Ranchi: Working mothers in Ranchi now have more reason to cheer. Two government offices in the capital city — the Income Tax office at the Central Revenue Building and the state government’s secretariat at Project Building — have opened state-of-the-art crèches. Other organisations, such as Tata Steel and Central Coalfields Limited , also offer crèche facilities to kids of their women employees.Professionals like Chinmaya A Marathe, a deputy income tax commissioner, went through a lot of trouble in finding a babysitter. “As we are a nuclear family, getting a reliable person to look after our child was difficult. So it came as a huge relief when the office crèche became functional in September last year,” said Marathe.More such crèches are expected to come up in the near future, as the state government notified the guidelines for the implementation of the National Crèche Scheme (NCS) earlier this week.Amitabh Kaushal, secretary of the state women, child development and social security department, said: “Self- help groups and Sakhi Mandals will be given priority for setting up crèches across the state.”As per the guidelines, crèches will first be set up in district and block headquarters, and then in central and state government offices. Children between six months and six years can be kept in these crèches.“An estimated cost of Rs 1.52 lakh per crèche will be incurred every year. The cost will be borne by the Centre and the state government on a ratio of 60:40. If any non-governmental organization (NGO) wants to set up a crèche under the scheme, then the cost will be shared on a ratio of 60:30:10 among the Centre, state and the NGO,” a government official said. A BPL family can avail crèche facilities for their kid for as low as Rs 20 per month, whereas families that earn less than Rs 12,000 per month need to pay Rs 200. Those with an income above Rs 12,000 per month have to pay a monthly fee of Rs 400.The Union minister of state for labour and employment, Santosh Kumar Gangwar, said on Wednesday in response to a question raised by Jharkhand MP Mahesh Poddar in Rajya Sabha that the ministry of women and child development has taken over 7,316 crèches across the country under the NCS since 2017. As per the records with the ministry, the number of such crèches across Jharkhand is 743.

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