Technopark to have creche facility soon

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: One of the major employer in private sector the state, the Technopark is all set to take a women-friendly initiative. The Technopark authorities, with the support of women's forum Empowered Women in IT (eWIT), has decided to set up a crèche in the IT park so that techies can drop their kids near their office.
"Not just women, men employees can bring their kids to office.We know that if the kids are near, people will be relaxed during work. It will be a great support to women who breastfeed their kids," said M Vasudevan, senior business development manager, Technopark.
The Technopark has identified a 1,000 sq ft space in the annex of Thejaswini building. "IT employees will also check quality. So we will begin with a few kids initially. Around 20 kids will be admitted first. We will ensure that it is affordable and value for money," Vasudevan added.
Rina Vivekanandan, CEO & MD of Sinura Health information Process Solutions PLC and founding member of Thiruvananthapuram chapter of eWIT, said the organization is in talks with Kudumbashree to run the crèche. "Kudumbashree offers a wide variety of services and we hope that they could effectively run the crèche. Discussions are going on. Technopark authorities have agreed to provide space to open the crèche," Rina said.
Currently, several pre-schools and crèches function around Technopark, but most are not affordable. IT parks such are Infopark in Kochi have started day care facilities in its campus a year ago.
Vasudevan said that it was the right time to start a crèche at Technopark. "Earlier majority of Technopark employees were youngsters in their early 20s. Now most of them are married and have kids. So I think it is the right time to start a crèche," he said.
The park, where several employees work during odd hours, has not taken a decision on the timing of crèche. Amruta Rakhe, an employee of a Technopark-based Digital Brands Group, who is currently sending her two children to a day care facility near Technopark said that a crèche facility inside the campus would be helpful. "It will be great if we could visit kids during breaks. Things can be better if they offer service in evening and weekends during emergency situations, of course, with some extra money," Amruta said.