Devika Singh is an early childhood care practitioner and a founding member of Cell Creches, an organisation that pioneered childcare companies for the youngsters of migrant building staff throughout India. She started as a volunteer on the very first creche arrange by Meera Mahadevan close to Rajghat in 1969, earlier than the organisation was formally registered. 

At a time when the concept of creches for working-class kids was nearly non-existent, Devika helped construct a system of care from scratch—one which adopted migrant staff from web site to web site and step by step grew right into a nationwide motion. On this dialog with IDR, she speaks about how she entered the sector, the early days of organising creches on building websites, and the evolution of coverage considering on childcare and social fairness in India. 

May you begin by telling us about your early years and what led you to work with the youngsters of migrant building staff? 

My journey into working with kids wasn’t deliberate. My earliest reminiscences return to Lahore, now in Pakistan, listening to my mom’s bedtime tales about stars, faraway lands, and little creatures.  

After the Partition, we lived for a while in a refugee camp close to the Delhi railway station. Life was unsure, however we have been nonetheless inspired to play and to be kids. Our dad and mom gave us that sense of care and security, even when issues have been tough. 

That early sense of safety and care stayed with me. It formed how I noticed childhood, and what it means for a kid to develop up feeling secure and seen. This sense is what ultimately drove me to work with kids. 

My very own schooling was cut up between overseas and India. After marriage, I began educating English Honours college students at Loreto Faculty in Kolkata. That’s after I really felt the distinction between the privileged college students inside the faculty and the youngsters on the streets. It hit me onerous. It was then that I started to replicate on how you can convey the difficulty of the rights of ladies and youngsters from all socio-economic backgrounds to the centre of my discussions and work. 

Quickly after, I moved to Delhi. I started asking round about who labored with road kids and the underprivileged. A pal launched me to Meera Mahadevan, who had initially began what later turned Cell Creches. She recommended I spend time on the creche she had simply arrange.  
 
That first day at a construction-site creche was transformative. There have been kids throughout—some crying, some hungry, many with no correct garments or shelter. Their moms have been close by, carrying bricks and dealing on the positioning, whereas the youngsters have been left on their very own. We had no set plan—only a tent, just a few primary provides, and a robust feeling that one thing needed to be completed. It was so simple as selecting up a baby, feeding them, cleansing them, and ensuring they have been secure for the day. That have stayed with me. It pulled me in utterly. I knew then that this was the form of work I wished to do.  

From the start, we began working very organically. There was no mannequin. The primary creche started round 1969–70, reverse Raj Ghat, in a tent. Meera’s husband was working on the Gandhi Peace Basis on the Gandhi Centenary Exhibition web site. Being a Gandhian herself, Meera couldn’t settle for the contradiction of establishing a grand construction for Gandhi whereas ignoring the youngsters of the labourers on the web site. She was compelled by her nature to deal with it instantly, saying, “How on earth can we have a good time Gandhi like this and ignore the youngsters right here?”  

She insisted that one thing be completed. She persuaded the contractor to place up a tent—something to forestall the youngsters from being left in that situation. That was the primary creche.  

What was fantastic was the spirit of the instances—the sense that India had simply gained freedom, that we had a brand new Structure that embodied the values of equality and justice, and that individuals wished to noticeably take a look at the state of our nation, to ask what was occurring and the way they might contribute. There was a collective introspection, a want to unravel and perceive the nation we have been changing into. It felt like one thing between Gandhi’s beliefs and the vitality of a newly unbiased individuals that actually acquired issues shifting. There was a second in India when everybody genuinely wished to construct a socially simply nation. This work has deeply formed my understanding of justice and social fairness. 

Whenever you first began this work, what did early childhood care imply to you? Was it one thing individuals have been even considering or speaking about again then?

Initially, even we weren’t fully positive what the sector of early childhood growth (ECD) was. Do not forget that on the time, the proper to schooling didn’t exist, and ECD was not a recognised idea. Our thought was primary—kids shouldn’t be left unattended on building worksites. We simply knew we needed to do one thing to intervene and produce to them as first rate a high quality of life as potential. What we have been doing have been the constructing blocks of ECD. 

