शनिवार, 20 फ़रवरी 2010

NEW ACTIVITIES - June to Dec. 2009

People’s Institute of Rural Development, Ahmedpur, is implementing this ““Eradication of Child Labour through Education” Project in 30 villages from Chakur Tahsil of Latur district, The major objectives of the Project are;

• Eradication of Child Labour System from the Project Area; and
• Bringing the existing Child Labour in the main stream of education.
For accomplishing the objectives, one in each village 30 “Education-cum-study Centers” are established in 30 villages. More than 700 existing child labour from these villages are attending these study centers and preparing themselves to free from child labour system and joining the main stream of education.

Implementation strategy.

1. For implementing the Project, 30 villages from Chakur Tahsil are identified. In these identified 30 vilalges 30 ““Education-cum-study Centers” are established. They are functioning in the evening daily from 7.00 pm to 9.00 pm. For running these centers local “Teachers-cum-Organizers” are appointed. These teachers provide education inputs to the children and also offer counseling and guidance services to them.

Organization has constituted a “Monitoring-cum-Support” Team of senior workers for effective functioning of these centres.
The functions of “Monitoring-cum-Support” Team are;
o Regular visits to centers
o Conducting meetings and discussions with teachers.
o Assessing problems and difficulties encountered by centres
o Provide guidance and support to teachers for overcoming problems and difficulties.
o Meeting the parents of children in difficulties and motivating them for regular
attendances of their children in Centers.
This monitoring team proved to be beneficial for improving the functioning of the
Centers and delivering the results.

2. Monthly meetings of “Teachers-cum-Organizers”.

Regular monthly meetings of “Teachers-cum-Organizers” are conducted. The agenda of these meetings is;
o Review of previous month’s activities.
o Planning for the next month.
o Feedback from teachers and parents.
o Learning from sharing and exchange.
o Formulating common strategy for improving functioning of centers.
o Resolving the problems, difficulties and conflicts.

These meetings provide first hand opportunities to all the concerned associated with Project to learn form sharing and exchange. Common strategy is evolved for improving functioning of centers. It is also provides redress mechanism for resolving conflicts; if any.

3.Development of Kitchen Gardening Skills of teachers.

A training course was conducted for teachers on 6th July, 2009 for developing
practical skills in Kitchen Gardening. The objectives were;
o Developing Kitchen Gardening skills of local Teachers, so that they can utilize
these skills for generating additional income for their families.
o Transforming these skills to children through teachers so that children’s families
can also be benefitted.

With these objectives a One day workshop was conducted. An expert, Sri Vinayak Garade, from AFARM was invited to conduct the workshop and to provide necessary inputs.
Knowledge and Skills in cultivation of vegetables in the open space around the residential place by utilizing the waste water were provided to teachers. Besides this they were also informed about nutrition and healthy diet. They were also informed about utilizing locally available food grains and vegetables for improving nutritional status of a family, also advised to consume milk, eggs and fruits if possible for healthy living.

4. Parents Meeting and Home Visits -

Parents poverty, ignorance, social backwardness, illiteracy and lack of awareness about their children’s education are the major factors contributing for number of out of school children and school drop-outs. It may not be possible to deal with poverty directly. But having dialogue with parents about other factors, it is hoped that, it may help in improving children’s attendance schools.

Therefore; a strategy is followed by teachers and senior workers of the Organization, to conduct regular home visits and have a dialogue with parents. This strategy has resulted in improving attendance in the study centers and also enrollment in regular schools.

5. Distribution of necessary stationary and other teaching material to study centers.

In the monthly meetings of “Teacher-cum-Organizers” the required stationary and other material in distributed. It includes attendance registers, note-books, chalk-boxes, story books etc.

6. Survey of Child labour;

To asses the present situation of child labour in our 30 project villages a fresh survey was conducted in the month of June-July 2009. The findings of the Survey were used for assessing the impacts of the Project.
The findings of the Survey were;
o In these 30 villages, 450 boys and 202 girls are still out of school.
o Out of them 60 are totally illiterate.
o 268 were studied upto Ist to IVth Std; and
o 325 were studied upto Vth to VIIIth std
Majority of these out of school children are working as child labour. 283 children work as agriculture labour. Some of them are engaged in taking care of their siblings, 193 children work as cow-herd boys. While 26 boys are bonded on annual contract.

7. Child Laboures Readmission in Schools.

We can see the impact of implementation of this Project. The child labour,
who attended study centers in 2008-09, have developed a taste for formal
education and 32 of them are again enrolled in regular schools. They have
become a part of the main stream education. The observations revealed that;
o Those who are above 9 yrs of age and having more than 1 yrs gap find it
difficult to join the main stream of education.
o They are not mentally prepared to adjust with the situation.
o In such situation, even though they are motivated to join the school, they
leave the school, after some period.
o The only alternative is empowering them through “Study Centre” which are
established in the villages.

8. Training of “Teachers-cum-Organizers”

In the beginning to the current year two day training course was conducted
for “Teachers-cum-Organizers” to build their capacities in following areas;
o Re-entry of child labour in regular Schools;
o Survey of situation of child labour;
o Administration and management of Study Centre;
o Planning curriculum according to the educational level of child labour
o Education through entertainment, methods of teaching;
o Use of training-teaching aids,
o Role of a teacher as a guide and counselors etc.
This training has helped the teachers in improving their capacities and
building their motivation.

9. Using Computers for education of child Labour.

Local ““Teachers-cum-Organizers” are selected and appointed for running the
Study Centers. These teachers are not highly educated, nor they are well
trained for the job. Therefore; it is not expected that they will function
as regularly trained teachers. Neither it is expected that they will teach
all the subjects. Therefore; after considering all those limitation, it was
decided to use computers as teaching aids in this programme.

After this decision, Organization searched for the donors for availability of Computers. And fortunately we could succeed in our endeavours. Tech-Mahindra and I & T Infotech from Pune donated 30 computers to the Project. Besides this Azim premji Foundation, Banglore, has donated 45 CDs and Tata Consultancy has donated “Software” which is appropriate and useful for our educations initiative. Nasscom foundation is willing to train our Teachers for utilizing these resources and material.

For utilizing the available computers, project wanted UPS, DVDs, writers, and around 300 blank CDs. For this purpose Mr. Umesh Rashmi Rohtagi and his brother Mr. Mr. Anurag Rastogi donated Rs. 70000/- and Seva International has donated $500. This amount is utilized for purchase of required material. And the order is placed with “Arin Computers, Kolkota”.

Once this material will be available, all the 30 Centers will be equipped with Computers, Software, and accessories. This initiative will result in computer literacy of the children (child labour) and opportunities for education through Multi-media.

In brief, process of identification of child labour, bringing theme to Study Centers, supporting them to join the main stream of education and freeing them form child labour system is going on. Latest technology is brought in for better results. And the impact is visible. We are hopeful that, in the coming days, by successful intervention and implementation of the Project, the system of child labour will be eradicated from the Project Area.

हमारे बारे में

मेरी फ़ोटो
अहमदपूर , जी. लातूर, महाराष्ट्र, India
ग्रामीण विकास लोक संस्था यह संस्था महाराष्ट्र के लातूर जिले मी ग्रामीण विकास तथा सामाजिक परिवर्तन के क्षेत्र मे पिछले 30 साल से ग्रामीण मजदूर , महिलायें, किसान तथा बालामजदूर और बालिका के साथ कार्यरत है .