Uma was born in a small village near Amroha District of present-day Uttar Pradesh, India in 1923. Her parents and brother were murdered for land arrogate. Just before two days of her demise she had been interviewed by film critic and historian Shishir Krishn Sharma. She said : "I don't remember who my parents were and how they looked, I would be two to two and half years when they passed away, I had a brother eight or nine years old whose name was Hari, I just remembered that we were living in a village named Alipur. One day brother was killed and left for maid servant to relatives in exchange for two times meal, that time I was four or five years old".

Uma Devi's childhood was marked by poverty. She later met Akhtar Abbas Kazi, an Excise Duty Inspector, who helped and inspired her. At the time of the India-Pakistan partition, Kazi moved to Lahore, Pakistan. She was fed up with the circumstances of the time and she moved to Bombay to pursue singing in movies. Kazi also eventually moved to Bombay, where they got married in 1947.