RFP - Development of 3 Customized Qualification Packs for Childcare Workers, Creche Managers, Carepreneurs and Skilling women, Childcare Workers and women Master Trainers

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RFP - Development of 3 Customized Qualification Packs for Childcare Workers, Creche Managers, Carepreneurs and Skilling of 125 women Childcare Workers and 25 women Master Trainers

About the Organization

As the lead United Nations agency on international development, UNDP works in 170 countries and territories to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality. We help countries develop policies, leadership skills, partnerships and institutional capabilities to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Our work is centred around six core development areas, known as our signature solutions: poverty and inequality, governance, resilience, environment, energy and gender equality.

UNDP’s mandate is to end poverty, build democratic governance, rule of law, and inclusive institutions. We advocate for change, and connect countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life.

About the Proposal

UNDP has been working in India since 1951 in almost all areas of human development. Together with the Government of India and development partners, we have worked towards eradicating poverty, reducing inequalities, strengthening local governance, enhancing community resilience, protecting the environment, supporting policy initiatives and institutional reforms, and accelerating sustainable development for all.

With projects and programmes in every state and union territory in India, UNDP works with national and subnational government, and diverse development actors to deliver people-centric results, particularly for the most vulnerable and marginalized communities. As the integrator for collective action on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the UN system, we are committed to supporting the Government of India’s national development vision and priorities and accelerating the achievement of the SDGs for the people and the planet.

Our new Country Programme (2023-2027) builds on our prior work and aims to provide an integrated approach to development solutions in three strategic portfolios:

• Strong, accountable, and evidence-led institutions for accelerated achievement of the SDGs.
• Enhanced economic opportunities and social protection to reduce inequality, with a focus on the marginalized.
• Climate-smart solutions, sustainable ecosystems, and resilient development for reduced vulnerability.

UNDP’s Country Programme Document (2023-2027) intended outcome 2 states that “By 2027, people will benefit from and contribute to sustainable and inclusive growth through higher productivity, competitiveness and diversification in economic activities that create decent work, livelihoods, and income particularly for youth and women”.

In the above context, UNDP is embarking on a three-year project “Boosting Female Labour Force Participation through Strengthened Urban Childcare”.

Project Description:

The childcare industry in India has grown significantly in recent years. However, these services, mainly operated by private creches/day cares, are typically used by middle-income and higherincome households. While there are a few public programmes and policies which support the provision of childcare / creches, these remain concentrated in rural areas, leaving little attention on India’s urban childcare needs. This is especially critical given the vast informal economy that exists in the urban sector, of which low-income urban women with no social or economic protection make up a majority. Apart from the lack of government-run childcare services, some of the other main challenges related to childcare provision in urban areas include little or no public financial provision to support or subsidize private childcare services, trust issues of parents concerning small-scale privately run childcare centres, lack of trained childcare professionals, high cost of providing quality care.

UNDP is implementing the “Boosting Female Labour Force Participation through Strengthened Urban Childcare” project in collaboration with the DAY-NULM, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Through this project, UNDP India aims to find effective ways of strengthening the urban care system.

The overall goal of the project is to contribute to “Increased opportunities for urban poor women to participate in paid workforce, driven by the availability of accessible and affordable quality childcare services in their community/vicinity of workplaces.” This would be done through three main strategies:

• Assessment of the current care service landscape with focus on childcare in India and various models targeting urban lower income households including feasibility and scale potential through synthesis of the existing research and discussions with key partners and enablers in India.
• Increased availability and uptake of accessible, affordable, and quality childcare services, alleviating the unpaid care responsibility on urban poor women and unlocking their economic potential. To achieve this, adapted and customized training content will be developed and used to train childcare workers and carepreneurs along with piloting of childcare service models in partnership with existing and new service providers.
• Enhanced awareness and capacity of public and private sector key stakeholders and enablers to increase investment for care services specifically targeting urban lower income households.

