The lack of day care centres in rural areas becomes a glaring problem when one looks at the statistics.
Over 14,000 children drown in Bangladesh every year, and most of these incidents take place in the villages. With Bangladesh graduating from its LDC status and more and more people joining the workforce, it is not possible for the status quo of mothers staying behind and looking after their children to remain.
As such, the need for day care centres in rural areas has become a matter of life and death to many.
According to findings made by the Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey, drowning was the leading cause of death among children aged one to 17 in Bangladesh, while mortality was the highest among children aged one to four. Due to the open nature of rural areas, unsupervised children rarely stay at home and go out to play in the wilderness. This is the reason that so many children end up drowning, as the rural areas are full of rivers and ponds.
To reiterate, the old model of mothers staying at home for their kids isn’t viable anymore. This impedes the independence of the mothers themselves and will have a debilitating effect on our economy. The fact that kids can learn a lot of things from daycares also mean that they will be equipped with some sort of educational aptitude when they go off to school, and they will be able to better test the things they learn in class in the daycare -- as long as the day cares are provided with skilled administrators.
As such, the construction of day cares in the rural areas become paramount not only for the safety of the children, but for their development as well.
The authorities would do well to draft up plans in this regard. They should set up realistic timelines and implement them efficiently. All of our children -- including the kids from the rural area -- are our future. It is in our best interest to protect and nurture them.