Koosina Mane
In its 2023-24 Budget, the Karnataka government announced plans to set up “Koosina mane” across 4,000-gram panchayats for children of working mothers.
“Koosina mane” translates to child homes or creches and is aimed at providing healthcare, nutrition, and safety for children whose mothers are employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), as well as for other mothers living in the vicinity.
Significance of the scheme
This initiative exemplifies a demand-side solution to boost women’s labour force participation.
The MGNREGA stipulates that at least “one-third of its beneficiaries shall be women”.
The Union government’s data show that women comprise a little over 50% of the person-days under MGNREGA in Karnataka, lower than in neighbouring States like Tamil Nadu and Kerala (80% each).
In a country where childcare responsibilities are deeply gendered, a reliable childcare infrastructure that provides beyond basic provisions can aid, increase, and sustain this labour force participation.
The fact that this initiative aligns with the goals of both the MGNREGA and the Women and Children Development Department is an excellent example of convergence.
Perhaps, the ‘koosina mane” can also be built as community assets under the MGNREGA.
It has an explicit mandate to support working mothers through childcare infrastructure.
Benefits of the scheme
It acknowledges that women are not just mothers but also contributors to the workforce.
In Indian households, working women encounter what is rightly termed the “triple burden” of work — paid work, childcare and domestic chores.
Building ‘koosina mane’ at scale and recognising it as “essential public infrastructure” is a significant step toward redistributing the gendered burden of childcare.
The oft-dichotomised relationship between women’s employment and childcare can be eased through childcare provision.
While the “motherhood penalty” is considered to be one of the reasons why women drop out of the labour force, the situation is slightly different in poorer households.
Women work late into their pregnancy and return to work immediately after childbirth.
Motherhood pushes women to take up work that is flexible, part-time, low-paid casual work or self-employment as they are unable to find care support.
Public infrastructure like ‘koosina mane’ can reorganise the physical space within which care takes place, moving some of the care work out of the household.
This shift could enable women to sustain work, upskill on the job and seek better paying work.
This initiative could address a critical concern: child safety.
In the absence of care support, women must take their children, especially those who are very young, to their place of work so they can breastfeed and care throughout the day. However, this exposes children to heat stress and other harsh weather conditions and puts them at risk of injury and accidents.
Difference between ICDS and Koosina mane
Even though some may consider the vast network of infrastructure created for the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) to be a form of childcare infrastructure, its primary focus is improving maternal and child health.
The ICDS caters to the needs of children at various stages of early life.
Working hours of the centres are not designed to support working women.
Without maternity protection in the early stages of childbirth, women require care infrastructure before six months, but also until the child is much older, something that is possible in ’koosina mane’.
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