Crèche centres at construction sites is the need of the hour: CREDAI-Pune Metro

Pune, March 19, 2020: “Setting up crèche centres at construction sites for children of labourers is the need of the hour. CREDAI-Pune Metro will ensure that such crèche activities are promoted across the city and more and more centres are opened at the sites. For that, we have appealed to the Building And Other Construction Workers’ Welfare (BOCW) Board to allocate funds to the crèche agencies and include crèche activity as a part of the welfare benefits provided to labourers,” said Ranjit Naiknavare, Vice President, CREDAI-Pune Metro while speaking at the event called ‘Celebration of Crèche Activity’ at Western Hills Site of Atul Enterprises at Baner Sus Road, Sus.

The event was organized by CREDAI-Pune Metro in association with Door Step School and Atul Enterprises in order to promote primary education, childcare facilities and safety for children at construction sites. The Society for Door Step Schools is an NGO that runs Education Activity Centres for the children of the construction site workers. At such centres, children between the age group from 0 to 14 years are provided with education and the classes are divided into Creches, Balwadis, Literacy Classes, Study Classes, and Reference Classes. At present, the Doorstep School operates 85 centres at construction sites in Pune with more than 6000 beneficiaries.

Dignitaries including Tarranum Attar, Govt. Labour Officer, members of CREDAI-Pune Metro including Dr. D.K. Abhyankar, Director General, Samir Parkhi, Admin and Labour Welfare Officer, Parag Patil and Sapna Rathi, Labour Welfare Committee Members, Rajanitai Paranjape, Founder Director of Doorstep School, Sunila Page, Associate Director, Doorstep School and members of Atul Enterprises including Rahul Mundada, Director and Nitin Wakade, Admin Manager were present at the event, which was attended by more than 40 children of the labourers.

“We appreciate the outstanding, social and noble work done by Doorstep School for operating creche centres at construction sites,” added Naiknavare.

Addressing the audience, Sunila Page of Doorstep School spoke about the objectives, methodologies and expected outcomes of the various activities conducted at the centres at construction sites.

Tarannum Attar, Govt. Labour Officer while highlighting the importance of operating crèche centres at construction sites said, “As far as welfare benefits to the construction workers are concerned, we request the BOCW Board to set up more such centres to promote nursery and primary education amongst children of the labourers.”

Dr. D.K. Abhyankar said, “We’ll support such activities for the upliftment of children of construction workers.”