Shaishav - SEWA’s Child Care Program

The Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a registered trade union of 2.1 million+ poor self-employed women workers from the informal economy, has been organizing women workers for over five decades and empowering them through full-employment and Self-reliance. Following an integrated approach, SEWA’s strategy involves working around helping the women achieve the twin goals of (a) Full Employment, i.e. employment that provides work, income and food security and (b) Self-reliance in financial matters and & in decision-making abilities.

Our experience working these informal sector women workers have shown that women are women are the backbone of an informal workers household and they shoulder the families food, nutrition, water, household as well as financial responsibilities in addition to Care responsibilities. 

A majority of SEWA’s members are rural and engaged in agriculture or daily-wage-work. Their economic well-being is directly proportional to the regularity of their work. However, women are constrained by the burden of unpaid care work - especially child-care which directly impacts their ability to work regularly and hence their livelihoods. 

Therefore, in order to ensure full-employment in true sense, it is important for these poor women to work regularly.  Affordable access to quality child-care centers in the rural areas childcare has to become a basic right for children and women.

A study conducted by SEWA in the villages of Anand district of Gujarat threw up the following stark and grim realities faced by the women farmers, laborers and daily wagers:

• The major income-earning opportunities in Anand district for the informal women workers were as agriculturists in the tobacco fields or as daily wagers (Khalis) in tobacco processing factories

• In the absence of access to affordable and quality child-care services, to continue earning their livelihood, the poor women workers would leave their infants (in many cases as young as 15 days old) in the care of either elderly members of the family and/or elder siblings or neighbors.

• In case of unavailability of the above option, the women either stayed at home to take care of their infants, thus losing their daily wages or took the young infants along to work.

• The hazardous work environment in these areas (with the air containing fine tobacco particles and dust) exposed the infants to severe health hazards like asthma and tuberculosis (TB).

• Some women would leave their children unattended and locked at home while they went out to work.

The above study clearly underlines that Lack of Affordable access to Quality Child-care service is one of the major hurdle to women's economic empowerment because: 

• Increases the burden of unpaid care-work 
• Constraints access to full employment and hence work and income security
• Affordable access to quality child-care centers in the rural areas childcare has to become a basic right for children and women.

The study with over 30000 poor women workers from Anand district of Gujarat brought forth the need for affordable access to quality child-care services as a pre-requisite to better health and mental development of the children in the villages in Anand as well as to enable full-employment for the poor women workers from the informal economy. 

Therefore, to address the child-care needs of its members, SEWA organized a group of over 65 women workers from the rural areas of Anand district into their own Child-care cooperative - the “SHAISHAV Mandali" - a holistic and integrated Child Care Program designed, owned and managed by the women workers themselves. The cooperative opened up 30 Child Care Centers across various villages of Anand District of Gujarat.   

The solution provides a safe, healthy and hygienic environment for the physical, mental and emotional well-being of children, while simultaneously enabling the women workers to continue earning their livelihood to achieve food security, income security and work security.  

Thus the solution simultaneously:

• Addresses the lack of affordable access to quality child-care services in rural areas
• Ensures emotional, mental and physical well-being and development of poor rural children
• Enables poor rural women workers to access full-employment and thus work and income security 
• Generates decent and dignified livelihood opportunities for over 60 rural women workers as care-workers

Thus, the women-owned Care cooperative "Shaishav Mandali" has multiple bottom lines. 

The Child -Care Centers ensure comprehensive and quality childcare facilities where the children are well-looked after, provided good nutrition and engaged in activities which stimulate their physical, emotional and intellectual growth.  They also assure the grassroot women are enabled to continue earning their livelihood opportunities after childbirth. 

The Centers proved to be extremely beneficial to the rural women as they provided :

• A healthy, safe, hygienic and homely environment for the children where they are looked after with love and care and provided healthy nutritious meals thrice a day (i.e. breakfast, lunch and evening snack).   Simple activities based on STEM principles which would provide mental stimulation are also conducted at these centers, thus providing a sound environment for the physical and mental growth of the children.
• Quality Child-care services at nominal rates which are easily affordable to the poor women workers. Adhering to SEWA's participatory approach, the fee structure of the child-care center is worked out collectively by the mothers of the children enrolled in the center itself.
• Convenient working hours: Unlike the Govt. run ICDS centers (which operate for only 3 hours in a day), the child-care centers offer daily extended working hours from 8 am – 7 pm.   This is extremely beneficial to the rural women as they could also earn their wages for the full day.  They could drop their children to the Child Care Centers well before the beginning of their day’s work and pick them up after completing it.  
• Primary Medical Services and Vaccination : The center is equipped with first-aid kits and also liaises with the local Public Health centers to ensure regular and timely physical examination of the children by the doctors.  

