The government is moving for a law to bring the child daycare centres under rules and regulations and ensure proper management of the daycare centres in the country.
The Cabinet approved the draft of the ‘Child Day Care Centre Bill, 2021’ on February 8 in a bid to support children of working mothers as the number of nuclear families is increasing day by day.
State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Fazilatun Nesa Indira is scheduled to place the bill before the Parliament today (Saturday). From the Parliament, the bill will be sent to the respective parliamentary standing committee for scrutiny. It will be placed in the Parliament again for enactment of law after submission of the committee’s report, said acting secretary of Parliament Secretariat Md Nuruzzaman.
As per the draft law, registration is mandatory to set up any private child daycare centre and there would be a separate authority for the registration. The Women and Children Affairs Ministry would monitor these. After enactment of the law, none can run any daycare centre without registration. It will be a crime to operate one without permission. If anyone runs any daycare centre without government’s approval, he/she would come under punishment. However, the maximum punishment for failure to maintain proper safety and security of children in daycare centre would be Tk 10 lakh fine.
It is known that alongside the government, semi-government and autonomous bodies, private entities can also establish and run child daycare centres, but these will be regulated under the law once it comes into force.
According to the proposed law, there would be four types of child daycare centres. 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.
Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said that the Cabinet approved the draft of the law that makes it mandatory to ensure health protection and other services for children of working parents. The private child daycare centres will come under government’s monitoring after enactment of the law. The daycare centre authorities must share their feedback with parents of children once every three months. However, the provision of punishment gives a strong message that no carelessness and brutality towards the children will be tolerated, he added.
At present, a total of 119 child daycare centres are running 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. Private daycare centres are also emerging in other cities in the country. However, these are not under government’s monitoring in absence of law.
Arifa Zahan, a resident of Modhubagh area in Dhaka and a mother three-year old child, works in a private bank. She leaves her residence for office every day keeping her child in the residence with a housemaid. But, she can’t work in the office without tension.
Talking to the Bangladesh Post on Friday, she said that she would feel free if she gets chance to keep her child in a safe private child daycare centre. If these come under government monitoring, it will be a good news for the working parents.
She also said that it feels a little safer of any working mother leaves residence for office keeping her child/children with close relatives or trusted persons. Because they have responsibility. However, it is easy to say but difficult to do, as this is a very tough matter for a nuclear family. The number of such families is increasing in the city. On the other hand, the number of working mothers is also increasing day by day. It is not safe for a working mother to keep children at home with housemaid’s responsibility or someone else. Against this backdrop, the government’s move to monitor child daycare centre is a timely initiative, she added.
Meanwhile, many lactating mothers go to their workplaces with their children, but they feel uneasy to feed their children in absence of specific breastfeeding and baby care corners in the workplaces. The lactating mothers also face such situation in shopping malls, airports, bus stoppages and railway stations.
It can be mentioned that the High Court on October 27 in 2019 directed to the government take necessary steps to set up breastfeeding corners and baby care corners at all workplaces and such other places.
