She have been featured on CNBC India ‘Young Turks’ segment. Her vision is big and ambitious even though the organization is small right now. But one can sense the passion, the enthusiasm and the energy of Aishwarya Rao Mantha who is spearheading this nonprofit Cradle India  Foundation  from a tiny apartment in Hyderabad, India. Mantha’s focus: Care of very young children ages 0-5 of an unorganized, underprivileged and uneducated sector in India.

Aishwarya Rao, along with her co-founders Meenakshi Shankara, Saratnath Buddhiraju ,and Srivvyal Vayyuri  began Cradle India last year, an organization that believes in early conditioning of underprivileged children by providing them with a right and healthy environment for them to grow and develop. The foundation  had some early success thereby validating their mission. Recently it graduated 5 children successfully to a regular school system where one of them even topped her grade. If left to themselves these children would be still with their parents that could not afford such an environment

I met Aishwarya at a recent TiE SIG event along with her husband Ajish  and two  of her other friends who are volunteers for CIF, Hari Prasad and Sri Durga. Aishwarya is completing her PhD in Computational Fluid Dynamics from the University of Houston, Texas and spoke about their work.

What made you start Cradle India?

I have always wanted to do something meaningful and last year I found my calling on a visit to Hyderabad. I had stepped out one afternoon to pick my clothes from the laundry lady who runs her services from a stall under the tree and was appalled to see her tether  her younger child with a nylon cord next to her. This really bothered me. On questioning the lady said she had no choice since she could not afford to keep her child in a daycare program. I soon started noticing how little kids of many unskilled workers were handled in a similar way since the mothers were busy at work but needed to have their children at close sight. These kids are left to themselves all day with their young mothers who work at local grocery stores, as maids or on a construction site. As we have put on our website, more than half the number of children in India between the age group of 6 to 15 go to school. And on top of it, about 1% of those who enroll in first grade reach the 8th grade. Combine this statistic with the fact that 30% of Indian population is aged below 14 years, we begin to see the problem. 

That is the motivation for our initiative. My idea was simple: set up a crèche facility or a day care for such kids between 0-5 years, for low income working class women and let them thrive in a stimulating environment.

What did you do first to realize this vision?

My first instinct was to talk to the mother. I asked her if she would be willing to keep her child in such a facility. The response was mixed. She was concerned and afraid of being separated from her child. It needed a lot of assurance and persuasion on our part to make her believe that this was good for her child. That was the biggest challenge. I then looked for a ground floor facility with some outdoor space  so kids could have some play time. We sent out word to all our friends and employees in Microsoft and other companies close by and the response was overwhelming. Many pitched in with money, clothes, toys and books and Cradle India became a reality. We are now more than a year old and have sustained ourselves with generous donors. Our first fundraiser in Boston  at Ritu Ki Rasoi where we streamed the finals of the Cricket World Cup had a great response

How many children are now enrolled and what services do you provide?

We now have 10 children and are looking to for another center to open at Cherlapalli in Hyderabad which has a large industrial population. We have a Manager, Ms Saritha who is wonderful with the children and runs the place and two caregivers Gangamma and Ayesha Begum who take care of the kids. We provide clean spaces with all the amenities and a healthy environment for a child’s emotional and cognitive development. This will give the mothers the assurance that their children will be given good care, so they can work more efficiently and come back to them happy.  In the evening when the parent returns from work we encourage them to have quality time with the children.We also organize periodical visits with doctors for a free health check up .

What is unique about Cradle India ?

We have created a niche. Imagine a child left alone the whole day without a stimulating environment of books , music and toys. By the time they are of school going age they are already left far behind. This is why we  believe that early conditioning of children by providing them with right day care environment would significantly contribute towards creating a good ‘feeder group’ for primary schools wherein the children can grow up along with their peers and learn the nuances of social wellbeing. Already we see a difference. The kids are happier and have successfully integrated into the regular school system. They are well fed, well clothed and healthy. They are also curious about learning.

Where do you see CIF five years from now ?

We have lofty goals. We want to bring awarness in India on these issues, work with the government and other NGO's, highlight the Right to Education Act. At the same time we hope to expand to other cities and bring more children into  the CIF fold. In the US we are looking to register as a non profit and raise the profile and work of CIF.

To know more please visit  http://cradleindia.org/

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