The child-care centers also maintain vaccination schedule of the children, creates awareness about vaccination amongst the semi-literate to illiterate parents of the children and also facilitates timely vaccination of children as per the schedule in coordination with the Public Health Centers.  Thus the mothers do not have to miss out on their daily wages even when their children were unwell or need to be vaccinated.

• One-Stop Shop for Mothers :   The Child Care Centers also offer several additional services to the mothers and help save their time and energy.   The Centers became a “One-Stop Shop” for the women where they could conveniently avail of the following services when picking up their children at the end of the day:
  • Enrollment in local Savings Groups where the women could invest their money, avail of loan facility, etc.  
  • Purchase organically grown and hygienically processed and packaged groceries by RUDI (Rural Distribution Network – an agri-business enterprise fully owned and managed by over 250000 small and marginal farmers themselves)
  • Purchase nutritious ready-to-eat food products of Kamla (a food processing collective of poor women workers promoted by SEWA that  offers Smart snacks and baked goodies made from healthy, nutritious and indigenous food grains)  

The learnings from SEWA's "Shaishav Mandali" Child-Care initiative also helped streamline the Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) program of the central government for the rural areas. 

These ICDS centers provide services similar to Shaishav’s Child-care centers for free. However, they operate only from 9 am – 12 pm (3 hours) and offer only one meal per day to the children. Hence, it doesn't address the poor rural women workers challenges regarding access to full-employment leading to work and income security. Additionally, they do not provide a “homely” ambience which is the key to satisfying an infant’s emotional need and mental comfort. 

Thus, Shaishav child-care centers continue to be in demand despite in the villages despite the availability of Govt. run ICDS centers. 

Through “Shaishav Child-Care Program” SEWA is offering a solution which provides a safe, healthy and hygienic environment for the physical, mental and emotional well-being of children, while simultaneously enabling the women to continue earning their livelihood to achieve food security, income security and work security.

The holistic solution has a strong impact not only on those who are directly impacted – i.e. the informal sector grassroot working mothers, their young infants, their elder children, the teachers and caretakers of the Centers, but also complete families and households by reducing their stress and bringing them social and financial security:

• Shaishav Mandali provides safe childcare for working mothers. It lays the foundation for the sound physical, emotional, Mental and intellectual growth of the children attending the Child-care Centers. The children grow in a loving, safe and hygienic environment where they are engaged in activities that stimulate their sound and mental growth and provided healthy nutrition. 
• At the same time, their elder siblings are freed from the responsibility of looking after them, which helps them to concentrate on their own education. 
• It affords the women work security, food security and income security as they are able to access full-employment. It relieves them of the mental stress of caring of the well-being of their children while they are at work.  Their minds are at peace as they are assured of the care given to their children from the loving teachers and caretakers at the Child Care Centres
• Shaishav is registered as an all-women cooperative, working for the betterment of women and children.  The Child Care Centres are owned, operated and managed by the grassroot women themselves.  The women who are appointed as teachers and caretakers are also SEWA’s members and come from the same community as the children. These centers, thus provides them with decent and dignified livelihood opportunities, enabling them to become self-reliant and financially secure. 
• The mothers and teachers, through their financial empowerment, are able to contribute to household expenses and for the welfare of their children.  Their self-reliance is making them self-confident and from being silent spectators, they are transforming to key decision-makers of their families leading to their children getting better nutrition and education.  They are better respected in their homes, communities and villages.  Not only at the house-hold level, but they are also emerging as key-influencers in their villages and districts and paving the way for an overall improvement in the socio-economic status and strengthening of the rural economy.

