t is hard to miss the sight of Police Constable Saima Batool diligently performing her duties while caring for her two-year-old daughter in Faisalabad’s district courts. Despite the scorching summer her routine remains unchanged.

Saima says that both she and her husband work, leaving no one at home to care for their daughter. This means she has to bring her child to work.

“It has been more convenient [to juggle work and parenting] ever since I got posted here. When I was stationed at a police station, I had to leave my daughter home with someone while going on raids and patrols,” she says.

Batool acknowledges that it felt odd and challenging to bring her daughter to work, she says that she was fortunate to have superiors who did not object to it. “The department has granted me permission to bring my daughter to work,” she says. “I do wish that we had a proper daycare facility here. Such a facility would be of great help for other women too. They’d be able to care for their children while performing their duties,” says Batool.

According to information obtained under the Right to Information Act, the Faisalabad police force employs a total of 653 women. This includes two inspectors, 38 sub-inspectors, two assistant sub-inspectors, 16 head constables and 595 constables.

Faisalabad Police Public Information Officer DSP (Legal) Shahzad Aliana says that there is no difference in the service rules for male and female personnel. The term ‘individual’ is used, ensuring that all police employees have the same rights and duties. The DSP says there are two daycare centres in Faisalabad district; one at the Women Police Station and one in Police Lines.

Inspector Gulnaz, in charge of the Tahaffuaz Markaz located in the Police Lines, says that a proper daycare facility is not available at the Police Lines or the Tahaffuaz Markaz.

Inspector Gulnaz says that while a room at the Tahaffuaz Markaz has been designated for young children and is equipped with toys, it cannot be called a daycare centre as it lacks childcare facilities. Affirming the need for daycare, she says her own experience of balancing childcare with official duties was quite challenging.

“When I got married, I was serving as an investigation officer. I had twins, which posed significant challenges in managing my official duties alongside childcare,” she recalls. During court appearances or meetings with seniors, Gulnaz often had to leave her children with the police station’s clerk (muharrar) or other officials.

Currently, most police stations have a room reserved for women police officers as a rest area. They can also keep their babies there but must care for them themselves. Inspector Gulnaz expresses hope that the Police Department will continue to improve as an employer. She says she hopes that Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz will prioritise addressing these issues faced by women police personnel.

She says nearly 30 per cent of the women in the Faisalabad police force are married. About 10 per cent of them must bring their young children to work due to the absence of childcare at home or because the children are still on mother-feed.

A room in Faisalabad’s only Women Police Station, located on the upper floor of Kotwali police station, has been designated as a daycare centre. Toys and other items have been provided for the children but no staff has been assigned for child care. Instead, the female police officers stationed at the police station bring their young children with them and take turns looking after them.

Shazia, a constable at the Women Police Station, says that the daycare centre was established a few months ago. She says the development has significantly eased her childcare responsibilities. “There are seven to eight children here. We take turns caring for them,” she says.

According to the guidelines from the Women Development Department, daycare centres should not be located on the upper floor of a building. The guidelines mandate at least 30 square feet of space to be allocated for each child in the room designated as a daycare centre. There should also be an attached bathroom with arrangements for changing nappies or bathing the children.

…approximately 30 per cent of the women in the Faisalabad police force are married; 10 per cent of them must bring their young children to work due to the absence of childcare at home or because the children are still on mother-feed.

The daycare centre at the Women’s Police Station does not comply with the standards. It is noteworthy that although the number of women in the Punjab Police is 8,847, there are no official daycare centres in most districts.

According to information obtained from the Punjab Police under the Right to Information Act, the Central Police Office in Lahore and Rawalpindi each have a daycare centre where childcare facilities are available. Furthermore, the Punjab Police has signed a memorandum of understanding with Interloop, a private organisation, to establish daycare centres for the children of female police officers in four districts of the province.

Beyond these initiatives, there are no daycare facilities in the Punjab for the children of police personnel. This is despite the fact that the establishment of daycare centres in Punjab began under the Punjab Women Empowerment Initiative Package 2012-2017 that led to the formation of the Punjab Day Care Fund Society. The society provides financial support for setting up daycare centres in government departments and non-profit organisations.

Muhammad Zubair, the manager of the society, says that the applicant organisation must bear 30 per cent of the expenses for setting up a daycare centre and manage the building. The remaining 70 per cent is covered by the Punjab Day Care Fund Society.

Currently, there are 437 daycare centres in 25 districts of the Punjab. Out of these 325 are operational. “A total of 16,550 children from 11,585 families are looked after in these daycare centres,” he says.

Zubair says that the Punjab Police has established daycare centres at the Central Police Lines and Multan Police Lines with the support of his organization. He says steps are under way to build another daycare facility in the office of the additional inspector general in Lahore.

He says his organisation regularly sends letters to various government departments and district coordination officers regarding the availability of funds to encourage the establishment of daycare centres as per their requirements.

In April 2019, Hina Parvez Butt, a Member of the Provincial Assembly from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, submitted the Punjab (Amendment) Bill for the Welfare of Mother and Child 2019. This bill aims to create a better working environment for women in the workforce by proposing amendments to the existing Maternal and Child Welfare Ordinance of 1958.

The amendment bill mandates the establishment of daycare centres in all offices where more than 50 women are employed for at least four months, allowing children up to six years old to be cared for on-site. Additionally, the bill stipulates that mothers have the right to visit the daycare four times a day to see their children. Women will also receive two breaks each day to breastfeed infants for up to 18 months.

The bill proposes a penalty of Rs 500,000 for employers who fail to comply with these regulations. It requires that every woman receive 24 weeks of maternity leave, with an additional six weeks of paid leave in case of pregnancy complications. The bill has yet to be passed into law.

Butt says her commitment to advocating for the approval of the law is unwavering. “Maryam Nawaz Sharif, the first female chief minister of the Punjab, is dedicated to improving facilities for women across all sectors. The passage of this law will be a monumental step forward for working women,” she says.

Butt says many women often leave their jobs before or after childbirth primarily due to the lack of childcare facilities at their workplaces. “The goal of this amendment bill is to provide adequate support to working women during and after maternity, ensuring that the absence of such facilities is never a reason for them to leave their jobs,” she says.

It is important to note that the Day Care Centres Act 2023 has been in effect in the federal capital since last year. It requires private employers and public departments with at least 70 employees to establish daycare centres. Non-compliance with this law can result in a fine of Rs 100,000 following a warning, and imprisonment for up to six months for persistent lack of compliance.

Shazia George, executive director of the Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation, says that the availability of daycare centres is a fundamental need for working women. “Article 37 (E) of the constitution mandates the state to ensure fair and humane working conditions for every worker. Additionally, the Labour Policy and the Factories Act of 1934 explicitly advocate for the employment of women workers, including provisions for childcare facilities,” she says.

George says that the overall situation in this regard is far from satisfactory as there are no comprehensive policy guidelines or laws to establish daycare centres in the Punjab, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. She says Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz should prioritise this significant barrier for working women wanting to continue their careers after childbirth.

The writer has been associated with journalism for the past decade. He tweets

@ naeemahmad876