Shunted to the least desirable stratum of society in India are the Dalit (a member of the lowest class in the traditional Hindu social hierarchy labelled with the ‘untouchable’ pejorative) and individuals of lower caste, who exist in slum communities.
Here, amid semi-permanent structures both physical and intangible, a sense of security is virtually non-existent.
“Even though the informal settlements they live in are over 50 years old, with strong highly established social systems, the government can reclaim the slums at very short notice and evict the residents for its own planning purposes,” says Jane Rothschild, the founder of The Anganwadi Project (TAP).
Since 2011, the Sydney-based NGO has rallied together architects to design and build preschools in disadvantaged areas of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, India.
“Building these new Anganwadis can create a sense of permanence in these communities,” she adds.
The initiative’s based on Anganwadi, rural childcare centres introduced by the Indian government decades earlier to tackle hunger and malnutrition. While such public facilities may be synonymous with utilitarian design, TAP’s are a sight for sore eyes — from their shimmering mosaics down to decorative grills and Mashrabiya-inspired brick facades with cutouts letting in refracted light.
“At the core of TAP’s philosophy is the belief that everyone, especially the most disadvantaged deserve good design. For the children and communities we work with, having an Anganwadi designed specifically for and with them is so important as they are constantly discriminated against,” shares Rothschild.
The Australian humanitarian architect was previously a director at Architects Without Frontiers, and lent her expertise to Habitat for Humanity on projects in Australia, Indonesia and Vietnam.
TAP’S vernacular structures are hewn from recycled and locally sourced material and conceived in response to the surrounding environment. In a project called Bholu 14 in Sabarmati, Ahmedabad, for instance, bamboo walls enable natural ventilation, the lightweight structure conducive for poor soil conditions.
“The communities we work with are directly affected by climate change as they are generally located on the least valuable land on the urban and village fringes. The urban slum communities of Ahmedabad suffer from extreme flooding while rural Andhra Pradesh is one of the most drought affected areas of India. Each year of worsening natural disasters affects the poorest communities most directly and makes their lives extremely vulnerable,” explains Rothschild.
She details that TAP’s process for creating an Anganwadi takes about six months, beginning with the identification of a site by their Indian partner NGO. Volunteers then spend time interacting with the community and teachers to distil their needs, followed by thorough site analysis: sun angles, wind direction, views, trees as well as documenting the surrounding buildings and circulation around the site are all taken into account.
After the planning and design process, they take their options to the community for input and refinement. Locals are subsequently involved in the construction and finishing process.
The pandemic had an immediate impact on TAP’s work as they were in the thick of construction. “We had to make the difficult decision to recall the volunteers back to Australia in March 2020 as the situation in India was rapidly getting worse,” recalls Rothschild. Rural communities were also throttled by the loss of income when the country was placed on lockdown.
Thankfully, TAP was able to complete their projects with their volunteer architects collaborating remotely with an architect on the ground. They’re now working at full throttle in the design and community consultation phase of a new Anganwadi, Harivillu 3, near Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh. And the existing Anganwandi, temporarily shuttered due to Covid-19 restrictions, are now back in full swing and chattering with the sounds of happy children.
“One of the biggest takeaways is not actually about design, but community resilience: how communities (and primarily our Indian project partners Manav Sadhna and RDT) stepped in to look after each other and the vulnerable communities they serve when the government services weren’t reaching them. They supplied thousands of food parcels, hand delivered oxygen tanks into the slums and RDT turned their hospitals into Covid wards. Without these interventions, many more people would have died.”