Corporate babysitting: adding value to childcare
By Renjith VP, SiliconIndia   |   Thursday, 25 November 2010, 14:16 IST
Printer Print Email Email
Corporate babysitting: adding value to childcare
Bangalore: IT boom literally remolded the established structure of Indian society. And not to mention, the institution of family was the chief quarter which saw significant alteration with it. With more work pressure in enterprises, looking after oneself became an impossible task, let alone looking after one's children. Corporate creches have been taking care of the situation with state of art day care centers which provide many value added services not existent in normal creches. A practice originated in the MNCs based in the West and later adapted to the Indian context, these creches which are at accessible and convenient to the employees are helping to strike a healthy balance between work time and parenting. Many companies like Wipro, TCS, Infosys, TI, HP etc run these kind of creches which ensures the safety and healthy socialization of the employees' kid. Bangalore, the IT hub of India alone features many creches from the corporate giants. These creches follow strict standards and run inspection frequently at the creches hence making it stand out from day care centers elsewhere. Instead of initiating creches, some companies affiliate themselves with established creches after making sure the facilities provided by them are perfect and to the company's reputation. Many other firms like ICICI Bank, where a majority of women rule the roost at senior positions, now runs a creche which charges a monthly fee to look after employees' children. The creche has trained teachers, a library, gym, computer room and its own kitchen. These preschool daycare centers aim at catering to the needs of parents within tech parks though many of them are situated off campuses so that the corporate parents don't get distracted about the thought of their off springs. Some other day care centers are also following suit and has started running in places very near and convenient for employees of tech parks. They also aim to help young minds grow and learn in an amicable environment resulting in their all round development with main focus is to provide the Kids with child-friendly curriculum and a child-safe learning environment. Many value added services help these corporate chidcare centers to clearly differentiate the contours between ordinary childcare centers. They provide pre-primary training programs and curriculum for specialized training in different segments like Play Group, Nursery, Kindergarten, Activity Center etc for children in the age groups of 1.5 to 5 years. They also programs which will avail kids to have online real time access to parents. Furthermore they have online cameras attached in the buildings which enable parents to check out on their kids by following particular web links and viewing the online cam feeds. Another specialty of these creches is that the timings are very flexible. Since IT professionals have to extend their working hours unduly due to meetings or sudden projects, the creche can also extend the time of looking after the kid. They also work on all days when the particular company works. These creches also provide various other facilities like transportation on request, summer camps and temporary day care which will provide short term services like 2 hours or so. With child-friendly flooring and non-toxic play equipment, strict hygiene standards and regime, clean and disciplined staff, a doctor on call at all times and a variety of hobby activities to choose from, these are nice places to be in. Charges vary from 3.5 k to 8k and many corporate parents are looking forward to it. Registration time may take time between 10-12 months to process and parents can register at the time of pregnancy itself. With 'corporate babysitting' adding extra efforts to take care of the 'corporate' children, childcare is no more child's play.

siliconindia