Gurugram: Offices reopening, day cares shut, parents face a difficult choice

With the lockdown being eased and the city’s offices slowly sputtering back to life, working couples are faced with a difficult choice — how to maintain a healthy

With the lockdown being eased and the city’s offices slowly sputtering back to life, working couples are faced with a difficult choice — how to maintain a healthy work-life balance, with day care centres in the city continuing to stay shut.

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While some of them are ensuring that one partner stays back home, others are planning to hire full domestic helps who can stay at home with the child.

Smita Pal, the mother of a four-year-old, said she has been working from home since the lockdown began. Now, while her husband has started going to office, she expects her office routine to resume soon. With day care centres closed due to restrictions, she and her husband are under pressure to find a solution.

“My son goes to school and then to a day-care facility normally. But, with daycare centres shut, we are not sure how we will manage, once my office starts operations. We are a nuclear family and for the past two weeks, we have been pondering over the choices that we have before us. It will be a huge challenge for us,” said Pal, who has started looking out for a 12-hour domestic help, who could possibly stay at home in her absence. “We opted for day care centres earlier, since we didn’t prefer our child staying at home alone. With so many constraints now, however, we are being compelled to make difficult choices and have started looking out for a domestic help,” said Pal.

Another parent, a mother of a 2-year-old, who did not wish to be named, said that she and her partner were stressed about leaving their child behind after offices resume full time work from June. “I am supposed to join work from the first week of June, while my husband is already working. Since it’s a new job, I’m not sure if I can opt for work from home. We don’t know what to do especially now that day care facilities are no longer an option,” she said.

“Cases are rising, infections are rising, but at some point, one has to start going back to work. A possible solution is to hire a full-time domestic help. But there are concerns surrounding that too. We can’t be sure if someone is an asymptomatic carrier and taking such a risk might not pan out well,” she said.

Shveta Sharma, who works in the hospitality sector, said that she was unsure about sending her five-year-old daughter to school or day care till at least December, since the number of Covid-19 cases were rising steadily. “It doesn’t feel safe. We don’t feel confident about sending our daughter away anywhere. Day cares are not an option and so far, we are trying to build a balance at home,” said Sharma. She said that employees at her company were free to work from home, but challenges remained. “One is required to meet clients for sales. We are not sure for how long can we afford to stay at home. Leaving children alone at home is not an option either. There is a lot of dilemma for all working parents,” said Sharma.

Gurugram so far has registered 774 number of cases with three deaths due to Covid-19.

Sharma added that support and clear communication from employers to employees was crucial in such periods. “Sometimes, organisations inform employees a week or two in advance when they make changes to their working guidelines during the pandemic. Adapting to such situations requires planning, especially for working families. We can’t simply leave our child behind with no one else to take care of them. Communicating in advance will allow parents to work on possible solutions,” said Sharma.