ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Majority working and professional women living in Islamabad on Wednesday demanded the concerned authorities for ensuring establishment of affordable Day Care Centers.
Finding suitable childcare during the working hours has become one of the major issues that forces many working women to give up their careers, according to a report.
As majority of female living in Islamabad basically belong to other parts of the Country and they have to face many problems to meet the official and domestic requirements while caring their kids.
Therefore, these working women have no other opportunity to leave their children at private Day Care Centers that charge thousands of rupees per month.
“We are paying over Rs 8,000 to the owner of a Day Care Center for only one kid”, said a working women Tahira Abid.
We both husband and wife are government servants and are living in a rented house, so it is quite hard for us to spare such amount out of our monthly salaries, said a another government employee Samina Ali.
One such facility is run by Social Welfare Organization at the Aabpara Community Center and the other by the Women Development Ministry at its new building near Secretariat.
The shortage of Day Care Centers compel them to pay hefty amounts to their owners as they have no other option to tackle with this problem.
Another working women Yusra Rehman said that non-availability of proper Childcare Centers is forcing many women to leave their jobs at a time when a lot of opportunities are opening up for them in every sphere of life.
It is unfortunate to see many women abandon their careers to take care of their kids in absence of support by their family members and employers as well, she said.
Most of the working women were of the view that establishment of Day Care Centers could help boost performance of the female employees who have been effectively contributing their services towards national development.