Women and Child Development dept had in 2013 issued set of safety guidelines for day-care centres. As Kharghar incident proves, however, irresponsible creche employees continue to play with lives of kids
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Child abuse is no kidding matter, but the authorities don’t seem to have the time to take it seriously.
The entire city is reeling from shock after hearing of the brutal manner in which an ayah at a day-care centre in Kharghar thrashed a 9-month-old baby, but this is hardly the first such incident. In fact, after a string of such brutalities against kids in the past, the Women and Child Development (WCD) department had in 2013 issued a set of safety guidelines for day-care centres. As the Kharghar incident proves, however, irresponsible crèche employees continue to play with the lives of children.
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But if you’re waiting for WCD to take action, don’t hold your breath. How can they, when the officials have no memory of ever issuing the safety guidelines?
Memory loss
mid-day approached WCD officials to question them about the Kharghar incident and to ask if any action had been taken based on the 2013 regulations, but one official after another kept saying that they had no memory of the guidelines at all.
“The guidelines were formulated a long time ago and we have many things to take care of, so it may have slipped our mind,” said one senior official off the record.
mid-day also contacted WCD commissioner KM Nagargoje, who also seemed unaware of the guidelines initially. He later responded: “I will look into it and will take action against such centres.”
Trigger incidents
There were two episodes in particular which led to mounting pressure on the authorities to start regulating the day-care industry. In 2012, once again in Kharghar, a four-year-old girl fell from the balcony of a crèche on the 10th floor. The following year, Pune was rocked by the horrific story of an 11-month-old boy who was beaten mercilessly by a caretaker.
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The same year, the WCD issued a list of 31 recommendations to regulate day-care centres. As per the guidelines, all centres were supposed to get a mandatory licence from WCD and maintain basic facilities like sanitation and clean drinking water. Right now, anyone can open a crèche. Most importantly, there were several guidelines for hiring employees who work with children (see box). According to WCD officials, however, the guidelines were put in the cold storage because there was little to no response from the public.
Expert speak
Dr Anuradha Sahasrabudhe, director of Dnyana Devi Childline, Pune, said, “Childline has dealt with several cases where caretakers have physically and sexually abused kids. For over two decades, we demanded legislation to regulate crèches for children and, finally in 2013, such guidelines were made. But nothing came of it. Currently, anybody can operate day-care centres.”
She added, “It is horrible that WCD is not aware about their own guidelines. They have not even offered any clarity on whether they are responsible for such matters or whether it is the education department.”
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