On July 24, 2023, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to declare October 29 each year as International Day of Care and Support. This resolution recognised the critical role of comprehensive care and support policies, aimed at reducing, redistributing and valuing unpaid care and domestic work, to the well-being of society and all its members — in particular, children, older persons and persons with disabilities — more so, as a disproportionate share of care and domestic work is undertaken by women and adolescent girls. It also remains invisible, undervalued and unaccounted for in national statistics, and neglected in economic and social policymaking.
India has had a long history of care provision with institutions outside the family emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the work of educationists such as Tarabai Modak and Gijubai Badheka. These pioneering efforts, with developmentally appropriate practices, gradually declined as modern childcare provisioning emerged post-Independence. With modern childcare mostly in the private, voluntary sector, low-income families, those who needed childcare services the most, were excluded.
The report of the study group on the development of the preschool child, submitted to the Government of India in 1972, with Mina Swaminathan as its convenor, transformed the history of childcare services in the country. It set out a clear social justice agenda, emphasising a holistic approach to address the health, nutrition and developmental needs of the young child, especially from poor and marginalised communities.
This resulted in the launch of the Integrated Child Development Services Scheme (ICDS) in 1975. It is one of the world’s largest early childhood development programmes today, with 1.4 million Anganwadi (childcare) centres operating across the country, reaching 23 million children, and serviced by around 2.4 million Anganwadi workers and helpers. Based on estimated population projections, and the need to reach over 60 million children by 2030, this number is likely to almost double to 2.6 million centres with over five million workers.
Underpaid and undervalued
As several national and global studies have revealed, despite recognising the importance of care for societal growth and well-being, care-workers have remained underpaid and undervalued, and their contributions to the early development of the child not fully recognised. The pressure on the ICDS to rapidly expand to ensure universal coverage has led to a lower emphasis on pre-service and in-service training to build competencies of the care-workers in practice-based learning, that is crucial for quality childcare. This is partly driven by the perception of early years teachers as carers, addressing primary needs of food, hygiene and immunisation, not as professionals. The devaluation of their roles, of not being treated as professional workers, results not just in low pay but also a lack of attention to working conditions (including paid leave), social security benefits, opportunities for career advancement, and collective organisation and representation. In many States, their wages, in the range of ₹8,000-₹15,000 a month, are barely on a par with the minimum wages for unskilled workers.
The impact of climate change
In the context of climate change, the need for good quality childcare services for the rural and urban poor is rapidly rising. There is sufficient evidence to show that poor women and children are the worst affected by the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events, such as floods or droughts. They confront reduced access to health and care services, alongside diverse and healthy food. While the Sustainable Development Goals suggest the need for a more equal sharing of care responsibilities between women and men in households, climate change is forcing many men to migrate out of their rural homes to urban centres in search of work.
Apart from their own dire circumstances, as witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic in India, their physical absence makes such sharing impossible. When families migrate to urban areas, the higher costs of living — in particular rentals — make it imperative for women to find work too, which is often domestic and care work in the homes of the middle classes. There is, however, little care provision for their own children, with only 10% of Anganwadi centres currently functioning in urban areas.
The Government of India’s Time Use in India 2024 survey confirms the feminisation of care-work, with women spending an average of 426 minutes a day (over seven hours) on unpaid domestic and care work as against 163 minutes (over two hours) by men (Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation). Together, this would constitute 15%-17% of GDP. Smaller scale studies demonstrate clear links between the mother’s lack of time for care and feeding and child undernutrition, as visible in the persistently high child stunting levels at over 35%. Only 11% of children aged six months-23 months had a minimum acceptable diet (National Family Health Survey 5, 2019-21), raising cognitive and developmental concerns.
In this context, Mobile Creches and the Forum for Creches and Childcare Services (FORCES) organised the India Childcare Champion Awards on October 28, 2025 in New Delhi. The awards were presented across seven categories that honoured excellence and dedication in the field of childcare — the Mina Swaminathan Special Jury Award for Best Creche Worker, Best Creche Worker, Best Creche Supervisor, Best Local Leader, Best NGO, Childcare Champion, and Gratitude to CSR Funders in Childcare. The awards sought to give recognition to frontline childcare workers and supervisors as well as local panchayat leaders, employers and civil society organisations. It was to celebrate their tireless efforts working on the ground, within communities, and at the policy level to make quality childcare accessible and equitable for all.
The event gave voice to childcare workers, bringing out clearly not just the fact that these workers were skilled professionals but that they were also change-makers, challenging social norms and structures. The workers spoke about breaking caste and class barriers, building self-confidence to overcome social stigma and dealing with critiques of themselves by their families and communities, as working with ‘dirty’ children.
Slowly, but surely, they have built trust with parents and emotional bonds with the children, hoping to give them a chance in life that they would not otherwise have. Caring for the children of migrant workers is even more demanding as the parents work full-time, often living in poor conditions. Children here confront a range of health issues, so care-workers have, in addition, become advocates for health insurance, for clean and adequate space and care infrastructure, amongst others. They play multiple roles — as children playing with children, as carers nurturing them, and as adult decision-makers, monitoring their key milestones, and intervening when needed.
Match the standard in Scandinavia
Recognition of childcare workers is clearly a first step in highlighting their critical role in providing quality, nurturing care, and laying the foundation for a strong and inclusive nation. Yet, there is a lot more to do — apart from ensuring that they have decent wages and working conditions, there is a need to redirect resources to both skill-building of these care-workers and the strengthening of care infrastructure. There is still little provision for the child below the age of three years, with only 2,500 of the over 10,000 crèches approved under the Government of India’s Palna Scheme, currently operational. As compared to the current public investment of approximately 0.4% of GDP, the ambitions of universalising good quality care would need a tripling of budgetary allocation to between 1%-1.5% of GDP — the standard in Scandinavian countries that have universal childcare coverage.
A focus on care spotlights the rights of women and children. Achieving this requires both individual and systemic changes. Recognition of the knowledge and skills of childcare workers has to be accompanied by rules and policies that ensure adequate resources and voice to the sector. Decentralisation, convergence and collective ownership are critical if the rights of women workers and underprivileged children are to be realised.
Nitya Rao is Professor, School of Global Development, University of East Anglia, U.K.
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