JOIN USWith an average 100 workers at any given time of the week looking after the maintenance of the sprawling President's Estate, Rashtrapati Bhavan officials said the creche to be launched soon would cater to about 20-25 children. The creche, to be set up within the 340-acres Estate, is meant for children in the age group of 2-10 years and will have two caretakers and two attendants.
The centre would also have a wide range of educational toys and officials said some kind of pre-school teaching could also be imparted to them. After seeing the response, the option of providing other facilities can be explored. "The President was really moved by noticing that the children of the labourers usually sit in the open playing with whatever that they get, even sand, while their parents work. One could also see mothers hard pressed trying to work and cater to the child's need at the same time. Hence, the idea of a creche came up," a senior official said.
Officials said it would be the duty of the contractor who carries out the work in the estate to identify and bring the children to the creche. They said from now on onwards, all labour contracts entered into by the Rashtrapati Bhavan would have this clause mentioned clearly. The aim is to become a model employer, they said. A circular has already been sent out informing everybody in the Estate about the new facility being set up.