PMC to start three new day care centres

The Urban Community Development (UCD) department tabled the proposal during the Women Child Welfare Committee meeting, which was held earlier this week. It is expected to get approval in the committee's next meeting.

According to the proposal, the day care centres will be established at Sun City, Shivajinagar and Yerawada. Civic officials said 22 NGOs had approached them to undertake this project, out of which S N Associates, Shrimati Mirabai Samajseva Pratishthan and Vatsalya Pratishthan have been finalised. They will charge a monthly fee of Rs 1,000 per child, while PMC employees looking to send their kids to the facility will be asked to shell out Rs 500.

Currently, the PMC runs only one child day care centre at Shivajinagar Gaothan, but it is limited only to PMC employees' children. The new facilities will be open to all.

"Private day care centres charge three to four thousand per month. The nominal fees charged by the proposed centres will be beneficial for working families. The proposal will be approved at the next meeting of the committee, scheduled for October 3. Members of the committee are in favour of the proposal," said Pandurang Adsul, a civic employee.

"We have selected the NGOs who are experienced in this field. We want to provide this service at very reasonable charges. Currently, day care centres are expensive, which is not affordable for the middle class. We also don't want to comprise on the quality and all standard facilities will be provided at these day care centres," said Hanumant Nazirkar, programme officer, UCD department.u00a0 u00a0

Numbers game
To maintain standards, each centre will be restricted to 30 children. One woman volunteer will oversee 10 children and a budgetary provision of Rs 5 lakh has been made for each centre. "The provision was made in last year's budget. Soon after the project is passed, it will start. To maintain the quality, PMC officials will visit and inspect the day care centres regularly," Nazirkar added.