Since nobody had actually completed this earlier than at worksites, our preliminary understanding of what a creche ought to appear to be was formed by middle-class settings—clear, structured, predictable. However at a building web site, it meant responding to every day emergency conditions. We have been fetching water; amassing meals; and organising cots, garments, and medication—no matter was wanted to get by the day. It was about addressing quick wants, [attending to] kids crying, hungry, in rags, or with diarrhoea. They wanted to be picked up, cleaned, fed, clothed, and sheltered. At the moment, the moms have been there, hauling bricks and climbing scaffolding, whereas the youngsters have been left round them or carried on their backs in harmful circumstances. We used to retailer every thing in a trunk that we packed up every night and left with the contractor. It was primary, improvised, however useful. That’s how our cellular mannequin took form—moveable, adaptable, and rooted in quick care. 

Many staff have been post-Partition migrants. That they had no everlasting deal with, no paperwork. Enrolling their kids at school was a problem. The state programs—schooling, well being, rationing—weren’t constructed with their mobility in thoughts. 

We noticed kids slipping by the cracks lengthy earlier than coverage conversations acknowledged them. Even when Anganwadis got here into the image, they have been typically under-resourced. What we have been doing was not simply filling a service hole however making seen what had lengthy been ignored. 

What have been among the preliminary challenges you confronted in organising Cell Creches? Wanting again, what have been among the structural gaps you observed?

There have been many. Within the early days, simply getting the fundamentals collectively—water, meals, garments—was a job. Discovering girls to run the creches was equally tough.  

Constructing belief meant sitting with moms, listening to their doubts, involving them in on a regular basis choices, and displaying up, day after day. 

However maybe the larger problem was successful over belief. Moms have been understandably hesitant to depart their younger kids with individuals they didn’t know. And contractors, too, have been typically suspicious. Gaining entry to the websites wasn’t all the time simple. We’d be stopped on the gate by the chowkidar [watchman], and on days we managed to talk to somebody in cost, we needed to clarify time and again that we weren’t a part of the federal government, that we weren’t making an attempt to examine or intrude. They’d take a look at us and marvel—Are these do-gooders right here to create bother? Are they reporters? Are they from some sarkari [government] division? Why are they poking round? It took time to persuade them that each one we have been asking for was a small patch of land, some water, and house to take care of the youngsters who have been already at their websites. 

With the moms, the hesitation was extra private. Lots of them had by no means left their kids with strangers. Some would ask, “What meals are you giving? Whose fingers have touched this?” Others would fear about caste boundaries—“Don’t put my little one subsequent to that one,” or “Don’t use that material—how do I do know it didn’t come from a useless little one?” There have been considerations in regards to the garments we introduced; some feared they have been unclean or carried dangerous luck. Others frightened that an evil eye had been solid. These weren’t simply superstitions—they have been expressions of care and safety formed by generations of marginalisation. So constructing belief meant slowing down. It meant sitting with the moms, listening to their doubts with out judgement, involving them in on a regular basis choices, and displaying up, day after day, with out fail. 
 
One other main problem got here from the character of migration itself. Households would typically transfer inside days or perhaps weeks, typically with out warning. Someday a baby could be within the creche, and the subsequent, they’d be gone. These kids had typically missed early education, didn’t have paperwork, and spoke completely different languages. State-run colleges weren’t geared up to cope with this. There have been no programmes to assist kids catch up, no flexibility round admissions or switch certificates. 
 
We realised we needed to begin monitoring them—asking round, following households to new worksites, and making an attempt to grasp the place that they had moved and why. This fixed motion made it clear how invisible these kids have been to the system. It additionally pushed us to suppose past only one creche, to construct a mannequin that would transfer with the employees and reply to the realities of their lives. 

Over time, as extra websites opened, visibility elevated. 

Was there a turning level when this work started to affect coverage?

