PALNA SCHEME: CHILDCARE FOR WOMEN'S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT (2022)

Policy Update

Shivali Yadav

1. Background :

The Palna scheme was started by the Ministry of Women and Child Development on 1 April 2022. This is part of the Samarthya component of Mission Shakti. It replaced the National Creche Scheme. The Ministry of Women and Child Development gave guidelines for the Palna scheme on 14 July 2022. The Palna scheme is based on two schemes. The Rajiv Gandhi National Creche Scheme and the National Creche Scheme. The Palna scheme provides childcare for children aged 6 months to 6 years. The main reason for the Palna scheme is to help women work by taking care of their children.

The Palna scheme is not only about helping women, but it is also about making the economy better. By taking care of children, the Palna scheme helps women to work and earn money. This is in line with Sustainable Development Goal 8, which is about having a good job and making the economy better. The Palna scheme also follows the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, which says that companies with 50 or more employees must have a crèche. The Palna scheme is open to all mothers, whether they work or not.

The Palna scheme is mainly for children of mothers who work. The money for the Palna scheme comes from the Centre and the States. Usually, the Centre pays 60%. The States pay 40%. For some states, the Centre pays 90%. The states pay 10%. For Union Territories, the Centre pays all the money. The idea of the Palna scheme is based on a change in the job market. More women are working now than before. In 2017-18, 23% of women worked, but in 2023-24, 41.7% of women worked.

The Palna scheme is trying to help women work by taking care of their children. Many women say that they cannot work because they do not have anyone to take care of their children. The Palna scheme is trying to solve this problem.

2. Functioning :

Palna works in two ways: It runs crèches on its own with a crèche worker and a helper. It also runs anganwadi-cum-crèches which’re like normal anganwadi centres but with extra childcare staff. Each centre takes care of 25 children who are between six months and six years old. These centres are open for 26 days every month.

Work for 7.5 hours every day. They provide childcare, education for kids, food support under Poshan 2.0, health check-ups and vaccinations. The states and Union Territories are responsible for implementing this scheme. The Ministry of Women and Child Development keeps an eye on it by visiting and conducting checks from time to time. NITI-Aayog helps in checking how well the scheme is working. There are two problems with this scheme that are important for its goal of helping women economically.

First, the people who work at crèches, like crèche workers and helpers, do not get salaries. They get some money. It is not a regular salary. This makes it hard to keep staff. In turn makes it hard for working mothers to know if they can trust the care of their kids. Second Palna does not have its budget. This means that the money spent on it is recorded in different places, like the Palna dashboard, the gender budget, and in answers given in parliament. This makes it very hard for researchers or the public to know if the money is reaching the women who need it the most.

3. Performance :

The Palna scheme’s performance has been mixed. More money has been given for it. It’s not being used well, and not all areas are doing equally well. The budget for Palna increased from ₹50 crore in 2019-20 to ₹150.11 crore in 2024-25. However, the actual spending was less than what was allocated.

In 2021-22, no money was spent because of COVID-19. A big worry is that many crèches are not working. In 2017-18, there were 18,040 crèches. By 2023-24, this number had dropped to 2,163. This happened even after the scheme was changed under Mission Shakti. If a crèche is on paper and not working it doesn’t help a working mom. The gap between approving a crèche and it actually working is where the scheme is failing. To fix this, the government wanted to set up 17,000 anganwadi-cum-crèches during 2024-25.

By March 2025, 11,395 of these were approved in 34 states and union territories. Only a few of these approved centres are working, showing that there are delays. The union budget for 2026-27 gives the money ever for the Gender Budget. Experts say that the increase in the samarthya part is just a little bit. This means that the investment in childcare infrastructure is still not enough. Overall, even though the scheme looks bigger on paper, it needs to work, use funds better, and be implemented well to achieve its goals. The Palna scheme needs to improve. The government needs to make sure that more crèches are working and that they are helping working moms.

