It is around noon when we enter the newly inaugurated creche Nanhe Kadam Balwadi in Byculla District Jail. Juxtaposed against grim looking grey and off-white walls of the jail, it is a colourful room, reflecting hues of pink, yellow and green.

On the ground are seven students sitting on a mat, busy studying alphabets using a board game. An enthusiastic five-year-old Kavita Aggarwal is lifting the cutout of the letter D and placing it in its place on the board. She does well till letter O, completing the process of identification, picking and placing within a few seconds but needs some prompting by her teacher Jayshree Mhadik afterwards. “I remember only half of it,” Aggarwal tells us later, adding “but I know all the numbers till 10.” After her, it is the turn of four-year-old Hussain Sheikh who struggles after letter D and then it is the turn of Kavita’s brother three-year-old Vishal Aggarwal, who has just begun to learn.