RFP for Care Economy in India: Landscape Study for an inclusive and affordable

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, synthesis of the existing research and key partners and enablers in India. To achieve this, a landscape assessment including feasibility and scalability potential analysis of existing services models for urban lower income households will be undertaken. Based on the results of the landscaping study, models targeting urban lower income households will be identified for piloting along with potential partners and enablers. Along with this, a comprehensive plan including impact measurement framework and feasibility analysis of financing options including blended instruments will also be undertaken. A challenge call to identify and accelerate innovative care service provisioning solutions including childcare targeting urban poor will also be designed and launched.

Increased availability and uptake of accessible, affordable, and quality childcare services, alleviating the unpaid care burden 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. A Care Coalition will be established which will enable the sharing of documented best practices, lessons learnt, and policy briefs; policy dialogues, roundtable convenings and capacity building workshops at state and national level will be conducted; and convergence with and leveraging of investments under public funded initiatives such as NULM, Smart Cities Mission, National Creche Scheme (Palna), etc. will be prioritized. Awareness and nudge campaigns aimed at changing perception and promoting shared responsibilities related to unpaid care work will also be undertaken.