The Child Daycare Centre Bill 2021 has been passed in the Parliament by making the approval and certificate from the government mandatory for the establishment of daycare centres. There is a provision in the bill of maximum 10 years in jail in case of failure to ensure proper security and safety to the children.
State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Fazilatun Nesa proposed to pass the bill in the Parliament on Wednesday. Later it was passed through voice vote.
According to the bill, the maximum punishment for failure to maintain proper safety and security of the children in the daycare centres would be a fine of Tk 10 lakh (not less than Tk five lakh) or two years of imprisonment or both. If the same offence is repeated, fine and imprisonment will be doubled.
The authorities concerned will be fined Tk 50,000 for running child daycare centres without registration.
In case of negligence in taking care of children, the person responsible would be imprisoned for two years or would be fined Tk two lakh or both.
If a child gets lost from daycare centres, the authorities concerned will be fined Tk five lakh or face ten years of imprisonment or both.
The proposed bill states that there would be four types of child daycare centres in the country.
The types include-daycare centres run with subsidy provided by the government, daycare centres run by the government, government agencies, directorate, department, statutory agency or autonomous agency to provide services free of cost, daycare centres run by individuals or organisations for commercial purposes, and non-profitable daycare centres run by any individual, organisation, non-government organisation, club, association, corporate sector or industrial sector.