When Rachel Williams volunteered for a mobile crèche in Mumbai supporting the health, education and safety of the children of construction labourers, she met one of our Quest Fellows, Manju. Inspired by her strength, she took the opportunity to interview Manju. Here’s her story.
When something is slightly out of the ordinary in the UK, people only just permit themselves to make side-glances. Some whisper under their breaths or practise their ventriloquism skills. In India as a foreigner, I can sit in a cafe or walk down a street and attract a wave of stares, eyes wide and faces expressionless – like a field of sombre-looking sunflowers opening towards a pink, blotchy sun with a terrible knowledge of Hindi. It sometimes makes me uneasy that I stick out here. Being different is a good thing but not when it singles you out to be so different from the rest.
Mumbai is amazing. Colourful, fascinating – just taking a cab ride through Colaba is enough to make you dizzy with all of the life and activity rushing by. However as a single traveller, it is difficult not to feel homesick. I never believed anyone could feel lonely in a bustling city but when there is so much around you to experience and no one close to share it with, you can feel insignificant and solitary.
Wound up in the heat, the annoyance of being cheated by another cab driver and other egotistical worries, I was flustered when I reached the MMC offices, in order to interview one of their young employees, Manju. But the frustration I felt was soon to be replaced by shame and embarrassment when she began to tell me the story of her life and the things she has achieved, despite the obstacles placed in her path.
Manju grew up on construction sites. Her life was spent within the confines of several skeletons, fleshed out by the people who lived in their crevices. Both her parents and grandparents helped to bring these skeletons to life, moving where their work took them, from one industrial rib-cage to another. Manju’s family depended on the process of creating habitations fit for use for those in the higher occupational fields; those with enough money to live in the skeleton past its stage of crowning glory – as another shining tower on the crooked spine of Bombay. It was only until she left the shadow of such skeletons that she realised the injustice that her family had endured.
“When you live on a site,” says Manju, “it all seems fine to you. You don’t have a different perspective. But after gaining exposure to the outside world, I see the stark contrast.”
Manju was fortunate to attend school until the age of 16, when her family ran into financial difficulty. Her father became ill and it was then that Manju was to take up the role of the main breadwinner of the family. She recalls how at this point, she wished to take up her long-term aspiration of becoming a teacher. Being able to have an education, she says, allowed her to believe she could work in a different field than that of her parents and grandparents. This is something a large number of children on construction sites do not have, she emphasises, despite the availability of municipal educational institutions close by. Manju says she is thankful that she took full advantage of the facilities available to her and that many children in a similar situation as her do not recognise the way in which education can benefit them. School is seen as expensive and families often prioritise the extra money which could be earned in the short term by their children if they are not educated. Although Manju did not have any knowledge of how life operated beyond the confines of her home on the construction sites, she knew that being a teacher would take her away from the difficulties her family had faced – including the loss of one of her five siblings.
The point when she first began to open her eyes to the wider world, Manju recalls, was when she took on the role of a fully qualified teacher. The training she was able to complete with Mumbai Mobile Crèches introduced her to many new experiences and encouraged her to be more confident – both in the classroom and in her own abilities.
Subsequently, she took up a one-year fellowship with Leaders’ Quest in 2007 – a programme sponsoring people from under-privileged backgrounds in India to improve their leadership skills. Her fellowship allowed her to study identity issues of women on construction sites – an issue relevant to her own family, in fact. Despite being in Mumbai for two generations, Manju’s relatives did not have a recognised citizenship in the city (in the form of an ID number or rations card), therefore could not benefit from government schemes.
Now Manju is a keen employee of Mumbai Mobile Crèches, with a lifetime of experience to help the organisation in their future development. “Awareness,” she says, “is needed most in construction site communities.” She hopes MMC will be able to help by building on their comprehensive approach of health and education, therefore creating a stronger relationship with those living on construction sites. This will connect migrant workers to life outside the building grounds and make them more aware of their rights, in order to improve their standard of living.
Although still working within the shadows of skeletal buildings, it is clear to see that Manju is a different type of construction worker. Instead of adding flesh to the bones of apartment blocks, she is an inspirational employee of Mumbai Mobile Crèches, helping to build a better livelihood for those who shape Mumbai’s skyline.