The Hyderabad Electric Supply Company has opened a daycare centre for the children of its female employees, giving working mothers a safe place to leave their young children while they are on duty. The new facility, set up at Power Wing Colony in Hyderabad, began operating after a formal inauguration, and it is meant to take one of the heaviest daily worries off the shoulders of women who work for the power utility.
HESCO Chief Executive Officer Faizullah Dahri formally opened the centre and marked the start of its operations. Senior officers and staff members attended the ceremony, and the mood at the launch was one of quiet satisfaction, because the project had been a long time in the making. Company officials said the idea had first been taken up nearly three years ago, following directions from the Ministry of Energy, and that steady work behind the scenes had finally turned the plan into a working facility that parents can actually use.
The centre occupies an apartment on the first floor in Power Wing Colony, and it will look after children aged between six months and five years. That age range covers the years when children need the closest supervision, when they cannot be left alone and when a parent’s absence from home is felt most sharply. For a mother reporting for a full working day, knowing that a toddler or a preschool child is nearby, in a supervised room rather than far away or in uncertain care, can change the whole character of the working day.
Inside, the centre has been arranged around the daily routine of small children. There are separate sleeping arrangements so that infants and toddlers can rest properly, a dedicated play area where children can move around and play safely, and a study space for slightly older children who are beginning to learn through play and simple activities. Five staff members have been appointed to care for the children and to supervise their daily activities, so that the centre is not simply a room where children wait, but a place where someone is responsible for them throughout the day.
At the inauguration, Dahri praised Manager (TMP) Pashmina Shaikh for the work that had gone into setting up the centre and bringing it into operation. He said the company remained committed to the welfare of its employees and to improving workplace facilities, and he singled out the needs of female employees and their children as a key priority for the management. His practical point was plain: when a mother is confident that her child is being cared for and is safe, she can give her full attention to her professional duties instead of spending the day divided between her work and her worry about home.
General Manager (Development) PMU Farah Diba described the centre as a valuable facility for female employees. She said that reliable childcare during office hours would reassure working mothers and help them concentrate more effectively on their responsibilities. Director General (HR and Administration) Shafique Ahmed Memon expressed a similar view, saying that the main purpose of the centre was to support HESCO’s female workforce and to ensure proper care for their children. Chief Technical Officer Tufail Mirbahar and Chief Law Officer Tanveer Abdullah attended the inauguration, along with Manager (HRM) Nasir Ali Khan, Manager (Legal) Manjhi Khan Hingorjo and Deputy Manager (Public Relations) Muhammad Saadiq Kubber, as well as other officials and staff members.
The significance of a step like this goes beyond one building in one colony. For many working women in Pakistan, childcare remains the question that decides whether a job can be held at all, and how well it can be done. A mother with no reliable arrangement for a young child may have to depend on relatives, pay for private care that strains a household budget, or reduce her working hours, and in some cases the difficulty of arranging care becomes a reason for leaving work altogether. When an employer provides care near the workplace, it removes a large part of that uncertainty, and it signals that women’s work is valued and that their family responsibilities are understood rather than treated as a private problem.
Of course, a daycare centre is only as good as its day-to-day running. Parents will judge it not by the ceremony that opened it, but by the care their children receive each morning, the attention paid to safety and hygiene, and the trust that builds up over weeks and months. The separate spaces for sleeping, play and study show that thought has gone into the layout, but the real test will be whether the centre is maintained, properly staffed and kept open as a reliable service rather than allowed to fade after the inauguration.
For now, the opening is a welcome development for HESCO’s female employees in Hyderabad. After nearly three years of planning, a facility that was once only a proposal under ministry directions is now receiving children, with staff in place and a management that has publicly committed itself to employee welfare. If it is run well, it could guide other public utilities and make a real difference to working mothers.
