Creche Guidelines for Employees under Maternity benefit

The law mandates that all companies with more than 50 employees are required to offer a crèche facility to mothers. Further, companies have to allow these women to visit crèche four times a day. What are the Creche Guidelines for the employers? Are companies following it?Why are they not?

Years after the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act 2017 was passed by the Parliament, less than 10 percent of the companies are believed to be compliant with the crèche facility provision. The government will soon seek details on the companies that are not compliant and seek clarification.

Creche Guidelines

The provisions of ‘The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act’, 2017 are effective from April 1, 2017. The provision of crèche facility (Section 111 A) was effective from July 1, 2017.

The Maternity Benefit Act 2017 protects the employment of women during the time of her maternity and entitles her of a ‘maternity benefit’ – i.e. full paid absence from work – to
take care for her child. The act is applicable to all establishments employing 10 or more persons and the crèche facility is mandatory for every establishment employing 50 or
more employees.

The government’s purpose of introducing the crèche provision was to encourage new mothers to return to the workforce sooner by providing them with a facility to take care of the child within/near their office environment.

On November 2, 2018, the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India issued National Minimum Guidelines for setting up and running Crèches under Maternity Benefit Act, 2017.

An overview of the guidelines is given below. You can read the full version here.

A creche has to be provided for all category of employees, temporary and permanent.
There should be one crèche for every 30 children which should be for children between six months and six years of age.
The creche will have to be located either within the work premises or within 500 metres.
The company has to ensure there is at least one crèche personnel along with one helper for every 10 children below 3 years of age, and for every 20 children in the age group of 3 to 6 years.
It also provides for the appointment of a crèche-in charge if the number of children in crèche is more than 5 (five).
- (i). Streamlining of the crèche timings, keeping in view the parents’ working hours/ timings/ shifts in an establishment (assuming an 8 (eight) hours shift);
- (ii). Every establishment must adopt a child protection policy. The Crèche Guidelines provide for a model child protection policy that can be adopted by establishments. The objective of this policy is to prevent child abuse in any form at establishment’s workplace and within its operating hours. Such policy must provide for a complaints committee constituted by the establishment to receive complaints, conduct formal enquiries and recommend appropriate action for redressal and punishment;
- (iii). Norms and Standards for a crèche have been provided which comprise the regulations for crèche environment, crèche equipment/ material, safety/ protection at the crèche, health practices, nutrition practices, hygiene and sanitation practices etc.
  - a) Crèche equipment/material the materials to be procured by crèche for its operations which includes certain nonrecurring expenses such as furniture, appliances, etc. and certain recurring expenses such as eatables, stationary, etc. The complete descriptive list of materials under recurring and non-recurring expenses are mentioned in annexure to the Crèche Guidelines,
  - b) Nutrition and health practices – sample immunization schedule, calorie requirement chart for different age group of children and the WHO standard growth-monitoring chart to monitor the growth of the children in the crèche. The sample meal charts for various age groups are also mentioned in annexure to the Crèche Guidelines which could be adopted by the establishments setting up crèche,
  - c) Crèche transactions– the activities to be organized for holistic development of children and provides for a curriculum depending on the age group of children in crèche. The Crèche Guidelines also outline activities to monitor the development of children in the crèche depending on the age of children;
- (iv). The preferred age of crèche staff shall be between 20 to 40 years. Further, the workers are also required to undergo training and their appointments would be made on assessment of their skills, knowledge and attitude. Such training may be provided by different organizations who specialize in providing training of childcare workers. There is no specification on who can impart such training to the establishments;
- (v). In order to monitor and supervise the functioning of crèche, a crèche monitoring committee is required to be set up by the establishments. The crèche monitoring committee would constitute 3 to 4 parents, crèche worker, crèche supervisor and human resource/ administrative officer.

Guidelines for Creche

How where the Guidelines for Creche Set up?

To standardize the quality of these crèches and ensure effective implementation, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, constituted a committee,
chaired by Director, WCD, Delhi and comprised members from Lady Irwin College, New Delhi and Mobile Creches, New Delhi, to design and develop minimum crèche guidelines
applicable for crèches run or supported by institutions complying as per the norms of Maternity Benefit Act 2017.

These guidelines are based on the scientific principles of early childhood development and attempt to meet the best interests of young children. And their parents.

Why companies are not compliant with Creche guidelines?

Most companies are not compliant yet with the provision due to the costs involved and safety measures to be taken.

Having a crèche means it is the company’s responsibility to ensure that the child is in safe hands. This will require a thorough background check of the crèche staff. The costs associated are high. Can the government ensure that the parent(s) pay for the services?

Companies non-compliant could be subject to a jail term of up to one year for key personnel and penalties

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Creche Guidelines for Employees under Maternity benefit