Summiya Yasmeen

In early July, viral videos from an outsourced child daycare centre at French IT multinational Capgemini’s corporate campus in Bengaluru, showing toddlers imprisoned inside washing machine drums and locked in toilets, sparked shock and panic among middle class parents nationwide. There was a flood of posts on blogs, social media and WhatsApp chats from parents questioning safety checks, regulatory oversight, monitoring mechanisms and quality standards governing creches and child daycare centres across the country. Parents are demanding answers. If this could happen at an upscale child daycare centre inside the corporate campus of a blue-chip multinational, what could be the quality of daycares in lesser corporates, firms and standalones?

With the breakdown of the joint family system and double-income nuclear households now normative in urban India — India’s FLFPR (Female Labour Force Participation Rate) has risen to 41.7 percent in 2023-24 — a rising number of middle class parents are availing the services of child daycare centres to mind their youngest children. But even as demand from double-income nuclear families rises, supply hasn’t kept pace. Though the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017, mandates companies and establishments employing 50 or more workers to provide crèche facilities, this law is practiced more in the breach than observance. Consequently, India hosts a mere 9,628 registered private daycare centres. And even within this small number of registered child daycares — not to mention the large number that operate unregistered and unmonitored — most function in a regulatory vacuum, ignoring mandatory staff-to-child ratios, background-verified caregiver hiring, CCTV surveillance, and third-party safety audits. Therefore, in the absence of uniform national standards, parents are largely left to do their own due diligence when choosing a childcare facility.

In our cover story this month, we aim a spotlight on child daycare centres, providing parents a curated checklist of essential safety, care and learning parameters they should assess before enrolling their child in a daycare centre. Early childhood care and education experts interviewed advise parents to make informed choices that prioritise children’s wellbeing. They recommend rigorous evaluation of security measures, staff preparedness, infrastructure, hygiene practices, and emergency protocols. This is not a decision to be made lightly, as the Capgemini case reminded every parent last month.

As usual, this Independence Day issue of PW has more to offer. Check out our Middle Years story about the co-relation of children playing chess and developing creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Moreover, in an informative Healthcare essay, ayurveda physician Dr. Dhanya Dilip suggests natural remedies for common monsoon ailments. Also recommended is our Ask Your Counselor column in which parenting coach and teen counselor Rajat Soni shares valuable guidelines on ways and means to manage hyperactive children.