The ‘Child Day Care Centre Bill, 2021’ has been placed in the Parliament with the provision of Tk 10 lakh fine for failure to maintain safety and security of children in daycare centres. A provision has also been made to make registration mandatory to set up private child daycare centre.
State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Fazilatun Nesa Indira placed the bill in the current session of the Parliament on Saturday. The bill was sent to the respective parliamentary standing committee for further scrutiny. The parliamentary watchdog was asked to submit its report before the Parliament within two months.
The ‘Child Day Care Centre Bill, 2021’ will be placed in the Parliament again for enactment of law after submission of the committee’s report.
The government has moved for the law to bring the child daycare centres in the country under rules and regulations. The Cabinet approved draft of the bill on February 8 in a bid to support children of professionals and working women as the number of nuclear families is increasing day by day.
According to the draft law, private entities can also run child daycare centres. But no one can run any private any private child daycare centre without registration. The Women and Children Affairs Ministry would monitor the daycare centres. After enactment of the law, anyone will come punishment if he/she runs any child daycare centre without government’s approval. However, the maximum punishment for failure to maintain proper safety and security of children in the daycare centres would be Tk 10 lakh fine.
According to the proposed law, there would be four types of child daycare centres in the country. The types are-- child daycare centres run with subsidy provided by the government; child daycare centres run by government, government agencies, directorates, departments, statutory agencies or autonomous agencies to provide services free of cost; child daycare centres run by individuals or organisations for commercial purposes; and non-profitable child daycare centres run by individuals, organisations, non-government organisations, clubs, associations, corporate sector or industrial sector.
At present, a total of 119 child daycare centres in the country under the Women and Children Affairs Ministry, while 20 under the Social Welfare Ministry.
The child daycare centres provide daytime services for six-month to six-year old children of working mothers. To support the working mothers, many private child daycare centres have recently emerged in the city. However, these are not under government’s monitor in absence of law.