Table 1: Palna/Crèche Scheme Budget, Expenditure, and Coverage Trend

Year	Central Allocation (₹ crore)	Expenditure (₹ crore)	Operational Creches / Milestone
2019-20	50	47.77	6,453 crèches operational nationally
2021-22	4.02	0	Creches shut during COVID-19 lockdown; 6,002 nominally listed
2022-23	35	4.68	Palna launched (April 2022); creches fall to 4,947
2023-24	85	64.15	Creches fall further to 2,163 — an 88% drop since 2017-18
2024-25	150.11	43.66*	17,000 new AWCCs targeted; 11,395 approved by March 2025

*2024-25 expenditure figure is partial-year, as reported in Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 4263 (20 December 2024).

Source: Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 4263 (2024), compiled in IWWAGE (2025); The India Forum (2024); PIB (2025)

4. Impact on Women’s economic empowerment:

The article says that Palna was started to help women work by taking care of their children.. There is not a lot of proof that Palna has really helped women get jobs or earn more money. More women are working,. This is because they are working for themselves or doing unpaid work for their families not because of Palna.Palna has around 1,000 childcare centers. These are not, in many workplaces and are not run very well.

The people who work at these centers do not get paid much. So Palna has not made a difference.It does help take care of children and make sure they eat well. It has not really helped women with all the work they do at home that they do not get paid for. It has also not helped women become more independent when it comes to money.The article says that to really work Palna needs to put childcare centers in places make sure the rules are followed and help the people who take care of the children. This way Palna can do what it is supposed to do.

Source: Union budgets 2012-13 to 2024-25. From 2012-13 to 2022-23, the values are actual expenditures.

5. Emerging issues :

Declining Crèches: Functional crèches have declined despite rising childcare demand.
Suggestion: Set time-bound targets and conduct regular independent audits.
Workforce & Funding: Low honoraria and no dedicated budget affect service quality.
Suggestion: Introduce regular salaries and restore a separate budget for Palna.
Implementation Gaps: Many approved centres remain non-operational due to funding constraints.
Suggestion: Operationalise approved centres promptly and review Centre–State funding.
Monitoring: Fragmented data and weaker NGO participation reduce effectiveness.
Suggestion: Create a real-time monitoring dashboard and strengthen NGO partnerships.
Evidence Gap: Limited evidence on impact and poor targeting of crèche locations.
Suggestion: Conduct independent impact evaluations and use labour-market data to guide expansion.

SUGGESTION: Commission an independent impact evaluation (e.g., through NITI Aayog) that tracks maternal employment outcomes among crèche users, and use labour-market data to guide the geographic placement of new standalone crèches and AWCCs.

6. Way Forward:

Palna can better support women’s economic empowerment through three key reforms. First, the government should evaluate whether the scheme actually increases women’s employment and income. Second, new crèches should be established in areas with the highest childcare demand, especially for urban informal and migrant workers. Third, crèche workers should receive regular salaries, inactive centres should be made operational, and funding and monitoring should be strengthened.

While Palna already improves children’s nutrition, health, and early learning, its success should also be measured by how effectively it enables women to participate in paid work. Strengthening the scheme in this direction will advance gender equality and support the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision.

References

Anantam IAS. (2026). PLFS report 2022–23: Key findings, indicators and UPSC notes. https://anantamias.in/plfs-report-2022-23

Feminism in India. (2026). National care policy India: A gender budget overview. https://feminisminindia.com/

India Development Review. (2026). Budget 2026–27 fails to address the reality of employment insecurity. https://idronline.org/

Institute for What Works to Advance Gender Equality. (2025). Women and work 2024. https://iwwage.org/

Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of NCT of Delhi. (2022). Palna Scheme under Mission Shakti. https://wcddel.in/

Press Information Bureau. (2025). Anganwadi-cum-crèche initiative under Palna Scheme. Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India. https://pib.gov.in/

Press Trust of India. (2024). Out of 10,609 approved Anganwadi-cum-crèches, 1,241 have been made operational: WCD. https://www.ptinews.com/

Sarkari Yojana. (2022). National Crèche Scheme guidelines. https://sarkariyojana.com/

Shankar IAS Parliament. (2023). Crèche facilities in India. https://www.shankariasparliament.com/

The India Forum. (2024). Poor state of crèche schemes in India. https://www.theindiaforum.in/

About the contributor:

Shivali is pursuing an M.A. in Liberal Studies at Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute, Prayagraj, and is an IMPRI intern. Her work focuses on gender, education, youth, and public policy, with interests in educational equity and qualitative research.