A Delhi-based NGO, Pocketful of Sunshine (PFO Sunshine) founded by Tasneema Zaidi in 2019, is working towards prevention of child abuse by establishing Daycare Centers in Delhi. It seeks support from the government, and national organisations to expand its social services to other slum areas and colonies countrywide. Azim Premji Foundation has come forward to support this project.
According to Tasneema Zaidi, Founder-Director of PFO Sunshine, “We work for the prevention of child abuse. The idea to work for the prevention actually started from the work I was doing earlier. I’ve been working with children for past 30 years. I have worked as a Child Welfare Committee (CWC) member which is a children’s court, where we deal with children who have been abused and who needdaycare and protection.CWC is a quasi-judicial body that deals with children who suffer abuse and are in need of care and protection.”
“Before that, I worked for ChildLine. During the process, I observed that most of the abused cases were from slum areas. I discussed this with my friends and colleagues and we all were of the understanding that maximum abuse takes place in slums;it also occurs in middle or high-class families but children in slums are very vulnerable. So it is better if a child is prevented before it actually happens. This was the idea behind this,” added Zaidi.
On the root cause of the problem, she said, “In slums, we observed that like both the parents are working as daily-wage earners and informal workers. It’s not like financial constraints only. Most of them are migrant workers but these are nuclear families and they don’t have a support system or like extended families in slums to look after their children. So, what happens is that parents just leave children on the street while they go out to work.”
“Initially, they are abused by people around them. And then, in due course of time, they themselves get involved in unlawful activities. So, because of all this, and all the studies we did in these slums, we decided to provide them with daycare facilities, especially for the children of informal women workers because when the mother is working, there are greater chances that the child will be on the streets,” said Zaidi, who is working in this field after completing Mastersin Social Work from Jamia Millia Islamia.
“If the mother is at home, chances of their abuse are less. So with this idea, we started daycare centers.Our organization is very small. We started working in September 2019. We have established three daycare centers in Delhi. The 4th one is in pipeline; we may start it soon in collaboration with another child rights organization. It also led to the economic empowerment of mothers who can now work for longer hours without worrying about the safety and well-being of their children,” she said.
She continued, “We have a very comprehensive program, we have supplementary education, we give them nutritious food, every daycare has a small library, and have workout programs. For the entire day, children are happy and engaged and they are improving in education, they are improving in skills and leadership qualities.”
“Very small children come to us and till 12 or 13 years they continue on the daycare; it’s not a short-term program because a child who is admitted at the age of one year or six months, then obviously he would continue till he completes 12 or 13 years of age. At present, we have 150-plus children. All those who are above 6 have been enrolled in schools.Almost all of them are going to school except for a few who have recently joined; they have some issues with their documents. Altogether we have worked with more than 200 children so far,” said the Director of PFO Sunshine.
On support from the government, or other organisations, she said, “Definitely, because we realize that almost every slum area, colony (busti) needs a daycare center. That is a very urgent need. The Delhi government has daycare centers in their plan but at present they are not in a position to provide daycare facilities. We are unable to reach out to more children because of the constraints of funds. We are getting funds only from private donors and individual sponsors.”
“Very recently, in December, we collaborated with Azim Premji Foundation and we are getting some funds for our daycare centers. But to expand we need more funds,” said Zaidi.
On the challenges and the way forward, she said, “We want to provide Daycare Facilities to more and more children, especially of informal women workers. But at the same time, we also realize that it isn’t possible for an organization or even for four or five NGOs to provide Daycare Facilities to all children because we have a huge population not just in Delhi, but that is required almost in all cities. So,ultimately it’s the responsibility of the government to provide these facilities. We started working just 3-4 years ago. But then we have plans to get into research and policy in the future, and we want to start studying this subject in depth.”