The Need for Safe and Reliable Child Care in Free Trade Zones
Photo courtesy of Global Press Journal
It has been over 40 years since Free Trade Zones (FTZs) were established in conjunction with the open economic policy. Although they initially offered numerous concessions to both foreign and local investors, the past few years have not brought significant benefits to the workers.
Workers in FTZs face a range of problems including wages that fail to keep pace with the rising cost of living, excessive working conditions with constant production targets, uncertainty about job security and the erosion of their right to organize in trade unions. Despite the many concessions granted to industrialists who invested in trade zones, complaints such as rising production costs have continued over the past four decades.
Accordingly, the question that arises is whether the FTZ concept has truly been successful. No matter how much investors complain, their own data on income and expenses, disclosed over the past few years, testifies that their claims do not reflect reality.
Although the creation of jobs for millions of people through the establishment of FTZs has been a success, behind this success lie a number of neglected issues affecting the workers involved. One of the most pressing challenges is the lack of safe and reliable child care, which disproportionately affects female workers, especially those with children.
The harsh realities behind this crisis were revealed in a recent survey conducted by the Revolutionary Existence for Human Development (RED). The group was founded in 2018 by a collective of women activists led by Chandra Devanarayana, a women’s and trade union activist as well as a journalist.
The survey on Katunayake, the first FTZ of the country, identified the deeply problematic state of day care centers serving workers’ children and it also proposed necessary solutions. In the Katunayake FTZ, which has a labor force of 31,347, more than half – 13,503- are women.
As a 2017 World Bank report noted: “Women with a child under the age of five at home are 7.4 percentage points less likely to participate in the labor force than women without children.” How much of that reality has now taken hold in Sri Lanka?
Many mothers, until their shifts end, leave their children in unregistered private homes and child care centers that operate without proper oversight. In many of these places, children are looked after by elderly women who have no professional training. Often, such homes are located in busy, crowded areas where the risk of children being exposed to unsafe environments is extremely high.
Even while working in factories, these mothers live in constant fear for the safety of their children. Beyond injuries, a more alarming tragedy has emerged: the use of drugs such as sleeping pills to keep children asleep for long periods.
According to findings revealed in this survey neglect, poor sanitation and even the beating and torture of children are common in day care centers run by both the Board of Investment and private owners. Some centers house more children than they can reasonably accommodate and lack sufficient staff to care for them. As a result children are deprived of proper nutrition, sanitation and hygiene.
Child care workers themselves are also overworked, leading to mental stress, physical exhaustion and frequent illness. A 2010 survey revealed that 18 percent of child care workers did not hold an O’Level education certificate while 43 percent had received no training at all.
Day care centers are only open from morning to 5pm or 7 pm and they remain closed on weekends. A serious problem arises because these hours do not align with the working schedules of many mothers. As a result, women are forced to give up leaving work early or working overtime on weekends, which could otherwise help them earn much needed extra income.
These child care challenges also create serious difficulties in the workplace. Delays in reporting to work mean that mothers are often unable to meet production targets. This in turn results in deductions from their already meager monthly salaries. Missed targets and attendance issues also lead to the loss of attendance allowances, reduced chances for promotions and fewer opportunities to build long term professional experience.
Working mothers in FTZs suffer from constant mental stress due to the lack of reliable child care. The combined pressure of financial hardship, physical exhaustion and a deep sense of helplessness pushes them further into distress.
The RED survey highlighted the neglect faced by the children of FTZ workers; neglect not only by employers but also by successive governments. The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka, the main state institution responsible for providing child care facilities, has no clear policies or regulations in place. Child protection policies are not enforced and the integration of workers’ rights with child care in the workplace has been entirely neglected.
In 2017 the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs with technical support from UNICEF prepared the National Policy on Child Day Care Centres. This policy built on the National Guidelines for Child Day Care Centres and was approved by the Cabinet in July 2017. It aimed to regulate approximately 1,200 day care centres providing care to up to 24,000 children. The policy is based on the principle of prioritizing the well-being and rights of children.
RED has emphasized to the government and other responsible authorities that establishing safe, well equipped day care centers for the children of working mothers in FTZs is a high priority. To address this, they propose setting up four day care centers near each entrance to the Katunayake FTZ. These centers should be easily accessible to working mothers and designed to operate in line with factory working hours, including overtime shifts and weekends.
To ensure safety, hygiene and child development standards, the staff must consist of trained caregivers certified under the national guidelines for child day care centers with proper regulation and monitoring in place. In addition, RED recommends the creation of a joint fund supported by contributions from the Board of Investment, employers and relevant government institutions to guarantee sustainable child care services.
Under this model, the Board of Investment would provide policy oversight, the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs would ensure compliance with child care standards, and factory owners would contribute land and space for setting up centers. Such joint collaboration is essential to ensure that the responsibility does not fall on one party alone but is shared across institutions.
It should be made mandatory for factories in FTZs employing more than 500 workers to provide child care facilities. To achieve this, the government must establish the necessary policies, laws and regulations and assign the Board of Investment the responsibility for implementation.
By enacting such a law child care services would be delivered in a systematic and standardized manner. This would also create an opportunity either to abolish unregulated day care centers currently operating without proper standards or to improve them through stricter oversight and development.
In this context, new employers would also be encouraged to establish proper day care centers. To support this process, RED has recommended in its report that tax concessions and subsidies be provided as incentives for employers who invest in child care facilities.
Strengthening inter-sectoral cooperation is essential to improve the quality and consistency of child care services for working mothers in FTZs. To achieve this, it would be effective to establish a dedicated task force made up of representatives from the Board of Investment, the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs, NGOs and trade unions.
Such a task force could plan, implement, monitor and coordinate day care programs in line with international standards. The need for a strong evaluation and monitoring mechanism is particularly urgent to ensure high quality child care services.
In addition, awareness programs should be carried out among all stakeholders to highlight the importance of establishing proper day care centers in FTZs. These initiatives should also emphasize the economic and social benefits that reliable child care provides not only for families but also for productivity, worker retention and long term national development.
The lack of formal child care facilities in the Katunayake FTZ remains a major obstacle to women workers’ labor participation, workplace equality, and family well-being. Establishing day care centers near workplaces, revising outdated labor policies, and strengthening cooperation among multiple sectors can transform FTZs into spaces that truly foster economic growth. At the same time, such measures would safeguard the professional dignity and rights of workers.
Building a safe and healthy generation of children is essential for advancing gender equality, labor rights and sustainable development. Child care, therefore, must not be treated as a private burden but recognized as a shared public responsibility.
