Making room for children

A monkey almost snatched up Champa Vatti’s baby. It happened when she had gone to the forest near her village Rajpur. The young mother had strapped her baby on her back while gathering mahua and saal seeds from the forest floor for sale in the weekly haat (market) coming up.

“I had left him for a moment on the ground while I worked,” she recalls, “and saw a monkey trying to snatch my baby.” This resulted in her being constantly anxious about his safety whenever she was in the jungle.

But now she no longer has to take her baby with her into the forest. Mothers of infants and young children in rural Chhattisgarh like Champa, can drop off their young ones in a nearby creche or Laika Ghar (child care home), and earn a living during the day. Children aged seven months to three years are cared for here.

Across the state, there are 351 creches in Sarguja (also spelled Surguja), Dhamtari, Jashpur and Raigarh districts. These districts have a large tribal population – Gond, Oraon, Kanwar, Halba, Baiga among others; currently almost 5,000 young ones are cared for here.

“I drop my child here in the morning, go to work, and pick him up in the evening. I can work without worry, and I manage to earn about 100-150 rupees each day,” says a grateful Champa who lives in Rajpur, a village in tribal-dominated Nagri block in Dhamtari district.

A single parent, 28-year-old Champa must try multiple sources to earn a living. She spends days in the forest collecting firewood and minor forest produce, and also works as a farm labourer on paddy and vegetable fields.

Married under false pretences, Champa has struggled to hold on to her rights and that of her son, who legally does not have his father’s name. A Gond tribal, she lives in her husband’s village, but is denied the status of a wife and so stays in a corner of the cow shed on the property.

Champa’s official documents – identity cards, voter ID, and bank passbook – were destroyed by her family. They were angry when she eloped. Since then, she has found it impossible to avail government schemes.

“I’ve been struggling to survive – begging, borrowing, and labouring for my child,” she told PARI.

State-run anganwadis only take in children after they turn three. So, for the mothers of infants, these creches are filling a desperate gap.

The creches are housed in structures with two rooms – one functions as a kitchen and the other is the room for the children. There is also an open outdoor space for the children to play. There are toys for the children – blocks and puzzles, balls and even a tricycle. The creches are also equipped with first-aid boxes.

Meena Singh, one of the caregivers at Laika Ghar, says the staff come in early to clean the facility, fetch water, and prepare meals.

It’s worth being an infant in Sarguja just for the delicious sweet halwa that is served in the afternoon. And then there is the simple and nutritious food – sattu (gram) laddoos, a boiled egg and khichdi at noon. The caregiver at the creche in Rajpur, Tej Baghel says most children come in severely malnourished but they improve over time.

When Lalita’s son Rishikesh first came to the Laika Ghar in December 2023, he weighed 10.5 kilograms. In less than a year, the two and half year old has gained almost two kilos, grown taller and is showing improved vitality.

The National Family Health Survey-5 for 2019-2020, reports that not much has changed in children’s nutritional status from the previous survey and that “the continuing high levels of undernutrition are still a major problem in Chhattisgarh.”

The 30-year-old Lalita lives with her husband and his parents, brother and sister-in-law. They own four acres of land on which her husband works, and Lalita sometimes works alongside him, after carrying out her household chores.

“The Laika Ghar [child care home] has been a blessing for us,” says Lalita Singh, who belongs to the Gond tribal community. Now my child also wants to go to the Laika Ghar on Sundays!”

The young mother is a resident of Salba village in Chhattisgarh’s Sarguja district. Both creches in Sarguja and Dhamtari are initiatives of non-governmental organisations Chaupal and Mobile Creches.

But getting women to trust others with their children was not easy. The Laika Ghar was a new phenomenon in these villages and women were hesitant at first to leave their children here. “There was an anganwadi in the village, but no Laika Ghar. We thought, will they take care of our small children,” says Sabita Bai Nishad. “But then we spoke to the didis [caregivers] and saw how caring they were,” she adds. That and awareness campaigns describing the benefits of the Laika Ghar, warmed them up to the idea. Some of the creches have around 10-12 children coming in daily.

Sabita, around 28 years old, is a single mother who lives with her daughter in Rajpur village. Sabita belongs to the Nishad community (listed as Other Backward Classes in the state) A farm labourer, she earns a daily wage of around Rs. 150.

Her daughter Durga, has developmental delays and cannot walk on her own. During the pandemic, Sabita separated from her husband who used to abuse her, and returned to live with her mother. With the Laika Ghar open, both mother and grandmother can now work while Durga receives the care she needs.

It’s around nine in the morning and children have already arrived at the creche in Salba village. While the creche opens, mothers watch as their children are laughing and running around, happy to be with their friends and looking forward to the tasty meal of the day – khichdi, halwa, eggs or some daal-chawal (rice and lentil).

An earlier version of this story appeared on the website of the Azim Premji Foundation.