We run a ‘Balwadi' at each day-care centre. It is a cheerful and bustling place where children in the age group of 3 to 8 years gather every morning, after their mothers go to work on the construction site.

Though our children above 6 years are enrolled in local schools, our Khelghar program includes children up to 8 years. This is because, being migrants, we have observed that a discontinuity in education often leads to lack of pre-academic concepts in these children. Therefore, these children attend the Balwadi at the centre either before they go to school or after they return from school.

We start their day with free-play using learning-aids which are geared to the age or developmental stages of these children.

This is followed by ‘Circle-time’, where we encourage children to share some “News” from their lives. Other children ask questions to the “news-teller” to gather more information about the news. This is followed by prayer time

To help prepare these young ones for formal education, our Balwadi program covers essential skills such as sitting in one place, listening and comprehending, attending to a task, sharing, completing a task, keeping back the material in its original place along with the basic 3 ‘R’s. All pre-academic skills are taught using the play-way method with a combination of structured and unstructured activities.

We leverage the magic of music, dance and play-way to make their learning an enjoyable experience. This helps to improve attendance and promotes long-term engagements

After all this fun and learning, our children sit down to have their lunch and later, a good two-hours sleep in the afternoon to recharge their batteries

We mix regular fun-learning with occasional nature-walks, visits to the local market or garden. These are activities to keep them interested and also serve as a safe introduction to the outside world.

After a day well-spent playing and exploring new worlds of learning the toddlers happily go home when their mothers come to fetch them at the end of their working day from the construction site.

Parent engagement is continued in the Balwadi through initiatives like “Dabba Party”, “Palak-Balak Mela”, Palak Vriddhi Mela”. Parents also learn to prepare low-cost learning materials for their children.