Abstract

In India, a major axis of inequality is caused by labour migration and informal work. For seasonal migrant households childcare is a pressing challenge in the destination region. To address this, NGOs have explored the possibilities of actively negotiating and engaging with employers to set up and manage childcare centres as a critical form of care infrastructure at worksites. We draw from semi-structured interviews with representatives of NGOs to understand how they articulate and assemble care infrastructure in an environment that is fraught with asymmetrical power hierarchies. We find that organisations strategically frame their ethic of care to fit the specific priorities and values of employers by integrating multiple logics of social, economic, and legal responsibilities. NGOs also engage with employers to assemble the physical structure, upgradation material, basic services and skilled caregivers. These efforts, combined with the affective and embodied acts of care, help improve the safety, security, health, education, and overall well-being of children and their mothers. The process and practices described in this paper explicate what it takes to build, run and sustain care infrastructure at worksites. NGOs provide pathways for building contextual and space specific care infrastructure models that are pivotal for planning more inclusive and caring cities for migrants.