Early childhood care is critical for children’s holistic development, encompassing aspects of health, nutrition, education, and cognitive and emotional development. Access to full-day childcare has been shown to raise poor working women’s incomes by at least 50%, says Mirai Chatterjee, chairperson, SEWA Cooperative Federation. The government needs to invest more on childcare, and extend the Integrated Child Development Services from the current two to three hours to at least eight hours, she tells IndiaSpend in this interview.