by Suman Gupta
Following Section 11A, of the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017, that has introduced the provision, that any establishment which has 50 or more employees shall have the facility of a creche and inspired by the vision of gender equality of the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi Ji, India Post, Mumbai Region, as a part of “Amritkal” for the very first time will be inaugurating 4 creches in four zones of Mumbai city vis-à-vis Dadar, Vile Parle, Chembur and Borivali. The inauguration will be done by Ms Swati Pandey, Postmaster General, India Post, Mumbai Region, on 20.01.2023 at 12:00 hours at the Dadar Head Post Office. The creches have been established to keep the employees of India Post, Mumbai Region psychologically motivated and de-stressed knowing the travel time they need to cover everyday while commuting from office to home and vice versa and their tedious working hours. The children once are dropped in the creches that are situated in the office premises, are completely safe and being extensively taken care of by the trained women in-charges of the creches. A total of 26 children are presently being accommodated in the creches depending on the shifts of their parent. It has also been stated that the children with both parents working and fathers being the officials of India Post will also be accommodated in the creches.
The creches comprise of all the amenities that a creche should have, vis-s-vis adequate accommodation, proper light and ventilation, clean and sanitized washrooms, playing area, brain developing toys, televisions and trained women nurses to take care of the children and infants. All the creches have CCTVs that can be connected to the phones of the parents so as to have an instant check on their wards. Apart from two women incharges, the creches also have 2 women caretakers each, doctors on call, ready first aid service and teachers to impart basic lessons to the children above 2 years. Besides, each creche is having one cook and and one helper each to provide healthy and hygienic meals to the children. Inauguration of more creches is also on the cards.
Talking about the reason behind opening the creches, Ms Pandey says that, “In this era of women empowerment and gender neutrality, it is our duty to take care of the mental health of our employees that is often affected by their concern towards their children who has to be kept alone under the mercy of untrained baby sitters who do not take proper care of the children. In Myself being a mother and having faced the problem of baby sitting severely at the initial stage of my career, I have realized that there is dire need of a safe environment for children, especially infants, that would relief the parents from worrying about the well being of their kids while they are at work and simultaneously will also ensure proper care of the kids. It is only by having a sound mental health that we can expect 100% commitment from our officials and here I refer to both a mother and a father.”
