SHILLONG, March 28: Two stakeholders — North East Network (NEN), an NGO working for women’s rights in the region and Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a 50-year-old organisation that organises women on the economic model of co-operatives — are making an earnest push for quality childcare so that more women can join the workforce.
During a two-day regional consultation workshop on the theme ‘Quality Childcare For All’ held at the Shillong Club on March 28-29, the NEN and SEWA proposed amongst other demands to push the government to set up a state-level working group of government officials and NGOs with the aim of implementing full-day holistic quality childcare. This would involve extending Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) centres to full day instead of the two hours that are given to childcare at present.
The key demands following the two-day consultation would include recognising childcare as a right for all workers and therefore the need to equip Anganwadi centres with resources so that they function as quality crèches-cum-daycare centres by extending ICDS hours and activities.
The workshop also aimed at pushing for reforms such as ensuring maternity entitlements for all women workers in informal employment, regardless of the number of children as already mandated in the National Security Act 2013 and also to recognise childcare work as decent.
The other participating NGOs and partners include Mobile Creches, Save the Children, WEIGO and other child rights organisations working in the area of education, labour, health and urban issues.
What is interesting about this consultation is that the Principal Secretary Health, Sampath Kumar shared the dais with women from different parts of the Northeast who shared stories of how difficult it was for them to leave their children at home with their uncles or other family members because they were unsure of how the children are being cared for and if they are fed on time. Some of the women who are now working with NEN said it is only now they realise that their children could have been victims of child sexual abuse.
Having heard these distressing stories, Sampath Kumar addressed the gathering and said that childcare has been a neglected subject and that it is important to understand the deeper reasons and the source of the problems which are both structural and systemic. These are barriers that prevent transformative action but only have incremental impacts.
Kumar said it is important to mobilise state agencies and citizens because only when the two converge can there be results on the ground. “It is important to open up spaces for speaking up and for having open and honest conversations and to ask why we are not able to do what we should be doing and what are the barriers. There has to be a system of accountability in place,” Sampath Kumar said, adding that Meghalaya also has the largest number of villages, some with as low a population as 150 households.
Sampath Kumar also pointed out that it is important to create women’s social capital so that they participate more actively in public affairs. It is with this aim that women’s self-help groups (SHGs) have been created across the state and Rs 500 crore has been invested by the government in the last five years as a revolving fund for these SHGs. The money has been used to create livelihoods and as a safety net with some investment in childcare too. “Women need money and knowledge in order to empower themselves,” Kumar said.
The Principal Secretary Health who is also looking after the Social Welfare department said the Village Employment Councils (VECs), which oversee the implementation of the MNREGA schemes, have women as key participants since there is reservation for women in the VEC. The women leaders are on an equal footing with the headmen.
Sampath Kumar also spoke of the scheme wherein pregnant women nearing labour and their children and husbands can shift to places closer to health centres. He said this has reduced maternal deaths by 40%. In terms of malnutrition resulting in stunting and wasting of children, Kumar said the government will now provide eggs through the Anganwadi centres to build up their nutritional status. However, he lamented that Meghalaya relies on other states for eggs.
Kumar also spoke of the Early Childhood Development Mission which has been initiated and which, he says, is a game-changer since 75% of the brain is formed within two years of birth and any neglect during this crucial period could be disastrous for a child’s cognitive capacity.
Earlier, the NEN State Coordinator Joy Grace Syiem, while welcoming the participants, outlined the purpose of the consultation and dwelt at length on the importance of quality childcare if women are to work without a feeling of guilt that they are leaving their children uncared for.
Mirai Chatterjee, currently the Director SEWA Social Security, outlined the ambit around which SEWA works and said that the organisation is now increasing its footprints in the Northeast with a branch working now in Nagaland and plans to collaborate with NEN in Meghalaya and Assam. Chatterjee said it is only fair that women should want a better future for their children and that it is a right they should claim.
Susan Thomas, national health Coordinator SEWA, reiterated the need for quality healthcare and hence called for increased and adequate investment by the government.
Dr Sandra Albert, Director, IIPH Shillong, made a presentation on the nutritional status of children in Meghalaya and how stunting and wasting are being measured.
She pointed to the need for robust research equipment and adequate training for Anganwadi workers who often have to collect data which then goes to form the basis for government interventions.
