Rajiv Gandhi National Creche Scheme (Haryana)

What was the Rajiv Gandhi National Creche Scheme in Haryana?

Rajiv Gandhi National Creche Scheme (RGNCS) was the central day-care programme for children aged 6 months to 6 years of working mothers, implemented in Haryana by the Women and Child Development Department. It funded creches that gave a working mother somewhere safe to leave a young child for the length of a working day, with food, sleep, play and health monitoring built in.

The scheme no longer runs under that name. RGNCS was first renamed the National Creche Scheme, and in 2022 the Ministry of Women and Child Development reorganised it into the Palna scheme, placed under the Samarthya sub-scheme of the umbrella Mission Shakti programme (2021-22 to 2025-26).

This page explains what the scheme was, what replaced it, and the route a parent in Haryana should actually use today. That last part matters more than the history; many parents still search for "Rajiv Gandhi creche scheme" and end up on dead forms.

What replaced RGNCS, and what runs in Haryana now?

Two things now deliver creche services in Haryana, side by side:

1. Palna (Centrally Sponsored, under Mission Shakti Samarthya). Palna provides structured day care for children aged 6 months to 6 years. It is funded 60:40 between the Centre and the state (90:10 for North-Eastern and Special Category states, 100% central for UTs without legislature). Its main delivery form is the Anganwadi-cum-Creche (AWCC): creche hours and creche staff layered onto an existing Anganwadi centre. Mission Shakti guidelines provide for a creche worker and a creche helper at an AWCC, in addition to the existing Anganwadi worker and helper.

2. Haryana State Creche Scheme, under the Haryana State Creche Policy 2022. Haryana became the first state in India to notify a dedicated creche policy, gazette-notified on 26 July 2023. It sets the hours, fee slabs, staffing and workplace obligations that apply across creches in the state.

Haryana's position as of January 2025: 477 functional creches serving 10,015 children, 280 Palna AWCC units covering 5,527 children, and 197 standalone creches covering 4,488 children. The state earmarked Rs 32.15 crore for creches in FY 2024-25.

Who is eligible for a creche seat in Haryana?

Your child can be admitted if:

• The child is 6 months to 6 years old on the date of admission. The same band RGNCS used.
• The mother works; in employment, self-employment, agriculture or a small unit. Creche services under both RGNCS and Palna are framed around freeing a working mother's day.
• The family resides in Haryana and holds a Parivar Pehchan Patra.
• A creche near you has a vacant seat.

Your child cannot be enrolled if:

• The child is younger than 6 months or older than 6 years.
• The family lives outside Haryana.
• No Palna AWCC or standalone creche has been sanctioned in your block. This is a supply limit, not an eligibility failure to 477 units cannot cover every ward.

There is no income cut-off for admission. Income only decides which monthly fee slab you pay.

What does the creche provide?

• 8 to 10 hours of supervised day care, 26 days a month.
• Breakfast, lunch and an evening snack, with the food cost borne by the state government.
• Sleeping arrangements for infants and toddlers.
• Play material and early learning activity.
• Health check-ups, immunisation follow-up and growth monitoring through the Anganwadi and ANM system.

Staffing under the Haryana policy: a creche worker on Rs 15,000 a month and a creche helper on Rs 7,500 a month, with a worker-to-child ratio of 1:25 and a Rs 1,000 monthly cleanliness allowance for the unit.

What are the creche fees?

The slab is read off the income recorded in your Parivar Pehchan Patra. If the PPP income is wrong, get it corrected through the PPP update process before disputing a fee at the creche counter.

How to apply for a creche seat in Haryana

1. Start at your Anganwadi centre. With 280 of 477 units being Anganwadi-cum-creches, the Anganwadi worker is the person most likely to know whether her centre or a nearby one runs Palna creche hours.
2. Visit the creche and ask about a vacancy in the 6-month-to-6-year band. Seats are limited and turnover is the main way they open up.
3. Carry the documents. The child's birth certificate, Parivar Pehchan Patra, Aadhaar of child and mother, immunisation card, and proof or declaration of the mother's work.
4. Complete the admission form at the creche. The worker records the child's details, the mother's work status and the PPP income slab.
5. Pay the monthly fee against a receipt and note the unit's exact opening and closing times — the 8-to-10-hour window varies by centre.
6. If no creche exists near you, apply in writing to the District Programme Officer (WCD) at the district headquarters for a unit to be sanctioned. A joint application from several families is far more effective than one.

