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January 11, 2017

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More childcare needed to help parents

EIGHT in 10 children under 3 in Shanghai are cared for by their grandparents, according to a survey by the Shanghai Women’s Federation.

Only one in five of the city’s 100,000 children aged between two and three have access to professional childcare, and the federation wants community childcare to be established to take the burden off working women and their parents.

It says almost half the grandparents don’t want the responsibility.

Much of the current childcare is on apartments or early childhood education facilities.

Mostly, they fail to provide quality service and lack the supervision to ensure the safety, the federation says.

“We have such a great shortage of childcare services,” says Weng Wenlei, deputy chairman of the federation. The federation will propose initiatives to build community-based baby care facilities, it said yesterday.

“We suggest government build the centers and introduce social organizations to run them. The first step may be a small-scale baby care spot in a residential community which offers day care or a temporary babysitting service,” it said.

Also, the federation calls for policies to identify who should manage such facilities and who should supervise the market and set standards.

It will not only relieve the burden of the grandparents but also encourage more women at childbearing age to have a second baby, Weng said.




 

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