Rehabilitation of 360 Trafficked Child Laborers

Give us a chance! We will prove we are the best! (Kinshu Kumar, Former child labour)

25 children, mainly first generation school learners, aged between 8 and 15 years, under going rehabilitation in Bal Ashram, excelled in the annual examination of 2009, conducted by the Rajasthan State Board of Examination. Kinshu Kumar former child labour rescued by Bachpan Bachao Andolan in 2002 from Mirzapur, UP, stood first in the entire school in the third consecutive year, with a percentage of 90.6.

Sothana government school is the nearby school of Bal Ashram where the children of government officials, teachers, business people and other well established people are getting education. Bal Ashram Children also study in the same school. But the children of Bal Ashram present impressive results and thus proved their strong will to achieve education and a strapping determination to excel in academics.

Out of several students who achieved distinction, one of the students, Manan Ansari, who was rescued from mica mines, Kodarma, Jharkhand by Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA, in 2007 and brought to bal Ashram for rehabilitation) has scored 80.27% in 7th Standard Final Exams.

“First position in my class is my sweet revenge to the trafficker and my former employer who put me in the slavery and darkness” Manan Ansari.

Like Manan, there are students who, despite past circumstances, proved their spirit and will to excel in life, their names are as follows:

Student Name Class Percentage Rank/position Kinshu Kumar 8th 90.6 1st Amarlal 8th 84.22% 2nd Manan Ansari 7th 80.50% 1st Virendra Singh 6th 76.05% 2nd Sandeep Kumar 6th 75% 2nd Banti Kumar 8th 71.11% 4th Dhara Singh 9th 72% 3rd Kailash kumar 7th 72% 2nd Billu Kumar 5th 66.28% 1st Mukesh Kumar 5th 65.71% 2nd

Puran kumar Banjara, Omprakash Gurjjar, Suman kumar, Abdulsalam, Nittu kumar, Pradeepsen, Abdul Malik, Mo. Samsur, Rakesh Sada, Suresh Kumar, Rahul dube, Pradeep Mehata, Shankar Kumar, Bhupati Kumar, Vishal Kumar,

The Head master of the Sothana Public School said that Kinshu, Amarlal, Manan and all the Bal Ashram children did extremely well in the examination and the school is hoping that these children will perform better in the future. He also added that “we are very proud of these children and have increased the prestige of the school with their results and raised the bar higher”.

Bal Ashram Director Mrs. Sumedha Kailash appreciated all the above children with awards and gifts. During the award ceremony she said that “Bal Ashram is proud to have these children in the Ashram and I am confident enough that theses children will do much better in the future”. She also valued the efforts of Bal Ashram staff who helped the children to achieve such good result.

All the above children had a traumatic past and have a terrible story of humiliation, torture and bondage to share the world. The aura of Bal Ashram gives them back their childhood without a burden but with a lightness of freedom and this resulted a better academic performance.