The Maharashtra government has set up a 15-member committee to draft a Bill to regulate the creches and day care centres run by the Social Welfare Board, local bodies, NGOs, and private individuals.
The need for such an Bill arose after the incident in Kharghar in last November, where a 10-month-old girl was assaulted by a day care centre employee, which was caught on camera. In the winter session of the legislature, Women and Child Welfare Minister Pankaja Munde had assured the House that the government would come up with regulations to govern creches.
The committee will be headed by the chief secretary and will have additional chief secretaries of the Home and Public Health departments, along with principal secretaries of the Urban Development, Labour, School Education, Law and Judiciary, Tribal Development, General Administration, and the Rural Development departments. Women and Child Development Commission and secretary of the department will also be the part of the committee along with the commissioner of Integrated Child Development Services schemes.
The committee’s mandate will be to draft a law to control and regularise the functioning of creches, lay down rules and regulations, and to provide suggestions to ensure a healthy, clean and safe environment for children.
Apart from the Women and Child Welfare department, other agencies such as the Urban Development, School Education, Tribal Development, Social Justice, and the Labour department are running creches. “The Home Department must be taken on board to discuss safety aspects,” said an official.