The provision of accessible, affordable and quality childcare is crucial for the holistic development of young children and increasing uptake of these services to reduce the responsibility of unpaid care work on women. The quality of a childcare program depends on many factors. Some of the most important factors are care worker education, experience, and ongoing training. Trained caregivers are more likely to promote the physical and mental health, safety, and cognitive development of the children in their care. The childcare economy in India has significant potential to generate jobs for women, addressing the growing demand for a skilled childcare workforce, especially in urban areas. A direct public investment in care economy equivalent to 2 per cent of GDP can potentially generate 11 million jobs, nearly 70 per cent of which will go to women4 . Further, growing industrialization and urbanization have led to increased migration into cities. The past few decades have also shown a rapid increase in nuclear families, highlighting the need for a welltrained and professionalized childcare workforce, especially in urban areas. The NITI Ayog and ILO have estimated that around 3.4 million additional jobs for women will be generated in the early childhood care and development sector by 2030.

Capacity building of care workers, creche managers, carepreneurs, and trainers is therefore one of the core focus areas of the project. Gaining the trust of households heavily depends on the quality of childcare workers in the facilities. Stakeholders at a roundtable discussion organized by UNDP on skilling urban childcare workers in India revealed that there is an estimated immediate demand for 40,000 workers from industry partners in this sector. The National ECCE Policy also speaks of developing Anganwadis as a vibrant ECD centers which translates into a demand for skilled early childcare workers. In the consultation, it was also recommended that courses need to be contextualized, especially in urban poor contexts, focusing on the socio-emotional well-being of children as well as the aspirations of parents. It is also important to ensure it is developmentally appropriate for specific age groups, and that childcare workers can meet the needs of children effectively.

The existing childcare worker training programs are either lengthy, or lack standardization, and might not adequately address the specific needs of childcare in the urban context. This could hinder the creation of a skilled workforce capable of providing quality childcare services in urban areas. Research studies and inputs from stakeholders indicate that that:

• There are several courses for pre-school teachers or home-based caretakers (nannies), but there are no NSQF certified training curricula for the job role of childcare workers in creches and day-care centers.
• There is an imbalance between the time investment on behalf of trainees and the career prospects offered by existing courses in the childcare domain. For instance, a Child Caretaker (non-clinical) job role certified by National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) currently exists with 240 hours of training. This is often considered too long by women to invest in training and the uptake of this certification is relatively low.
• 65.84% of Anganwadi workers had inadequate/improper knowledge and awareness about the ECCE component of ICDS (Kular, S.S., 2014).
• Most parents feel that the Anganwadi’s are not adequately equipped to provide early childhood education / pre-school education (PSE), for want of proper and quality training.

To address the above challenges in skilling of urban childcare workers in India, UNDP India proposes to develop and deliver NSQF certified Qualification Packs (QPs) in partnership with leading academic and training institutions. The QPs will focus on three job roles: childcare worker, creche manager, and carepreneur. These QPs will be aligned to the relevant nodal sector skills council to enhance employability and service quality. This will be followed by training and certification of 125 women in partnership with Sector Skills Councils and training providers. The potential childcare workers to be trained will be mobilized from around the project locations. This will enable women with social, economic, and mobilityspecific constraints to access training and skilling, leading to higher conversion rates and successful competition of trainings. Training of trainers to create 25 women master trainers will also be carried out.

Objective:

To develop a gender responsive, customized training curriculum aligned with national occupational standards and skills quality frameworks for creche managers, childcare workers, and carepreneurs. The curriculum should include a facilitator's guide on its gender responsive delivery. It aims to equip freshers as well as existing care providers and Urban SHG women with the necessary skills to work in or establish daycares, either as independent entrepreneurs or through collective, community-based care enterprises, contributing to the formalization and professionalization of urban childcare services.

How to Apply

Deadline on: 11-Mar-2025 08:00 (GMT -4.00)

For more information please check the Link

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Tags Children and Childcare Healthcare and Healthtech Women Empowerment Others