KOCHI: Parents sent their children to daycare often because of personal compulsions and in good faith. But on May 23, the reports of a toddler being brutalised by the owner of Kaliveedu, a daycare centre at Palarivattom here, shook the collective psyche of the state and seemed to reinforce the image of daycare as callous childcare centres.What immediately followed was a barrage of meetings, decisions, announcements and debates on ways to rein in unlicensed daycare centres and ensure the safety of children. Doing its part, the Kochi Corporation issued a bylaw for running the creches.
Almost five months later however, the civic body seems to have failed miserably to tackle such centres and is perhaps waiting for another such incident before it takes adequate action.The Corporation’s bylaw, which was drafted immediately after the incident, mandated that daycare centres ensure one teacher for every 20 students, function in a building which conforms to safety rules and regulations and employ a caretaker who possesses basic qualification in childcare.
It also mandated, or still does, proper sanitation and playground for creches. Ensuring child-friendly toilets, potable water and first-aid facilities, maintaining a students’ register based on their age and proper display of name board were the other guidelines mentioned. It also mandated a parents’ committee and monitoring committee at the Corporation-level be set up.
“It is true the Mayor came up with plenty of suggestions to tackle unprofessional creches in the city. But it is sad to note they have utterly failed in implementing any of the guidelines discussed in the meetings. Though the incident took place in the city, the ruling council failed to pass a resolution in the council or send a letter to the government for seeking urgent intervention in this regard,” said V P Chandran, Opposition councillor. He alleged most daycare centres in the city were running in an unprofessional manner.
“There is no one to monitor the centres’ activities even after the incident. At present, the Corporation can play a major role by perusing municipality rules to implement guidelines for licence. They failed to take it up too,” Chandran said.When contacted, A B Sabu, Welfare Standing Committee chairperson of the Corporation, passed the buck to the state government. “It is the government’s duty to issue an order in this regard. The government should notify the rules and regulation for issuing licences to such daycare centres. Though the Social Welfare Minister gave an assurance on resolving the issue, no fruitful decision has come yet,” Sabu said.
The civic body was also found to have failed in completing the registration of daycare centres in the city within the one-month period they had set. Till date – five months after the bylaws were issued – only half the daycare centres have registered with the Corporation. “As per the earlier plan, the Corporation planned to complete the whole process in a month for seeking the government’s suggestion. But after the public and media outlets lost interest in the subject, people’s representatives dropped the plans,” said an officer with the Kochi Corporation. This was not true, said Sabu. “At present, around 200 daycare centres have been registered with the civic body and the process is going on. We have also asked health inspectors to inspect such centres for completing the registration,” he said.
Unregulated daycare centres
The state government seems to have no plans to introduce guidelines on the functioning of daycare centres. After the incident in Palarivattom in May in which parents provided video evidence of their child being physically tortured, the Social Justice Department made it clear certain regulations would be imposed to control atrocities in daycare centres. But Social Justice Department secretary Biju Prabhakar said the department has not specified any guidelines till now.
He said in the event of an untoward incident, the case would be taken care of by the Child Welfare Department. Biju said currently there are no set instructions on issuing a license to daycare centres, but the Juvenile Justice Act is applicable to anyone harming a child. Geetha P, a working woman from Kaloor, said it is high time the government comes up with guidelines.