Millions of women and men in India work in what is called the informal sector. Working without contracts or much in the way of legal protection, often for less than the legal minimum wage and without receiving the time off that they are legally entitled to, they are the menial laborers in construction as well as domestic workers and street vendors. Women in traditional sari and sandals carry loads of sand, mortar, or brick on major work sites. But women are also expected to be the managers of the home, and mothers, so their children often join them in the dirt and mud, chaos and risk of construction. The children lack basic nutrition, medical care, and education. Today we visited a construction site for a major new high rise development. The multi-floor apartments being built will go for hundreds of thousands of dollars (U.S.), but the workers are still living below poverty level. We came to visit a Mobile Creche. The Mobile Creches organization works to address the needs of the children living on construction sites. They provide daycare, education, and nutrition for the children as well as education outreach to the community and advocacy. The work they do is wonderful, admirable, exciting, and amazing. But a visit to a working crèche (literally a place for infants to be cared for while the parent works) is a heartbreaking experience.
We arrived as the older children were having a recess. They played a circle game that seemed to have some relationship to “duck, duck, goose,” with chanting and shouting and a child in the center. At the end of the chant they broke the circle and clung to each other in groups according to a logic I couldn’t see. We walked across a muddy patch to where they played on the gritty gravel and sand dirt, and then followed them inside the open face of their day-care. The crèche was set up in an unfinished ground floor flat. The concrete was in place but the outer was not yet added and there were no doors, windows, or cabinetry. Three different age groups crowded into the space, getting younger as we moved further into the dark interior. Flies buzzed around the sleeping children in the innermost room and the mud from outside streaked the concrete walls, illuminated by a bare bulb. From a western perspective, the conditions were appalling, but I had to remind myself that here the children were fed, given social and academic instruction, and kept reasonably safe. The Mobile Creche lacks the sense of security and refuge that the Katha School fosters, but these children are still lucky to have access to it. Small measures at the local level make a difference in real children’s lives.
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