KOCHI: In the foreseeable future, securing a licence for daycare centres in the city will prove an uphill task as the Corporation is all set to come out with strict guidelines in this regard. The move by the civic body is aimed at tackling the increasing number of creches run in an unprofessional manner.
The Corporation has also prepared a bylaw which is expected to get the nod at next month’s council meeting. It comes in the wake of a toddler’s brutal assault by a daycare owner at Palarivattom a few months ago.
Under the new bylaw, daycare centres should ensure one teacher for every 20 students and the centre should function in a safe building which conforms to rules and regulations. Besides, the caretaker should possess a basic qualification in childcare. “The bylaw will be passed only after the council discusses it. A decision on the caretakers' educational qualification will be taken after this. With the state government’s nod, the rules will be enforced and the centres will get the licence based on their compliance,” said a top source in the Corporation.
Besides, the bylaw mandates proper sanitation and playground for creches. Ensuring child-friendly toilet, potable water, restroom, first-aid, maintaining a students’ register based on their age and proper display of name board are the other guidelines mentioned in the bylaws. A parents’ committee and monitoring committee at the Corporation-level should also be set up.
“We will not allow day care centres to be run as a business enterprise. It should be treated as a service. These guidelines are mainly aimed at this,” the source said. In a related development, the Corporation also started registration of daycare centres in the city. The aim is to complete the registration process within a month. A token fee of `10 will be collected from applicants for registration.
“This is just a registration process to identify the number of daycare centres in the city as presently we don’t have any knowledge about the number of creches functioning here. The licence will be issued only after getting the government’s suggestion. We hope to complete the registrations within one month and to complete the entire process within another 30 days,” said Sabu, Welfare Standing Committee chairperson.
Currently, only three firms have received the Corporation’s registration certificate. “The licence fee and other things will be decided later as under the Municipal Law, there is no provision to collect a licence fee from daycare centres. The council will take the final call on the issue after incorporating suggestions from the government,” Sabu said.