One issue that has always been of major concern to working women is having to choose between family or career. Despite giant strides taken in the field of female empowerment, this is one issue that has never been addressed for ages together.
Gone are the days when they were considered as baby-producing machines.Today, a woman juggles between work and family, and is forced to set her priorities clear when it comes to these two crucial aspects.
However, in what is seen as a step to relieve the community of this debate, the Women and Child Development (WCD) ministry, in its recent recommendation, ordered that firms must provide a daycare facility.
The team headed by Maneka Gandhi wrote to the Corporate Affairs ministry asking it to build consensus with corporate entities and bring about creche facilities. So has this ruling solved the problem in one go? Firstly, one has to consider the issue of women having to work.
In this fast-paced world, a family cannot run with the income of only one individual. As a result, a woman will lose a couple of years as a professional, if she decides to take a maternity break. Hence, if daycare facilities are to be provided at the workplace, then it would ease a huge problem for a mother.
Similarly, many other industry experts feel that a directive of this kind would re-inforce the perception that men and women ought to be treated equally at work.It will ensure that equal opportunities are provided for both genders, and that women do not have to compromise on their professional growth, citing personal reasons.
Having their children in the vicinity, is also likely to improve productivity of women employees by a huge margin."We need not worry about having left the kid at home.
This will also lead to distractions. Now, in case of an issue, we can always rush to them if they are in the same premises", says the HR manager of a popular firm.A few companies which have abided by the ruling and introduced creches in their campuses, are reportedly registering results.
SAP that launched a childcare facility in its Bengaluru office, has seen reduced attrition due to maternity in a span of five years. However, a sensitive decision as this cannot be seen through rose-tinted glasses. There are numerous teething issues that can crop up while setting up and encouraging facilities like this.
For instance, space. In a multi-national firm, there are thousands of women employees.It is not possible to put up a space that would accommodate all their children. At the same time, the company also needs to hire a large number of supporting staff who will be deployed to take care of the kids.
This is difficult to implement in the practical sense, feel many. In other cases, all women workers might not have desk jobs. They might need to travel on duty on a daily basis. At that point of time, it is not easy to handle the child when the mother is out all day.The very purpose of a daycare facility that brings together mothers and babies, will be defeated.
While analysing the pros and cons of this government directive, one factor becomes clear. This cannot be a panacea for working women. However, what can be done is seeking effective solutions after consultations with each company's women employees and HR experts.
This cannot be followed by all firms, as a different solution might fit for each one company. What can also be done is a flexible maternity leave policy, one that would benefit mothers and children, or a common facility for few firms sharing the same neighbourhood.
