the collaboration of ICCW, Bal Bhavan-23, and was decided that women could drop their children in the morning and could take them home in the evening by paying nominal charges.
Anjana, a helper at the crèche, accepted that she alone was working there for the past three months and said, “We are charging a nominal fee of Rs 20 per month from the poor, but still the crèche is not getting a good response.” No working woman prefers to drop her child here, she added.
A child expert said though it was not necessary to appoint a doctor at the crèche, one thing was sure that a single person could not take care of all children.

Chandigarh Tribune February 23, 2009