Almost 50 per cent of the workforce in Infopark comprises women and of these most of them have very young children. And these women have a serious problem on their hands. Before we get into that, a look at the State government’s IT policy. Its ‘Vision and Mission’ clearly states, “The Government’s vision is to turn Kerala into a knowledge society with sustainable economic growth, social harmony and high quality of life for all” (section 2.1).
Sure the Infopark is friendly to its women employees in terms of timings, transportation etc, but when it comes to the thing that really matters, Infopark is sadly lacking. ‘A high quality of life for all’ for these women translates to having some kind of a support system which would help them, make things easier for these mothers of young kids.
A crèche within Infopark is what they want. It is not about being unreasonably demanding, it is just about wanting an employee-friendly workplace. “If there is such a facility within the campus it would be of great help. We can look in on the child during the course of the day, when we get a break. Besides we can rest easy since there is the option of looking in, they would be better taken care of,” says Meena. And it would increase productivity as well. Is anyone listening?
Parents inconvenienced
There is regret that parents and in-laws are being inconvenienced. Besides the obvious problems, there are the emotional ones such as nursing for instance. Some of these mothers breast feed their babies and they have had to stop, or at least make do with nursing between 8 p. m. and 8 a. m. If there is a crèche on the campus, all the mothers have to do is get the babies along when they come to work, leave the babies in the crèche and get on with their jobs, and in between check on their children.
Although these women have approached their respective companies, some of which are MNCs, they do not see much happening.
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