It’s Mandatory to offer onsite / near site daycare facilities for employees under the Maternity Benefit Act 2017, in addition to compliance it also allows companies to support their working parents, and help moms return to work.
ProEves recently did a live Tweet Chat in association with Little Big World by Chirag Shah, Prerrna P Kapoor & Anne Supadha.
With entrepreneurial roots, an MBA from JBIMS and over 10 years of product development, partnerships experience with American Express and ICICI Bank, Chirag founded Little Big World to help bring mothers back to work post maternity by providing state of the art Creche facility. Let’s get a sneak peak of the Insights provided by Chirag Shah, Factory and Corporate Creche Specialist:
Q: How Little Big World is helping Corporates Setup Crèche in Factories? What are your Solutions?
We offer same high standards of hygiene, supervision, learning and nutrition – at Multi-National Company offices or at factories. We are equipped to handle – early morning/ late night hours, different socio-economic fabric of families. We go the extra mile – handling malnourishment, instilling importance of hygiene, english, education.
Q: Please talk us through one of your factory crèches and what has worked well from – employer or employee standpoint?
Almost all factories have self-run crèche (little room with basic facilities) as Factories Act ’48 compliances are strict. But recent law changes, increases the compliance to all factories with greater than 50 employees. Also with more women on shop floor and more kids in creches, companies are outsourcing crèche management to professionals. Cost remains a constraint but we see Companies work around it for long-term gains. E.g. we manage 200+ kids creche at Cummins factories successfully.A Cummins leader had once said, crèche isn’t a cost, it’s an investment in the kind of company we want to be.
At Ferrero, since 4+ years, we manage 240+ kids of women from farming families who package their yummy chocolates. These are kids from very low socio-economic backgrounds. Besides regular crèche operations (6 am to 10 pm), we’ve treated 100+ malnourished cases, ensured dental, 500+ physical checkups, parental counseling sessions on health, hygiene, education.
Q: What are the important criterions for Factories to consider before they move ahead on the crèche decision?
In our experience, we’ve seen it boil down to the intention of the employer – all these issues are addressable. They need to go lot beyond the basic law provisions. Just a nurse and some cots make you compliant but you won’t really attract more women or reap its long-term gains. Security, hygiene, ability of crèche partner to scale up during peak demand are must haves.
Q: What can the Government do to support Corporates in this agenda?
Government could allocate common crèche space in MIDC regions/ industrial parks. More women in workforce means Lesser labor unrest, diverse work environment, bigger unexplored talent pool, more loyal workforce.
With the Factory Mandate clear, it’s important for factories to comply and look at the long term benefits of providing employee welfare.