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With International Women's Day coming up on 8th March, it is interesting to see how higher education institutes are setting an example by empowering women - be it students or faculty.
For instance, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur has set up a crèche on the campus to make sure that the kids of teachers are looked after even if they were busy in teaching and research. The proposal for setting up of the crèche facility within the campus was made in the year 2013 when Mr. P. Chakrabarti assumed charge as Director of IIT-Kharagpur. He held a meeting with all the female faculty members of the institute. The idea was mooted during this meeting.
Sanghamitra Basu, Chairperson of Creche Management Committee revealed that the final proposal for setting up the crèche was submitted in 2015. Later, it took almost one year to turn the proposal into a reality and all the preparations have been done for starting the crèche-day care centre.
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For setting up the crèche, an old bungalow on the campus has been renovated and remodelled into a crèche. The crèche facility is being run by Mongrace Montessori House, Kolkata. The creche-day care centre will look after the kids aged between six months to ten years.
It is quipped with an air conditioner, computer lab, activity area, cots, toys and play arena. Currently, the crèche facility is taking care of 53 children and the functional hours of the day care centre are from 7:30 AM to 7:30 PM.
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Sanghamitra Basu further explained that the day care centre has the recommended teacher-caregiver and teacher-student ratio. The fee at crèche-day centre ranges between Rs. 1,200 to Rs. 3,200 per month excluding one-time charges.
The initiative taken by Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur is an example for various reputed institutes across India. All the educational institutes can take up this initiative and establish crèche facility in their institutes so that the teachers who have kids aged between six months to five years can be looked after.
