The approval came at the weekly cabinet meeting held at the Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

The Women and Children Affairs Ministry placed the bill for the cabinet’s endorsement as the number of professional and working women is increasing day by day in the country,” said Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam while briefing reporters after the meeting.

According to the proposed law, there would be four types of child daycare centres in the country, he said.

The four types are child daycare centres run with subsidy provided by the government;  daycare centres run by the government, any government agency, directorate, department, statutory agency or autonomous agency to provide services free of cost; daycare centres run by individuals or organisations for commercial purposes; and non-profitable daycare centre run by any individual, organisation, non-government organisation, club, association, corporate sector or industrial sector.

The Cabinet Secretary said registration will be required to set up the child daycare centre and there would be a separate authority for the registration of the centre.

He said the Women and Children Affairs Ministry will monitor the daycare centres.

As per the bill, the maximum punishment for failure to maintain proper safety and security of children in the daycare centre would be Tk 10 lakh fine, he said.

He said if anyone runs any child daycare centre without registration, they would be fined with Tk 50,000, according to the proposed law.

Besides, the Cabinet approved in principle the draft of bills for establishing two science and technology universities in Lakshmipur and Bogura districts.

The titles of the bills are ‘Lakshmipur Science and Technology University Bill, 2020’ and ‘Bogura Science and Technology University Bill, 2020’.