The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has summoned a vice-president of Capgemini in connection with alleged abuse at a Bengaluru day-care centre operated for the company, with the meeting scheduled for Wednesday, Business Standard reported, citing sources.
The child rights body is seeking to determine culpability following the emergence of videos in July that allegedly showed children being abused and ill-treated at the facility. The day-care centre was located on Capgemini’s campus and operated by Little Scholars, a third-party service provider.
Capgemini shut the facility after the videos surfaced. The company had said it was cooperating with the relevant authorities and assisting efforts to establish the facts. It also said the safety and wellbeing of every child remained its highest priority and that the incident was being treated with the utmost seriousness.
The NCPCR summons brings the company’s oversight of outsourced childcare services into the formal child-rights process. The commission’s move focuses on determining responsibility in a facility that was operated by an external provider but situated within Capgemini’s workplace ecosystem.
Following the incident, Capgemini said it was reassessing all third-party day-care service providers across its centres in India. The review could affect how large employers select, monitor and respond to childcare operators serving employees and their families, although the company has not disclosed the scope, findings or timeline of that reassessment in the material available.
Business Standard reported that an email seeking Capgemini’s response to the summons did not receive a reply. The report did not provide details of the alleged offences, the number of children involved, or any findings by the authorities. The NCPCR meeting on Wednesday is expected to be the next formal step identified in the supplied report as authorities examine the allegations and responsibility for the facility’s operations.
