AGNIMIRH BASU

Break time: A migrant labourer

Creches at construction sites lend a hand to migrant women workers

Lakshmi, 22-year-old construction worker from Chhattisgarh, gave birth to the youngest of her three children in December 2008 through caesarian section. She had to resume work within five days to pay off the loan she took to meet her medical expenses. In normal circumstances she would have taken her infant son to the construction site and left him in the care of his older siblings aged five and three. But her children were spared spending long hours in the harsh cold while she and her husband worked at the construction site in Sector 44, Noida. A crèche gave her the social support she needed.

The construction boom in Delhi and its neighbouring region offered Lakshmi and her husband work opportunity.

Mobile Creche, a Delhi based non-profit that runs 22 creches at construction sites in and around Delhi, takes care of their three children while they work. “Now I am able to leave my children in a safe place,” Lakshmi said while nursing her baby during a morning break. The creche has cloth slings in which newborn babies sleep. There are two women attendants and a helper to take care of them. The adjacent tin sheds are classrooms where Lakshmi’s older children and others aged up to 12 are taught to read and write by two trained teachers. The classroom walls are papered with charts of the alphabet, drawings and a list of names of children with their health status.

School is across the wall mother built

Classes begin at nine in the morning. Attending classes ensures children of construction workers get nutritious food and are not exposed to hazardous conditions at work sites. At 10 am they are given breakfast, usually semolina or suji halwa. Nursing mothers also walk in at the same time to feed their babies. In the afternoon the children are given khichdi (kedgeree) . Biscuits and bananas are served late afternoon. Malnourished infants and children are given lactogen and extra nutrition. A doctor visits the creche once a week.

Lakshmi is luckier than the majority of the estimated 10.36 million women working in the unorganized sector in urban India. The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, stipulates a company should provide a creche if it employs more than 50 women. Most construction firms do not follow this rule. “The poor working woman has no place to breastfeed her child,” said Arun Gupta, national convenor of the non-profit Breast Feeding Network of India. “The nourishment gained in the first year of a child’s life is critical in determining his/her future health,” he added.