Day care centres other home for children of domestic helps

Slum children as well as those of the domestic helps draw sketches with their pencils at a day care centre at Rayerbazar in the city. Photo: Sk Enamul Haq

Poor Sufia Begum, a domestic help, who used to take care of other's kids, leaving her own child in an insecure environment for the whole day, is happy now, because a day care-cum-education centre of an NGO has now taken the responsibility of her child.
“I work as a domestic help at other's house for earning our breads. I start to work early in the morning, leaving my child at open space of the nearby slum,” said Sufia, mother of Shahadat Hossain, 2, a child who is getting care since his six months age.
Joyab Bibi, a mother of Atik, 3, said, “I bring my son to the centre at 8:00am and then I go to my master's house for the whole day where I need to take care of their three children. When my madam comes back home, I go back to the centre and take Atik by 5:00pm.”
“I spend all day long to take care of other's children, keeping my own child at another's care,” she said, adding that the centre provides all kinds of facilities, including cleanliness with bath thrice in a week, breakfast, lunch, education, healthcare and entertainment for round the week.
Working mothers, both poor and rich in the rural as well as urban areas of the country, are facing trouble to get a place for childcare during office hours. The worst sufferers are poor mothers, especially the domestic helps, who live alone in the slums.
Surma, a cleaner of a private clinic and also mother of two-and-half-year-old Mohuna Akhter, shared her experience how she struggled to work with three other young children. She said, “There is nobody in Dhaka where I can keep my child, but I need the job for survival as my husband got divorced, leaving other kids with me.”
“First five months, I had to work keeping my child on footpaths from where they were used by other floating people for begging and even snatching from passers-by,” said Surma, adding: “Now I can concentrate on my work.”
Two-year-old Suravi was playing with some other children aged between two and three years. They all are the students of same class in a room named 'Doyel', where they get the pre-schooling lessons, and few were found playing in another room named 'Shapla'.
All the children were busy doing some activities, including acting, drawing and recitation.
Tammi, a six-year-old daughter of a domestic worker Pakhi, said she is so happy now as she can eat many things at the centre and her teacher teaches many rhymes, including A B C D. “I can write 1, 2, 3, A B C D.”
Tammi was speaking while she was busy drawing a flower on her slate with a chalk.
The day care-cum-education centre located at 67 Jhigatala in the city's Dhanmondi area remains closed on Friday, though the domestic workers do not have any weekly holiday.
Hasina, a garment worker, said: “After getting my children admitted to the centre, I don't have worried about their security, food and education.”
In each batch, at least 300 children of domestic helps, maids, tannery labour, tailoring workers, sweepers, small traders and garment workers living in slums in these areas can get their children admitted to these day care centres.
On the other hand, a total of 1,200 children of domestic helps, office cleaners, tannery labor, tailor worker, sweeper, small traders and garment workers are now getting formal education from such four education centres for slum children under a project titled 'Slum Children's Programme' of Aparajeyo Bangladesh at Rayerbazar.
“When children become three years old, they are enrolled in slum children's education programme to get formal education up to class six. The NGO also assists them in getting admissions to other government schools for higher education,” said Umme Salma Begum, project manager of the NGO.
The project was launched in 1998, she added.
There is a number of alienated poor families in the urban areas and most of family members work outside and the children of such families have to live alone on the street or footpaths, said Salma, who has been serving the centre for the last one decade.
Most of the children at the centre are getting sponsorship from Terre des Hommes (TDH) Italy. The parents have to give a token participation money ranges from Tk 50 to Tk 100 monthly, she added.
Jewel Khan, headmaster of the education unit of the day care centre, said: “We give the basic education for the under-age children while other children get formal education from class one to class six and the upper-class students can take coaching.
“If the children of low-income generating parents do not get such support, they might become street urchins, vagrants, beggars, snatchers, drug addicts or peddlers.”
The centre provides health care and free medicine to the children of the centre and their mothers, said the employees of the centre.
Three other day care centres are located at Bou Bazar and two at Chorokghata under Hazaribagh and education centres at Azimpur, Rayerbazar, Mohammadpur and Pallabi.