COWE India and the United Nations Development Programme have launched two workplace-based childcare pilot centres in Hyderabad, aiming to support low-income working families with nutrition, early learning and technology-assisted child-safety monitoring.
The collaboration was announced at the COWE India Aveksha Day Care Centre at the TGIIC-IALA office in Pashamylaram. The two pilot centres, located in Pashamylaram and Suraram, will be supported by UNDP and operated under a self-sustaining model.
Each centre will provide three nutritious meals a day and early learning education for children. The initiative is being positioned as a workplace-linked childcare model that can serve families living near industrial and employment areas, where access to dependable childcare can affect parents’ ability to work.
“With UNDP, we are setting out to prove something harder and far more valuable — that a centre serving low-income families can stand on its own feet, with industry, CSR and parents each carrying a share,” COWE India Founder Director Uma Gurkha said at the launch.
The pilot centres will receive support from UNDP as the model is tested. The source report did not specify the number of children to be enrolled, the operating capacity of either centre, the implementation budget or the timeline for assessing the pilots.
The launch also featured Sajag AI, a monitoring system developed by two Grade 10 students, Shloak Bihani of CHIREC International School in Hyderabad and Aryaman Taparia of Step By Step School in Noida. The system analyses CCTV feeds installed at the Aveksha centres and is designed to detect an unsafe or potentially abusive act.
When such an incident is detected, Sajag AI sends an alert to the Aveksha team. The alert is sent to the centre coordinator and monitoring team by SMS and email within seconds, with incident details and a link to a snapshot, according to the report.
Shruti Ojha, Special Secretary and Director, Women and Child Welfare and Social Welfare, and Jeya Chandran, Regional Head – Southern India, UNDP, attended the launch along with COWE India Founder Directors Uma Gurkha and Madhu Tyagi and National President Neeraja Reddy.
The pilot brings together childcare provision, workplace support and digital monitoring within two locations in Hyderabad’s wider employment geography. Its next test will be whether the centres can maintain their services through contributions from industry, corporate social responsibility funding and parents, while delivering consistent care and early learning for participating families.
