Creche course: Training gaps, low wages pose hurdles for childcare industry

Tanya Mehta, a 34-year-old teacher from Noida, has been spending hours on the internet lately, searching for a reliable creche for her 18-month-old son. The trawl takes her through reviews, ratings, and information on daycare centre charges. But on some days, this search is interrupted by an occasional news article about “child-mishandling” at some daycare facility popping up on her screen. It could be a case of serious physical violence or a minor incident stemming from ignorance and lack of proper facilities.

 

“It doesn’t matter if it happens at a nearby centre or some faroff place. This is a common anxiety among so many young parents and it can travel through news, internet,” she says.

 

Mehta is part of several social media groups where new, working parents discuss tips and concerns. “The search for safe and reliable daycare often becomes a discussion point there,” she adds. Even though her husband works in an IT firm that provides a creche, they keep going back and forth on their options.

 

The Mehtas and many other new parents are worried for a reason. Last month, Naveen Choudhary, a lawyer based in New Delhi, went to retrieve the CCTV footage from a privately run daycare centre in Maujpur after both the eardrums of his three-year-old son were found swollen and on the verge of rupturing. The daycare made him wait for two days and charged Rs 1,500 for the footage, which showed brutal violence being inflicted upon the child by the staff.

 

In July, a daycare was shut down after videos showed toddlers being locked in dark bathrooms and forced into the drum of front-loading washing machines, leading to arrests. 

 

Lack of skills

 

Childcare industry experts say India suffers from a shortage of workers as well as a dearth of skilled professionals. Although cases of extreme violence aren’t frequently reported, a lack of understanding of child psychology, nutrition and age-specific teaching methods, alongside overcrowded centres are some issues parents face.

 

“Childcare today is no longer just supervision,” says Swati Popat Vats, president of Early Childhood Association, a Mumbai-based non-profit that works on child safety.

 

Typically, a creche worker is expected to take care of both a six-month-old baby and a four-year-old child. This worker needs to have knowledge about child development, responsive caregiving, health and hygiene, stimulation, language development, behaviour, and protection. However, for many people engaged in the sector, working in a daycare is merely a window to prepare for something more lucrative in terms of money and opportunities.

 

“There are no pan-India rules for early childhood care and education (ECCE). Some states have a three-year course, some ask for a year. This leads to lack of interest in taking it up as a career-based qualification,” Popat Vats adds.

 

Qualifications are needed because the demand for daycare is rising in tandem with an increase in the nu­mber of working women, double-in­co­me households and nuclear families.

 

Preeti Bhandary, cofounder of Elly Child Care, a Bengaluru-based corporate creche platform, says it had only one client — tech giant Honeywell — when it started out 15 years ago. “After some years, we had another company, but the interest was still limited. Currently, we have 25 corporations opting for our services, and it is growing,” she says.

 

In 2017, the government made creche facilities compulsory for all commercial establishments employing 50 or more people. However, for many firms, this is just a paper formality. “There’s definitely a positive change but many of them are still doing just enough to become compliant to the rules.” says Meghna Yadav, head of training and development at  Bengaluru-based KLAY Preschools and Daycare. “Sometimes they have a facility for 20 children for a workforce of 10,000.”

 

There’s also a monitoring gap, with no official data available on the number of firms adhering to the creche rule. Minister of State for Labour and Employment Shobha Karandlaje has flagged the lack of data in this area, telling Parliament in August, “No specific assessment or compliance audit had been undertaken solely for this requirement.” Compliance is monitored through routine inspections by inspector-cum-facilitators, she added.

 

In addition, many of the creches are unregistered and there’s no data on how many of them carry out police verification of their employees.  

 

The barriers

 

If demand is high and courses are available, why are most people still looking at childcare as a temporary and part-time opportunity?

 

The answer lies in what the industry offers in return. Private training is expensive, wages are below average, client investment is low, and opportunities are failing to meet the aspirations of those who join the industry.

 

New Delhi-based early childhood care and education specialist Neena Gulabani says there’s no significant investment in daycare centres, with parents only seeking a place where children can spend some time safely. “But it has to be looked at as an institution that helps in developing the brain in crucial years,” says Gulabani.

 

People associated with hiring in the sector say that finding a reliable person with an intent of care is rare.

 

“In an interview, everybody says that they love children. It is only after a few training sessions and then work that we can find that out (whether it’s true),” says Bhandary. Most daycare centres have in-house training, which new recruits go through for a week or, sometimes, a month. “We identified a training gap and started our own programme in 2016,” says Yadav. However, finding people in tier-II and -III cities remains a challenge.

 

“The corporate approach is similar across regions, but there are mental blocks. Parents are hesitant about the concept of daycare. Sometimes the uptake is so low that the firms reduce the number of centres,” Yadav says.

 

Beyond children, staff are also trained to interact with parents, where trust-building becomes significant. “We tell our staff to explain things to parents with patience. Most of them are new to parenting and we understand where their anxiety is coming from,” adds Bhandary.

 

However, not all centres provide training beyond the basics. “A centre can give a few days of induction on feeding, hygiene, CCTV procedures and emergency responses, and describe that person as trained,” says Vats, adding that this is different from an ECCE professional who understands responsive caregiving. As demand grows, the government is also undertaking training programmes, especially after the National Education Policy 2020.

 

Experts see this as India’s attempt to upskill the existing workforce rather than building an entirely new professionally qualified pool.

 

Government policies and changing mindsets around parenting have opened some opportunities in the industry.

 

Those who work in the corporate daycare sector say that the companies that are willing to work on this are getting involved at all levels. “If we ask for extra space, they provide it. Some of them also want to sit in on the recruitment process,” says Bhandary.

 

Some even offer breaks to the new parent to go and meet the child at the creche. At job search platform Indeed, 88.2 per cent of childcare professional postings mention the salary upfront as employers seek to maintain transparency in the industry.

 

As far as corporate facilities are concerned, Yadav is of the view that some big firms will have to lead by example for any substantial change.

 

That, for now, appears some distance away.