SEWA is a national trade union of 2.1 million poor self-employed women workers of the informal economy, across 18 states of India.  It collectively organizes the women and youth of the informal economy and helps them in defending their rights & interests against low wages, poor working conditions & lack of social protection. It practices Gandhian philosophy, values simplicity, honesty and non-violence and places great importance on developing the capabilities of women as leaders for their own as well as the society's economic and social empowerment.  

SEWA generates and facilitates sustained livelihood opportunities for the rural population and the people of the informal economy through the establishment of member-led, community-based economic institutions.  All these are democratic entities with members themselves leading the operations as owners and managers.  Each form of organization promoted by SEWA and its members has the following characteristics :

• They exist for the benefit of the self-employed women members
• They are owned by the self-employed women, managed by them and have democratic operations
• They aim towards self-reliance, both financial and managerial

Based on the above, the Child Care Centers established by SEWA are also democratic in nature and registered as a co-operative under the name of “Shaishav Mandali”.  The Centers are led, owned and managed by the grassroot women themselves. The women who are appointed as teachers are also SEWA’s members and from within the community. 

The positive experiences of mothers of their children being well-cared by  the women from their own community has built up trust and solidarity among SEWA members and the associated cooperative model.   

In the last few years, while the use of digital technology has been on the rise, it is the pandemic which has escalated this behavior like no other. All over the world, classroom trainings have been swiftly replaced by virtual trainings and gadgets like smartphones, laptops and computers have become the new the tools of learning. SEWA also started forming WhatsApp and Kaizala groups and introduced activities for children and youth, to keep them engaged in constructive activities during the pandemic. 

SEWA understands that in the post-pandemic world, technology will continue to be used widely in the field of education.  A hybrid model of physical classrooms and virtual learning will be the new “normal”. While some available technological and digital tools are being used at the Child Care Centers, SEWA would like to adopts its usage on a much larger scale to make its children digitally-smart and future-ready. 

Like its urban counterparts, SEWA would like the rural children to have access to an education which stimulates their creative thinking potential and focuses strongly on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).  

It realizes that it can achieve this dream by harnessing the power of technology through modern digital tools, applications and services. By providing multimedia tools like smart classroom equipment, digital boards, digital content, digital language labs, etc., a favorable education eco-system benefiting the students and the educators can be created in rural settings.

Technology can also aid in providing state-of-the art child care facilities to the children at their Centers.  Through digitization of many of its routine processes like  registration, attendance, measurement of growth parameters,  monitoring and evaluation, etc.,  the administrative efficiency at the Centers will be increased.   

Additionally, SEWA would also like to harness the power of technology to up-skill the capabilities of its young members as care-providers. Partnering with academic institutes for adopting hybrid approach to revise the current curriculum for child care teachers, develop of a recognized child care course and certification could open up a pandora of livelihood opportunities for rural youth as care providers. 

Hence, SEWA is applying to Solve to be able to implement the usage of technology on a large scale at its Child Care Centers to enhance the learning experience and facilities of the children and enable their access to modern tools of learning; Develop the technological capacities of its educators; generate additional livelihood opportunities for rural youth in care sector; leverage the existing resources; reduce costs and improve administrative efficiency;  create greater impact.

The Cooperative “Shaishav Mandali” plays a larger role in the community in addition to providing child care. The cooperative is a pivotal part of the social fabric of the communities and opens avenues for engaging with the local and national governments

The Child Care Centres are democratic and are owned, led and operated by SEWA’s grassroot members from within the community

Cooperative members mobilizes the community to demand improvements in the public ICDS and also offer training to ICDS child care workers

The child care workers are seen as leaders within their communities given their knowledge on children’s health, nutrition, social development and early education.   They receive training before taking up their responsibilities and the Centre and their  skills are upgraded every three months by an in-house capacity building team

The Child-Care Centers also serve as a public service access point for vaccinations, primary health care, nutrition and nutritional advice for parents. 

During the Covid pandemic in particular, all the children were provided with organic cherry tomatoes in addition to their daily diet at the Centers to augment their Vitamin C content. Their parents and elder siblings were also provide with the same to ensure their families too received the required dosage of Vitamin C, stay healthy and boost their immunity.  

