Brishti, a garment worker, got married after having an affair and dreamt to lead a happy family. But her dreams got shattered when she came to know that her husband had another wife, reports BSS. Brishti plunged into darkness when her husband told her that his first wife left him leaving behind their two- month old son named Sawon. It became a complete nightmare for her and she didn’t know how to come out of it. Brishti even could not ignore the responsibility of the little baby. By taking all the responsibility of Sawon, she started her newly married life. Every working day, Brishti kept Sawon at Swapnapuri Daycare Centre of Adabar Sunibir Housing Society. Now, Sawon turned three -years old. This daycare centre has supported Brishti to continue her job and look after Sawon with a secure and peaceful mind. Ruma Begum is a victim of child marriage. When she was supposed to play with her friends she faces a harsh reality of life because of her early marriage. Ruma and her husband left their village home being loan defaulters. Now they managed a rented room in city’s Adabar area. Ruma works in different houses as maid servant to support her family expenditure. But her struggling life entered a new phase of extreme difficulties when her husband got married with another woman. At one stage, her husband left her. With three sons, Ruma was extremely frustrated thinking how she will continue her work and look after her children. She was desperately trying to find a way to overcome her agony. Her two elder sons got admission into a madrasa while her little child Ibrahim was kept at a daycare centre. Working mothers like Brishti and Ruma are benefiting from daycare centres. These extremely hapless women now have hopes and inspirations to survive in the society. Farida Yasmin, of Swapnapuri Daycare Centre, said there is only one daycare centre in Adabar area to keep children of working mothers. “More daycare centres should be set up in Adababar area to support working mothers,” she added. Farida said among the 44 working mothers, 30 women are either divorcee or do not live with their husbands. Salma Khan, former chairman of CDO committee, said, “The government must shoulder responsibility of this vulnerable group of working mothers to ensure their access to job markets.” There are inadequate numbers of daycare centres in Dhaka city, she said adding, “We have to set up more daycare centres to support different social classes of working mothers, which ultimately will ensure access of womenfolk to job markets.” According to a survey of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), accessibility of women has fallen by 2.5 percent in the past three years. The BBS survey added percentage of women workers at labour market was at 36 percent in 2011 and 33.5 in 2013. Experts and officials observed that proportion of women workers has dropped in the past ten years as a result of unfavorable environment. They said both government and private initiatives are needed to ensure supportive atmosphere for working mothers to continue their jobs. According to the government figure, there are 44 daycare centres in the Dhaka city.
