A godsend for working mothers

Riyas wakes up early every day, eats his breakfast, and then heads to “Phulki” in the capital's Mirpur. Once there, he greets his friends and supervisor, then quickly gets on to business at hand: running in circles, building castles out of blocks, and herding a menagerie of stuffed animals.

Three-year old Riyas is one of 16 children attending Phulki daycare centre in Mirpur-11, an initiative that is proving to be a boon to working parents, especially garment workers.

The daycare centre is one of 20 based in industrial zones of Mirpur, Gazipur, Mohammadpur and Ashulia to cater to children of female garment workers.

Run by Phulki, a non-government organisation, it was founded in 2015 under the Urban Childcare Project of Aga Khan Foundation. At present, over 600 children are being looked after at the daycare centres (crèches) in exchange for a nominal fee from their parents.

The centres have all necessary facilities for children, including sleeping space, toilet and pantry. Photo: Rashed Shumon

Both of Riyas' parents work in garment factories. His mother, Shathi, drops him off at 7:00am at the crèche six days of the week, except for Friday.

Shathi neither had the support of her parents or in-laws, nor any network of friends or relatives to look after the toddler.

“We are a small family. No one is there to look after my son at home when my husband and I are at work. I can go to work only because there is a place where I can keep my son without any worries,” she added.

Shathi's colleague Tanju also sends her child to the same crèche. “We would have sent our children to village if the childcare centre was not here,” Tanju said.

She visits her five-year-old daughter every day during lunch break. “I feel recharged when I get to see my daughter amid work, and it is possible as the daycare is situated near my workplace,” she added.

Sandoz Halder, programme coordinator of Urban Childcare Project at Aga Khan Foundation, said, “Over 60 percent children at our crèches are of garments workers. Children from other low-income families are also there.”

Every month, a healthcare provider visits the centres and provides primary healthcare services to the children.

Each facility is equipped with indoor playing area, sleeping space, a toilet and a pantry -- to ensure that the toddlers are well taken care of.

The centres also offer early learning opportunities and pastoral support for children aged between two and six years, after which parents can admit their children to schools.

Each crèche is housed with three rooms to accommodate a maximum of 35 children. With three caregivers and a supervisor for each crèche, Phulki has created a safe, colourful and nurturing environment for children. The female caregivers are trained in early childhood development, nutrition, and hygiene by the foundation.

Over 2,000 children have so far been registered with the 20 crèches since 2015. Of them, 532 children completed the phase of early learning and later got admitted to schools.

These children are more pro-active than others in schools as they have already been in an institution, said Sandoz.

When a mother leaves her child with a neighbour or their grandparents, the babies usually spend the day barefoot in an unhygienic environment, said Salma, a caregiver of the crèche in Mirpur-11, who has been working for six years with Phulki.

Living in impoverished areas and amid adverse circumstances, access to an early learning environment -- which is crucial for optimal brain development -- is hard to get for these children, she said.

The daycare is not only a place where a child spends time playing, they also learn discipline, manners, and get their first lessons of numbers and alphabets, she added

“In the past, I also kept my child with a neighbour who charged me Tk 1,000 a month. Our children were confined to a room back then or were left on their own but now at the crèche, caregivers bathe them, feed them, and put them to sleep,” she added.

Bangladesh Labour Law 2006 (amended in 2013) makes it mandatory for every organisation with 40 or more female workers to have one or more rooms to keep children below six years. It also specifies details of all amenities the crèches must have, including trained and experienced female caregivers.

However, the implementation of the law is rare, forcing many working mothers to make the difficult choice -- between quitting their jobs and compromising with their toddlers' childhood.

In such situation, standard childcare facilities can yield positive results to the labour market and to the economic growth of families as well as the country.

Sandoz Haider said the foundation was planning to extend the service hours to 8:00pm every day, except for the weekend.

At present, the crèches remain open from 7:00am to 5:00pm, but many female workers work till 7:00pm, he said.

Keeping sustainability in mind, Phulki and the Aga Khan Foundation are piloting a process for raising community funds through individual sponsorship of children, and funds from garment factories through their corporate social responsibility initiatives, so that the centres can become financially sustainable over time.