The solution has multiple bottom line. It addresses multiple challenges simultaneously – 

• it provides for quality Child Care Services at affordable rates 
• enables work, income and food security for the mothers
• Generates decent and dignified livelihood opportunities for young rural women as care providers

Goals for the next year

The current pandemic has led to large scale disruption in the livelihoods of the poor. Their meagre savings have been eroded, assets have been liquified and they have been pushed deeper into the vicious circle of debt and poverty. Therefore, now, more than ever, there is a need for the rural women workers to be able to access full-employment. Therefore, the demand for affordable child-care services have increased manifolds from several SEWA members from more cities across Anand district. 

Therefore, to ensure full-employment to its members in this critical time, Shaishav Mandali would like to on immediate basis open up 5 more child-care centers in different villages to ensure full-employment to its members in those villages. 

Additionally, 21st century is the century of Information Communication Technology (ICT).  Today, ICT is used universal in all spheres of our life.  It plays a predominant role in the creation and development of knowledge.   It has changed the learning process and in the new normal, hybrid form of education which is a blend of physical classrooms and online learning will prevail.   

Therefore, SEWA too would like the children at its Child Care Centers be ready to face the 21st century.  To meet the demands of providing technologically-driven education to the children, over the next one year, SEWA will focus on building the digital capacities of its educators and enable their access to modern technological tools in the field of education. 

It will also focus on building resources to provide multimedia teaching tools to teachers and students and utilizing smart classroom equipment like virtual classrooms, digital boards, digital teaching system, digital content, digital labs, etc.

Goals for the next 5 years

Learning from the experiences of its existing child-care program, SEWA and Shaishav Mandali would like to spread its wings and scale-up to increase the number of modern, technology-drive Child Care Centres across villages, districts, states and boost the education scenario in rural India. 

Additionally, Shaishav Mandali would also like to partner with educational institutes to update and streamline its curriculum on "Care" work. It would also like to get accreditation from Government's "National Skill Development Council" and offer Certificate skill development courses on "Care" for the rural young women - thereby enabling them to access new form of dignified livelihood opportunities in Care sector.

SEWA’s Child Care Centers cater to around 800 children annually (20 Child Care Centres @ 40-42 children per Center). The children attending the Centers are in the age group of 0 – 6 years.  Apart from care and nutrition, they are provided with basic education which makes them school-ready by the age of 6 years. Shaishav Mandali also facilitates admitting the children in Public / Private schools after graduating from the center as per the parents choice and advice. 

It measures its impact by the number of children who are admitted in schools post their graduation from Child Care Centres.  

For the mothers, SEWA measures the impact by the number of women (whose children are admitted to Child Care Centres) who are enabled to continue earning their livelihoods for their food, work and income security.

Additionally, the number of rural youth being trained (on-the-job) as "Care Workers" through the child-care centers and linked to employment in care sector - as teachers in Shaishav Child-care centers, other Private child-care centers in the urban areas or Government run ICDS centers is also a measure of the success of SEWA's Child care initiative.

SEWA believes that every woman has right to full employment. When SEWA started organizing women workers in the Anand District of Gujarat, it was observed that by organizing the women workers, higher pay scales can be ensured, however full employment in true sense is possible, provided the women are able to work on regular basis without interruptions. 

As mentioned above, the work environment in the tobacco fields and Khali being hazardous for small children, caused mothers to be irregular in their jobs. SHAISHAV's success would rope-in benefits like

• Women can go to work regularly which in-turn ensures work and income security
• Children can grow in a safe and healthy environment
• Elder children can become free from the responsibilities of looking after younger ones and concentrate on their education.

Thus, with the objective of providing full employment to women in true sense, the child-care program “SHAISHAV” was started in 30 villages of Anand District of Gujarat. The three aspects of full employment for women workers, viz, work security, food security and social security were directly impacted by child care issue and hence the program got its name SHAISHAV – which means “childhood” or “issue related to children”

From 1989 to 1994, the child-care centers only catered to children aged 0 - 3 years. The centers  basically served as a "Creches" i.e. the centers provided the service for fulfillment of very basic needs such as - bathing, cleaning, feeding, putting the children to sleep, etc. 

After the successful operation of these “Creches” for 5 - 6 years, the unanimous need of villagers was to extend the age limit of children enrolled from 0 – 3 years to 0 – 6 years. 