Simply attending to the purpose of reaching building websites and tracing the paths of migrant staff was a sluggish course of. From there, our focus step by step shifted to analyzing the legal guidelines and making an attempt to grasp the state of affairs these communities have been caught in. These sorts of questions naturally led us to attach with different efforts and initiatives that have been already in movement.  

Round 1971, we linked with labour and staff’ rights activists. Folks like Subhash Bhatnagar and his spouse have been pushing for laws to help migrant labourers. Cell Creches wasn’t instantly concerned in that course of at first. However in making an attempt to grasp the lives of those staff—what they earned, the place they went, what sort of contracts they have been certain by—we got here into contact with this group. And that contact gave us a deeper understanding of the authorized and structural dimensions linked to the difficulty of labourers’ kids: migration, interstate labour, the norms, and the gaps. That’s how the concept of a creche discovered its method into numerous labour rights legislations. 

This collective advocacy and coverage discussions would later develop into the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Circumstances of Service) Act, 1979, which mandates that contractors present and preserve creches for the youngsters of migrant staff when they’re more likely to be employed for 3 months or extra. Finally, when the Constructing and Different Development Staff Act (BOCW) got here into pressure in 1996, it additionally included a compulsory clause for creches on the worksites. 

It’s attention-grabbing how one small motion on the bottom, simply getting kids right into a secure house at a building web site, triggered this ripple impact. Being a part of that policymaking house actually helped open up a dialog round cellular creches and early childhood care. Across the similar time, the nationwide Anganwadi programme (Built-in Little one Growth Companies Scheme) was additionally being conceptualised with important enter from UNICEF, and we helped develop an Anganwadi-cum-creche mannequin. Concepts akin to integrating well being, vitamin, and early studying have been starting to floor. 

It was nonetheless very early in India’s journey of constructing new establishments and social insurance policies, however these early conferences and frameworks created openings for concepts like Cell Creches to be taken significantly. After which, Meera managed to get Indira Gandhi to go to our creche throughout an exhibition at Pragati Maidan. From then on, we discovered ourselves invited into rooms the place coverage was being formed—on childcare, vitamin, schooling. 

I believe one of many issues that helped was that we had mapped out what programmes structurally existed for kids. Even in these early years, we performed a research to determine the place the wants have been and who the system wasn’t reaching.  

As you look again, what has this work come to imply to you—and what do you hope individuals will carry ahead from it? 

There was no grand plan. It began with merely responding to the wants of youngsters. However over time, it opened up into one thing larger. It turned clear that this wasn’t solely about kids. It was about a whole part of society that had been ignored. Whenever you begin wanting intently, you start to ask: Who’s doing the constructing, the sweeping, the cooking—and the place are their households? You possibly can’t speak about childcare with out speaking about labour. About migration. About how girls work lengthy hours for low wages. About the place they reside, what they eat, how invisible they’re to programs meant to serve them. 

Care, when completed actually, can open doorways you didn’t even know existed. 

The work taught me to pay attention. Not simply to what individuals have been saying, however to what their lives have been telling us. And that’s one thing I hope individuals carry ahead—the flexibility to pay attention, to sit down with complexity, and to not flip away simply because the solutions aren’t fast or simple. 

You don’t want to return in with a saviour complicated. Don’t assume you’re right here to repair one thing—you’re not. You’re right here to be taught, to be modified by the work. The questions will preserve coming—The place have the youngsters gone? Why do they preserve shifting? What legal guidelines exist? Are they working? Staying with these questions is a part of the work too. 

If there’s one factor I hope individuals don’t overlook, it’s that displaying up issues, [as does] being current and constant. That’s what constructed Cell Creches—not a mannequin or a coverage, however a follow of care and early schooling. And care, when completed actually, can open doorways you didn’t even know existed. 

—

Know extra

• Perceive how entry to free childcare on the office can scale back financial vulnerability and assist disrupt cycles of poverty. 
• Learn this interview with Sushma Iyengar, founding father of Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan, on constructing women-led collectives in rural India and why empowerment can’t be restricted to financial change. 
• Take heed to this podcast episode on the schooling and care challenges confronted by India’s migrant kids, that includes researcher Gayatri Sethi.