Do not look for an RGNCS online form. There is no online application route for creche admission in Haryana; the process is entirely in person at the centre.

Why applications get refused, and what to do

• No vacant seat. Ask to be added to a written waiting list and note your position.
• Child outside the 6-month-to-6-year band. For a child above six, the route is school enrolment, not a creche.
• PPP income mismatch producing a wrong fee slab. Correct the Family ID record first.
• Immunisation card not produced. Get it reissued from the Anganwadi or PHC.
• No unit sanctioned in the block. Petition the District Programme Officer for a new AWCC.
• Looking for RGNCS specifically. Ask instead for a Palna creche seat or a state creche seat. Frontline staff may not recognise the old scheme name.

What actually changed between RGNCS and Palna?

Three things changed, and each has a practical consequence for a parent.

The delivery vehicle changed. RGNCS creches were largely standalone units, many of them run through voluntary organisations under grant-in-aid. Palna delivers mainly through Anganwadi-cum-Creches, which means the creche sits inside an institution that already exists in almost every village. In Haryana that shift is visible in the numbers to 280 of the 477 functional units are AWCCs, a clear majority.

The staffing model changed. At an AWCC, the Mission Shakti guidelines add a creche worker and a creche helper on top of the existing Anganwadi worker and Anganwadi helper. So an AWCC carries four staff, not two, and the creche pair is dedicated to the longer day-care hours rather than the short Anganwadi session.

The scale changed. The Ministry of Women and Child Development set a target of 17,000 new Anganwadi-cum-Creches for 2024-25. By March 2025, 11,395 AWCCs had been approved across 34 states and union territories, rising to 14,599 by July 2025. Proposals are received from state governments, which also put in their 40% share, so how many creches your district gets depends substantially on what the state proposes.

For a parent, the takeaway is that the place to ask is now the Anganwadi centre, not a separate creche society office.

Where to complain or ask for help

• Anganwadi Supervisor, then the Child Development Project Officer of your ICDS block.
• District Programme Officer (Women and Child Development) at the district headquarters. The deciding authority for creche admission and new units.
• Director, Women and Child Development Haryana to 0172-2560349, Bays 15-20, Sector 4, Panchkula 134112.
• Child Helpline 1098, toll-free, for any safety concern about a child in a creche.
• Departmental website; wcdhry.gov.in, which carries the Haryana Creches page and the Creche Policy 2022 notification.

Creche admission is free of any charge beyond the notified monthly fee slab. No agent can secure a seat for you, and no official may ask for money outside the receipted fee.

How to check your application status

There is no online RGNCS or Palna portal where a parent can log in and track an admission or a waiting-list number; the whole process runs at the creche counter, so "checking status" here means following up in person or by phone rather than refreshing a dashboard.

1. Ask the creche worker directly at the Anganwadi-cum-creche or standalone unit. She holds the admission register and the waiting list, and can tell you on the spot whether a seat has opened since you last visited.
2. If you were placed on a waiting list, note your position in writing at the time you applied. Seats turn over when an enrolled child ages out past 6 years or a family moves away, so ask roughly how many children are ahead of yours rather than expecting a fixed date.
3. For an application to sanction a new unit (submitted to the District Programme Officer, WCD, when no creche exists in your block), follow up at the DPO office at the district headquarters. This kind of request does not move on a fixed timeline; it depends on the state's annual proposal cycle to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, so a written follow-up every few weeks is more useful than a single enquiry.
4. Escalate through the ICDS chain if the creche worker cannot answer: the Anganwadi Supervisor first, then the Child Development Project Officer of your block, then the District Programme Officer (WCD).
5. Call the Director, Women and Child Development Haryana at 0172-2560349 (Bays 15-20, Sector 4, Panchkula 134112) if a block-level query goes unanswered, or the toll-free Child Helpline 1098 for any safety concern once a child is already enrolled.
6. Check wcdhry.gov.in for the Haryana Creches page periodically; it is the only place likely to publish an updated count of functional units and any newly sanctioned AWCCs in your district.

Keep the date of your original request and the name of the staff member you spoke to each time you follow up. Since nothing is logged online, this record is the only proof you have that a request was made when you go up the chain.