Given that all initiatives of SEWA are need-based and demand-driven, in 1995, Shaishav Mandali accepted its members request and established “Bal Vikas Kendras” (Child-care centers) - an upgraded version of the Creches.

The centers now started providing services for the overall growth of a child from 0 – 6 years, which apart from providing basic services, included activities for the physical, mental, intellectual, social and emotional growth of a child.  The scope of the Child-care centers thus expanded to focus on a holistic growth and development of children.

The Child-care Centers have come a long way since its opening in 1989. The self-less service provided by the teachers have imbibed a deep sense of faith, trust and respect for them amongst the villagers.  Nowadays, almost all the villages have at least one Govt run ICDS center which provide free Child Care facilities.  However, the Shaishav Child-care Centers continue to be the favored option of Child-care and the reasons for this are  :

• Convenient long-working hours of the Shaishav Centers which enable the mothers to complete a full-days’ work before picking up their children.  
• Growth Monitoring and Counselling Facilities extended by the Centers
• Facility of Medical Advice and Vaccination:   The teachers at the Child Care Centre take the responsibility of tending to a sick child and also arrange for doctor consultation in case of an emergency.   The administer basic overt-the-counter medication and also take the responsibility of arranging for timely vaccination of the children.  This enables the mothers to not lose out on their daily wages even when their children are sick or need to be vaccinated.  
• Quality of Child-care services and Homely Environment : The quality of child-care service offered at the Bal Vikas Kendras is far better as compared to the ICD centers. The teachers at Bal Vikas Kendras take personal interest in the lives of the children enrolled and monitor their progress in school even after they graduate from the Bal Vikas Centres.
• Parental Convenience: Along with child-care services, Bal Vikas Kendras also offer various other services like Bachat Mandals (Savings Groups),  Loan disbursement/repayment facilities and point-of-sale for SEWA’s social enterprises, thus making it a convenient one-stop shop for parents picking-up their child on their way home from school.
• During the corona virus epidemic in particular, it became very difficult for the children of poor and working-class sisters who joined the service organization to live with the family in a small roof in the event of a lock down. With schools being shut down the education of the children was also badly affected.   During this stressful time, the children of the Child Care Centres were educated through hybrid method. The teachers of the child-care center went from door-to-door... providing the children with art and craft supplies and running drawing / art-craft / story writing etc. creative activities and contests which could keep the children engaged in the safety of their homes during the lock-down. The teachers also tried to continuously stay in touch with children through their parents phones to motivate them to participate in these home-based educational activities... Perhaps one of the biggest success of the Child Care Centers was the continuation in the education and child-engagement during the pandemic and the ensuing lockdown. The Centers also formed WhatsApp and Kaizala groups and introduced activities for children and youth, to keep them engaged in constructive and creative activities.  

The technology that powers SEWA's child-care initiative - Shaishav Mandali is the holistic approach which not only provides safe childcare for working mothers, but also lays a strong foundation for the sound physical and intellectual growth of the children attending the centers. 

SEWA has documented the impact of the attendance at their centers has on the children’s successful entry into school. Child care center teachers are also involved in education and sensitization of their parents- not just the mothers; some have a specific focus on fathers.

SEWA’s experience indicates that the importance of providing child care can be seen from 4 inter-related perspectives:

• the importance of the early years in a child’s development;
• the impact on a woman’s ability to work;
• formalization of child care as work.
• older children can become free from the responsibilities of looking after younger ones and concentrate on their education.

SEWA adheres to the policy of “Sarva Dharma Sambhaav” (All religions are equal).  Children are admitted without any discrimination by or religion.

Children of all castes and religion are admitted to the Child Care Centers,

Appointment of teachers of all castes and religion at the Child Care Centers

Festivals of all religions are celebrated at the Child Care Centers

At each Centre, the two teachers appointed must profess different faiths

Till date, untouchability is a major issue in many areas of rural India. SEWA believes in fighting against such societal vices not by word, but by action.  Initially parents of many upper caste families refused to enroll their children to the Child Care Centers due to the inclusive and non-discriminatory policy adopted by SEWA. Yet, SEWA adhered to its values and principles.

