The biggest worry of many workers every morning is not only work pressure or overtime, but where to send their children today, who will pick them up when they are late for work.
With limited income, not everyone has the conditions to hire babysitters or send them to high-quality facilities.
Meanwhile, many industrial parks are developing very quickly, but schools, kindergartens and living areas for workers are not developing in time.
As a result, many families have to send their children to spontaneous, cramped, unqualified childcare facilities or far from workplaces.
Some people finish work late at night and still rush dozens of kilometers to pick up their children. Those are silent pressures but weigh heavily on the lives of millions of workers.
Da Nang's plan to support 200,000 VND per month for children of workers is necessary, showing concern for workers.
However, the support money will not be of much significance if there is still a shortage of schools and classes to send children around the industrial park.
What workers need are kindergartens with enough places to study, reasonable tuition fees, flexible working hours and close enough distance for convenient pick-up and drop-off.
Not only Da Nang, this is a problem for many provinces and cities with concentrated industrial parks such as Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Bac Ninh or Hai Phong.
Many places take very good care of factories and production lines, but have not paid due attention to schools, kindergartens, and playgrounds, essential things for workers to settle down and stabilize their lives.
Investing in kindergartens for workers' children is not only a social security policy, but also an investment in sustainable development.
Workers are assured about their children, they will work more efficiently and be more attached to the business. Businesses also reduce labor fluctuations and reduce new recruitment pressure.
More importantly, children are subjects that need to be cared for and educated in a safe environment. We cannot let workers' children have to study at makeshift childcare facilities, lacking care conditions just because parents have no other choice.
New industrial parks must consider land funds for schools and kindergartens from the beginning. There needs to be a mechanism to encourage businesses to invest or coordinate in building educational facilities for workers' children.
A livable city or a developed industrial center is not only measured by the number of factories, but also by the way they care for those who directly create wealth.
