Inspiring Stories - Beedi worker's colony

A community created by the edict of the government – Beedi worker's colony in the suburbs of Kengeri is, as the name suggests, a colony of people linked by their occupation of making beedis. A rather recent community, it came into being around the year 2000 since the government allotted houses to certified beedi workers. A registered co-operative society of Beedi workers with a membership of 1800 people, and registered in 1998 as a cooperative seems to be the focal point of implementation of several government schemes- 570 houses constructed with the support of subsidy from the Central Government under the Rajiv Gandhi Housing Scheme and an interest free loan from HUDCO ; inclusive of health schemes, rain and drain water harvesting schemes with a cost effective model brought in together by the Dept of Labour Welfare.

Proposed to be a model colony of 570 houses, with a scheme in place for every aspect, it nevertheless revealed a startling lack of plan for the numerous young children in its 3000 populace. Barring the only welfare scheme catering to 60 preschool children, there were no other facilities for the younger children. Even to attend primary school, children travel 2 kms to get to a school; depending upon a bus service that is none too regular, often necessitating a long walk to school. Only later, in June 2004, a Government Urdu Lower Primary School was started in the colony to cater to the children from 6-10 years. Simultaneously, a private school also was initiated during this period.

Characteristic of the residents of the colony, Umera also moved into the colony with her family from Ramnagaram taluk in Rural Bangalore. She found the absence of adequate facilities for children very perturbing, the situation made even more piquant by the high concentration of young children and a majority of mothers engaged in beedi making. Having already been a part of one of our community owned preschools as a parent in Ramnagaram, she felt that it was necessary for the community here to be facilitated to create similar facilities for themselves instead of waiting for the Government to provide the next welfare scheme. Taking the initiative and backed up by her prior experience of a community childcare facility, she conducted a survey of the children in her area (pocket of 100 households), finding 48 children in the age group of 2-6 years, 30 of whom did not have access to any facility.

She organized a meeting with their parents and discussed the issue of early child care facilities in the colony, initially finding it difficult to garner support given the prevailing mindset of dependency. Finally upon much deliberation, they came together to a decision to organize their own preschool, deciding upon a monthly fee, space, teachers, and timings. They opened the preschool in Umera's home on May 10, 2004 with strength of 20 children creating in every sense, a community owned preschool, born of the felt need of the working mothers for full-time, reliable, quality child care. It was at the same time, an important step forward for this community towards a stance of determining how to deal with the various factors that affect their life on their own.

After a fortnight, the teacher approached the MAYA facilitator requesting support for their initiative as they felt that outside support would help improve the preschool facility in terms of training as well as material support. Having conducted the initial processes in a systematic and transparent manner, MAYA facilitated the formation of a parent structure towards undertaking responsibility for the effective functioning of the preschool. The parents planned and budgeted for the school and proposed that MAYA support the preschool. Given the strong community foundation of the school, the teacher finds co-operation from the parents who are very involved in the daily process of the school, leading to the growth of the number of parents enrolled to the idea of early child care, resulting now in 30 children attending the preschool.

Our approach to ECCE has also required recognising the mind-set of the community, particularly against the backdrop of a culture that offers Govt schemes, where the community is viewed merely as a passive recipient. The plethora of schemes intended to empower often make us wonder to what avail might it be to people who first form the group of project targets by the policy makers; and as they realise the scheme define themselves as project beneficiaries. How empowering can such an experience be? Juxtaposed with the existing situation wherein all members of this community are flooded by welfarist schemes, this preschool is unique in that it has taken shape without the patronage of local leaders or the bureaucracy; and solely on the efforts of working women as an independent attempt to address their own needs.