However, with the passage of time, the benefits of the child-care centers convinced these parents to set aside prejudices about inequalities. The increase in the income of families whose children attended the Child Care Centers was also strikingly visible to all. 

Today, children from all castes/religions attend the Centers and the vice of untouchability is almost absent in villages where Shaishav Child-care centers are operational.

Each Child-Care Centre is operated by a team of two teachers.  The business model is as follows:

1. The teachers for each center jointly shoulder the responsibilities for the running of each center. These responsibilities include, but are not limited to child-care, cleaning / sanitizing the centers, cooking, collecting fees and maintaining accounts. Everyday, one  teacher shoulders the kitchen responsibilities whereas the other looks after the children
2. The healthy growth of every child is given top-most priority. All the children are weighed every month and their weight and height are recorded. Based on these charts, the growth of each child is monitored and the amount of food needed for each child is ascertained. Timely vaccination of each child is also carried out at the center and a record of the same is maintained.
3. Any two mothers of the children attending the Child Care Centers are trained as substitute teachers to manage the center in case the teachers are unavailable. 
4. An infant's well being is directly related to its mother. To enforce this thought, healthy protein rich vegetarian meal is provided daily to children, pregnant ladies and nursing mothers. 
5. The child-care center remains closed for the children on Sundays. However, teachers work on Sundays also. All the toys and cradles / linens and mats are washed on these days and the center is properly sanitized and disinfected. 
6. The teachers also function as a financial advisers for the mothers of the children and  explain the concept and importance of Insurance and Savings to them. Along with teaching innovative means of savings from their day-to-day expenses, they also encourage them to invest these savings in “Bachat Mandals” (Self-help Groups) operated by them. Mothers investing in “Bachat-Mandals” can avail of loans for causes like construction/repair of house, education of children, marriage of children and illness.
7. All the appointed teachers are given basic trainings for child-care, health and hygiene and child growth and nutrition. 

To ensure financial sustainability, Shaishav Mandali is registered as a co-operative and all funds are channelized into this co-operative. The income for Shaishav Mandali comes from five main areas:

• Child-care Fees - Since the children attending the centers come from poor families, a nominal amount is charged as monthly fees per child. The fee amount is decided by collectively by the mothers of the children enrolled in the centers annually.
• Khali Owners Contribution – Indian Labor Laws mandate the factory owners to provide a child-care facility for the workers children. As mutually agreed upon by Khali owners Association and SEWA, instead of providing a child care facility on campus, Khali owners make a financial contribution annually to Shaishav Mandali to run the child-care centers. This forms a major sustaining income for the cooperative.
• Donations – In addition to promotion through word of mouth, the administrative committee of the cooperative works to promote the cooperative and collect donations in cash and kind.
• Women's contribution – Every working woman undergoes the phase of motherhood at some point of time in their life and would need child-care facility. Promoting this thought, the administrative committee encourages the women workers in the villages to buy a share of the cooperative and become a member of SHAISHAV MANDALI.
• Additional revenue from “One-Stop Shop” : In recent years, additional services provided by the Child Care Centre contribute to the sustenance of the Child Care program.    The Centers operate as “One-Stop Shops” to provide convenience to the mothers.  The women can purchase organically grown groceries and processed food products of RUDI and Kamla (SEWA’s food processing social enterprises).  The products which are made from locally grown indigenous food crops are packed in convenient sizes and priced at affordable rates.  The commissions from the sale of the products are used in the activities of the Child Care Centres. 

SHRI SHAISHAV BALSEWA MAHILA SAHAKARI MANDALI Ltd, an independent all-women cooperative, was established in 1995 with a unique owner-user-manager concept. Any woman could take a co-operative ownership by paying just Rs 101. At this stage she may or may not have any affiliation as mother availing child-care facility or as a teacher providing child-care facility. Thus at a given point of time, her role in Shaishav Mandali could be that of either a mother, a teacher, a manager or all of the above or just a shared owner of Shaishav Mandali.

It has been observed that this kind of membership brings maximum local participation and increasing sense of ownership, responsibility and belongingness over a period of time. Initially 58 women bought the shares of the Cooperative. The merits and fame of “SHAISHAV MANDALI” spread rapidly through word of mouth and promotional brochures. At present it has 345 share holders.