Back to office after six months of maternity leave, T S Rout, who works at the state police headquarters in Cuttack, is heartbroken every time she has to leave her 10-month-old baby girl with a relative.
She is not alone. A number of other working mothers in the police headquarters also have to make arrangements for their children before coming to work. Their worries, however, will end soon as the police headquarters have decided to launch a crèche.
Once launched, the crèche would be the first of its kind in any government establishment in the state. “At least 70 women work in the state police headquarters in different sections. We plan to start the crèche for their benefit soon,” DGP Abhay said.
IGP (modernization and provisioning) Rekha Lohani said the crèche would start functioning in the next few weeks. “Work on it is under way. We will engage one or two women home guards to take care of the children who will be placed in the crèche by their mothers. The crèche will have all facilities for children,” Lohani said.
Employees welcomed the announcement and said it would take a load off their mind. “We (working mothers with small children) are often stressed as we always think of how our children are faring. A crèche at the workplace will help us balance our work and childcare,” an employee said.
At present, some police stations and district police offices, including in Gajapati and Keonjhar, have child-friendly rooms for women employees and visitors.
“Our district police office and two police stations — Paralakhemundi and Garabandh — have facilities for children,” Gajapati SP Sarah Sharma said.
In October last year, the state human rights commission had expressed displeasure at the state government for not providing crèche facilities in its offices in Bhubaneswar and the districts. According to the the national minimum guidelines of the ministry of women and child development, every establishment with 50 or more women employees should have crèche under the Maternity Benefit Amendment Act, 2017.
The state women and child development and Mission Shakti department said efforts were on to provide crèche facilities in the secretariat and big government establishments in Bhubaneswar and across the districts.
“We have written to all government offices to start crèche services at the earliest,” department secretary Anu Garg said.
Source : Times of India Dt.04.02.2020
