The Bengaluru daycare abuse case has exposed the fragile trust behind corporate childcare

The alleged abuse of toddlers at Capgemini’s on-campus daycare in Bengaluru has raised questions about the company’s responsibility for a childcare facility offered to its own employees. Bengaluru police registered a case on June 29 at HAL police station after a complaint alleged that children were being physically and mentally abused at the Capgemini daycare centre. The complaint was filed by Tilakesh Kumar, a legal-cum-probation officer with the District Child Protection Unit, after he received video footage showing abusive and cruel behaviour towards several children. The FIR names five caregivers—Manjula, Vijayalakshmi, Bhavani, Sindhu and Bindu—and invokes Section 351 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which deals with criminal intimidation, and Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.

According to the complaint, the caregivers allegedly assaulted and intimidated crying toddlers by confining them in bathroom spaces, forcing them into water-filled pipes, spraying water into their mouths with a toilet jet, and placing them inside the drum of a washing machine to frighten them. The children were around two to three years old. Between 50 and 60 children were enrolled at the daycare centre, with around 15 to 20 attending on any given day.

Police first arrested Vijayalakshmi, one of the caregivers named in the FIR. A newspaper has quoted Inspector Suresh Reddy as saying on July 4 that Vijayalakshmi was in custody, Manjula was absconding, and the three other women named in the FIR had been released after questioning because the available evidence did not implicate them. Investigators were also verifying the origin and timing of the videos.

Police sources said the videos were allegedly recorded by a staff member whose friend had been fired from her job at the daycare centre last month. The footage was later passed on to a child helpline, eventually leading to the complaint. Police Commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh described the allegations as serious and said senior officers, including a woman deputy commissioner of police and the Joint Commissioner (East), were overseeing the investigation. He also said police would examine other daycare centres in the city to verify whether they were authorised and complying with prescribed safety norms.

The daycare served the children of Capgemini employees at Brookefield. Capgemini has said the facility was run by an external service provider and that it temporarily shut the centre as a precaution while the investigation proceeds. In a statement, the company said its “foremost priority is the health, safety and well-being of its employees and their families,” and added that it was cooperating with the authorities to establish the facts.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has taken suo motu cognisance of the alleged abuse and sent a fact-finding team to Bengaluru. The National Human Rights Commission has issued notices to Karnataka’s chief secretary and director general of police, seeking a report within two weeks.

Priyank Kharge, Karnataka’s Home, IT-BT and e-governance minister, said the government had sought an explanation from the company and that there would be “zero tolerance”. Global firms, he noted, usually have policies and SOPs for running nurseries and daycare centres, and “more is expected” of them. He also referred to state guidelines for daycare centres and asked the management for a written explanation.

The case has happened in a city where childcare is not only a private domestic issue but a condition of work. Bengaluru’s technology workforce crossed one million in 2025, making it one of Asia-Pacific’s largest tech-talent markets alongside Beijing and Shanghai, according to CBRE’s Global Tech Talent Guidebook. Women make up 36% of India’s IT-sector professionals, and their representation drops from 43% at entry level to 4-8% at executive levels, according to a BCG-Nasscom report. If that national gender ratio roughly holds in Bengaluru, the city would have more than 3.5 lakh women in tech. For many working parents, and especially for women trying to remain in the workforce through the years of early motherhood, a corporate crèche is essential infrastructure.

Under the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 and Karnataka’s subsequent crèche rules, establishments with 50 or more employees must provide a crèche facility for employees’ children below six. Karnataka’s rules require one crèche for every 30 children below six, access for employees across categories including permanent, temporary, regular, daily-wage and contract workers, and a location within the premises or within 500 metres of the establishment.

Which returns the question to Capgemini. On its India website, the company presents crèche and daycare support as part of its employee offering. What has not yet surfaced is the apparatus that promise implies: vendor vetting, background checks, staff training, inspection, child-staff ratios, CCTV monitoring and review, and a grievance channel that staff could use without retaliation. Investigators are reportedly examining not only the caregivers but the roles of both Capgemini and the daycare agency.

A useful precedent comes from Australia, where footage from 2023 showed an educator repeatedly slapping a baby girl at a Sydney centre then operated by Affinity Education, one of the country’s largest private childcare providers. The clip had been filmed by a second educator. One worker was sacked and the other resigned. The offender was convicted of common assault and banned from childcare for a year. An investigation later reported that Affinity centres in New South Wales had recorded more than 1,700 regulatory breaches between 2021 and 2024, while former staff described pressure around occupancy targets, cost-cutting, poor supervision and reliance on cheaper or inadequately trained workers.

The Capgemini case has unsettled working parents across Bengaluru’s tech corridors. “I used to check the daycare CCTV once or twice a day. Now I find myself watching it anxiously between meetings,” said Ananya Rao, 34, a team leader at an IT company in Bagmane Tech Park and mother of a three-year-old daughter. “We chose the office daycare because it felt safer than leaving her elsewhere. Now my husband and I are wondering if we should hire a nanny and keep her at home instead.”