Need For Child Care Essay

Need for child care options

According to Swaminathan, (1985) the need for child care is essential for a family. Child care strategies need to be holistic as the early years are most crucial and experiences with the caregiver in the early years have a profound impact on the lives of children. Child care programs need to first look at the needs of children followed by family. India is diverse in its size, cultural ecology and needs, thus variations in child care based on income, caste, creed are prevalent. Need for child care arrangements for women belonging to low income group are based on three factors. Firstly, development of children is most important and children from low income familes are at risk from two ends (poverty and neglect by mother due to work). Second, child care options would enable young girls (6-14 years) to study as girls stay out of school in caring for siblings and other family members at

First, women’s development and second the rights of women. Post independence the women programs were formulated to support women for health, nutrition and enhancement of her skills in caring for the child (Datta, 1999). “Shramshakti” (report of the National Commission of Self-employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector, 1988) was a major event in understanding the work patterns of women and the need of child care options in India (Sriram, & Ganapathy, 2007). According to the labour laws in India, the working mothers in mines, plantation and factories are entitled to use maternity benefits and crèches. Crèches made their space in the industries through the Factories Act (1948), the Plantations Act (1951) and the Mines Act (1952). These crèches came with a guideline that industries with 30 or more women workers (later revised to 50) will avail the facility. Whereas in mines act the numbers of women were not a set criteria to avail crèche, it was for all employed women workers (Swaminathan,