Education Scholarships for Child Laborers in India

On December 7 we distributed sweaters to keep 56 brick kiln bus riders warm from the morning chill on their way to primary school in Bhanguri village of Hathin block. While uniforms are now provided by the government (thanks to our local partner’s legal advocacy in the area) we provide these children with school bags, notebooks and sweaters to further encourage their academic commitment.

Demonstrating how this project has impacted parents’ thinking about their children’s potential, one migrant from the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh spoke with our project manager, Suraj Kumar. Sukhpal, whose grade 5 daughter Kamlesh has been attending the school in Bhanguri for the last three years, worries that his work in the brick kilns will impede his three children from learning skilled labor. They help him make bricks after school to raise the family’s income, but he now thinks of the long-term consequences. Next year, he says, he will try harder to find work nearer his home so that his children can stay in school there, and won’t need to work in the afternoons to help finance the costs of migrating. (See our February 22, 2011 update to learn how Kamlesh convinced Sukhpal to let her go to school.)

Your support has been critical to making this type of long-term, sustainable change possible in rural India. Thank you so much for being a part of it. 

Links:

• The Economist on India's children
• Like us on Facebook!
• Join us on Twitter and tell us what you think!

Migrant laborers have begun trickling back to the brick kilns of Mewat, Haryana state, from their homes in the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh. Visiting on October 19, we found the family of Rameshwar and Anguri Devi was among the first to arrive after the kilns' closure for the summer monsoons. We were happy to see that their children Babita, Bijerani, Sangeeta and Shanshee would be riding our bus transportation to school again this year, one grade up from the last time we saw them. Moreover, the Devis hope to find work delivering bricks throughout the region when the monsoons come next summer, allowing them to stay in Mewat year round. If they are successful, there will be no disruption to the children's attendance either at the end of this academic year or at the start of the new one. 

Also with the Devis was another migrant family they knew in their home town outside of Agra (the city of the Taj Majal). This year they opted to migrate with the Devis to Mewat to try working in the kilns, and when our bus - funded by YOU - comes to pick up the Devis' children, their son Sanee will go to school for the first time in his life. 

GUESS WHAT? WE HAVE EXCITING NEWS!

We know you care about Indian children's right to education, so we thought we would tell you about another GlobalGiving project that was recently selected to participate in an exciting competition happening RIGHT NOW!

Girls in rural India face enormous challenges when it comes to getting to school. With secondary school located as much as ten kilometers away, they are subject to harrassment or even aggression when walking through unfamiliar villages. This is why we provide safe, chaperoned bus transportation to approximately 100 girls in Mewat, Haryana—the most regressive districts in terms of girls’ education in all of India.

Lotus Outreach has been selected to participate in the first ever Girl Effect Challenge. Between now and November 15, we are competing with approximately 50 other organizations around the world to become one of six beneficiaries of the Girl Effect Fund, a collective giving pool that has raised nearly $700,000 to date.

By becoming a Girl Effect partner, we will not only receive significant financial support for our Blossom Bus project in 2012, but we will also get critical exposure to Girl Effect fans around the world.  Need proof that this will make a difference?  The Girl Effect has 17,500 followers on Twitter, 260,000 "likes" on Facebook and nearly 1,000,000 views on YouTube!  And it isn't hard to see why the Girl Effect is so popular: watch this video to learn why.

WE CAN’T WIN WITHOUT YOUR HELP

Between now and November 15, our Blossom Bus project must recruit as many unique donors as possible.  We are asking all of our supporters to give just $10 during this time period to help us win the competition.  Every donation raised during this period will not only bring us one step closer to our dream of partnering with Girl Effect, but will ensure adolescent girls in Mewat, India can safely return to school.  By providing bus transportation, we will help many of these girls escape childhood marriage and become the first girls to reach high school in the history of their villages!

You can make your $10 donation today.

HELP US GO GUERRILLA

We know we can do this!  You helped Lotus Outreach win a similar challenge in 2009.  But we also know how important it is to get our supporters mobilized and engaged.  Please tell your friends, family and colleagues about this competition and ask them to pledge their support.  Every donation counts so please help us spread the word far and wide through email, Facebook and Twitter!

Questions?  Please contact info@lotusoutreach.org.

Links:

• Blossom Bus donation page
• Manifesto of a Blossom Bus Beneficiary
• Girl Effect Challenge leaderboard

Our campaign in Mewat, Haryana has awakened brick kiln laborers as well as teachers and authorities to children’s right to education and the laws that support it. When we started our advocacy four years ago, almost everyone simply ignored the fact that local school-age children were living as laborers. Local schools were happy not to have to deal with the extra work required to instruct them.

The good news for us all is that we have helped hundreds of parents and children develop the habit of attending school in the knowledge that education is the only way out of the ruthless cycle of poverty. Some of these families have been mired for generations in illiteracy and destitution; for some, as long as living memory.

In the current monsoon season the brick-kiln communities at Mewat have a deserted atmosphere, but soon migrating families will return from their home villages where they were tending their own small plots of land, mending flimsy homes, or laboring on farms and construction sites. Community leaders and families remaining at the Mewat’s brick kilns have told us the wonderful news that many of the children who traveled to school on our Brick Kiln Kids bus have continued to attend school over the summer break in their home villages.

We have also been told that many families may not return to Mewat’s kilns, preferring to take up the option of working through a new government rural development scheme. Designed to ensure villagers have sufficient work and are paid a minimum wage, this program will hopefully allow many families to remain in their home communities.

Whatever the outcome, we expect to see many families return to the kilns and in October we will begin transporting as many as 400 of their children as possible to school. We will keep the issue of education for migrant labor on the front burner through our ongoing partnership with national and state level education authorities. Our goal remains to see them become sensitive and proactive in creating strategies to ensure children are identified and brought to school, whether children of migrants or local villagers. 

Thank you so much for the support you have shown to this migrant community. In our next report we will be able to tell you how many children have returned to the kilns, and how many are continuing their studies as a result of your contributions. 

Links:

• Our Brick Kilns Kids on the Huffington Post
• Sign up for our monthly newsletter
• Visit the kilns on youtube