Its
ten am in Gurgaon. While many of the inhabitants are just waking up in their
luxurious apartments, the construction workers have been up since 6 in the
morning trying to build them. In most construction sites, their children would
be with them, among the machinery and debris, or locked indoors with their
siblings at home. As a mother, Shakti Rai laments “I used to tie my children to
a post nearby and work at the site”. An Indian construction site is dangerous, and
often does not adhere to safety regulations. Above all, it is no place for a
child. But there is no easy solution for many of the parents who work in
construction to make a living for their families. On the one hand, their
children need to be cared for, but if they do not go out to work they cannot
feed their families.
This article has been written by Kalpana Mohanty, Std X student from American Embassy School who volunteered with Mobile Creches in Dec'12-Jan'13.
Last
week was my first time visiting a Mobile Creche. The idea was developed in 1969
where the founder Meera Mahadevan witnessed the brutal conditions of workers
children on the building site of Gandhi’s memorial. The Cente-in-Charge for
this particular creche, Prem Chawla has been a Mobile Crèche volunteer for over
thirty years. “There have been a lot of changes”, she says, “it’s a much bigger
organization and we’re getting a lot more funding and recognition now”. In
addition to structural changes in the organization, Prem has seen many children
from the time they were babies to when they come back to visit as adults with
jobs and families. Some of the children who went through Mobile Creches as
young kids come back to volunteer as adults. “It makes you feel good” she
explains, “as though you’ve done something right”.
One
such example is Renu’s son who as she describes “looked like a skeleton”. He came in vastly underweight, but now with a
medically recommended diet of eggs, milk and khichadi, he is back on track. Malnutrition among other health
problems is very prevalent among the young children at Mobile Creches. As a
result of this, the ‘Right to Food’ movement is strongly backed by Mobile
Creches, as a way to ensure that India’s children are well fed. Infancy is the
most important periods in a child’s life. Children if left unattended or
uncared for develop a plethora of mental and emotional issues that could stunt
them well into their adulthood. It’s when they develop cognitively, where they
learn how to speak etc. During this crucial period, it is especially important
for children, especially young ones to be interacted with, and played with on a
daily basis.
On
my way out I walked past the gritty reality of the construction site. There
were huge cranes, people carrying steel rods and welding metal. I saw some of
the mothers, balancing bricks on their heads and mixing cement. It was
impossible and inhumane to imagine a child playing among the tar, bricks and
mortar. India is a land of contrasts and
economic based stratification. The apartments which these workers are building
will be bought for lakhs of rupees, the type of money the workers couldn’t even
dream of. It’s an unfortunate tale; the poor build houses for the rich, and are
paid next to nothing for it. With the aid of mobile creches, maybe their
children will find a way to break the cycle and fill the void.
This article has been written by Kalpana Mohanty, Std X student from American Embassy School who volunteered with Mobile Creches in Dec'12-Jan'13.
