Child

Advice for village families on raising children to become strong, healthy citizens

Social worker Sita Devi transforms the health and domestic practices of her village by building a creche, training mothers and introducing a vaccine programme. Post-independence India saw the expansion of social welfare programmes to try to improve the health of India's poorest children, which was seen as vital for building a modern and economically successfully nation.

One of three films in a series sponsored by the United Nations (Mother is also available on BFI Player), this film bears strong aesthetic and stylistic similarities with the many public information films made by the Government of India's Film Divisions in the 1940s and 1950s to educate citizens of newly independent India. Dr. Eleanor Newbigin (SOAS University of London)