BENGALURU: The Bengaluru city police have set up two daycare centres for women officers to improve their work-life balance and encourage better participation of women in the force.
The initiative aims to support women officers by providing a convenient childcare option even as they attend to their duties. They centres have been set up at Vidhana Soudha and at the city police commissioner’s office.
On ‘Mother’s Day’ on Sunday, the Bengaluru police shared a video on its X handle, in which women police officers shared their difficulties in balancing work and taking care of their children. They also said how the childcare facility is helping them.
Sheela Kumari, a constable working in the VVIP Security Wing at Vidhana Soudha, said she had a small child and faced many problems while coming to duty with her child. “It’s not possible to leave the child at home as there is no one to take care and bringing the child to the workplace is also difficult because it’s hard to concentrate on work while constantly thinking about the child,” she said in the video.
Suma, a woman head constable, mentioned that six months ago, she was leaving her child at a daycare where she paid a monthly fee of Rs 3,000 and had to pay more for every half-an-hour the child spent extra at the centre.
The two daycare centres set up by the police have facilities like toys, books, sleeping couches, chairs, purified water, toilets and food-making amenities, and workers to take care of the children.
A police officer said the two centres take care of 40 children as of now. They were set up under the Project Rashmi of Bengaluru Smart City Ltd.
While there are plans to extend the daycare facility to other police stations, a senior police officer maintained that it is difficult to implement it at all police stations across the city.