GIFT THE GIFT OF EDUCATION TO AN UNDER-SERVED GIRL

 “Where pace of life remained laidback and sluggish, winds of opportunity in our lives made it all vibrant & energetic such is a power of knowledge and acquiring skill”

 Belgachia Slum at Howrah, Kolkata-Situations in Belgachia, Howrah

Belgachia is the place located in Howrah district very near to Howrah Station and Salkia. It has two ways communication of rail through Liluah station and bus / road communication from Howrah station.  It is a township linked with proper Kolkata , Belgachia has a vast land of waste used as dumping ground. Belgachia Bhagar (local name) is one of the biggest slum area in West Bengal As the areas is heaped with waste material dumping, most of the nearby communities are engaged into rag picking as a profession.

The entire community is migrant from Bihar; they are dom( helping hand in crematorium)  by caste , known for centuries. Children start their day with a big bag in order to collect rag and plastic bags.  They earn in the range of Rs. 100 to Rs.150/-.  They don’t go to school. Even few  who do go to school are do the rag collection as a part time job. Male folks are KMCs Safai Karmachai (Scavengers), others do vegetable vending and Rickshaw pulling.  Women do household work or into domestic maid work. Youth and men are addicted with alcohol and substance abuse .  Women face domestic violence, physical abuse. Girls are drop out from school & youth just playing cards or whiling away their time.Pigs roam about in these areas.

There are three  schools in the area- 1. Primary school within community. 2. KMC school within community 3. High school within 3 Km radius. Most of the schools are empty as children are into rag picking. The schools get maximum presence of students only in the midday meal and in the day while school dresses are to be distributed. 

Here is a short brief about the slum/ Communities:

1. Entire slum has 4000 population among whom 1600 are children.
2. Slum has 4 / 5 lanes.
3. Women and Girls are around 1000.
4. Community are migrant from Bihar- basically Paswan(SC/CT)  community settled here
5. Most of them are Dalit-  and Dom by caste; few are having Dalit cards also.

 Education:

1. Men are illiterate- there are two / three people who have completed class VIII; most of them are not literate
2. Women education level is nil.
3. Adolescent’s girls are not going to school.
4. Children are irregular to school.

On this backdrop -Project Nandini came into operation in this slum.  The project aims to enable the children and girls through livelihood and entrepreneurship program.

Activities undertaken 

• Survey within the slum for identifying i) the children for sending the school so that they can stay regular in the academics and involve into ICT based Education program i.e. Gyantantra ii) the most eligible groups of girls and women may be the parents of the children who could take training (according to need, economic status and aspiration along with commitment, SC ST , backward caste, BPL families etc.)
• Identification of Govt. Primary School who is ready to accept the activation of the school with a view to more mobilization of students through ICT based Gyantantra and also to reduce drop out and absenteeism
• Recruitment of teacher for facilitating the ICT based Gyantantra operation in School
• Installation of Computer Systems in the School and operation of ICT based education started
• Recruitment of trainer for mapping the existing skill of the women as well as conducting regular session on cutting , stitching and sewing machine operation.
• News Paper bag (recycling) making training had been organized here among girls and women as a part of a community level business.
• Regular Monitoring of the centre
• Evaluation will be undertaken at the end of 6 months training.

 Outcome of the program: 

• Survey has been conducted successfully in the whole community
• One paid Volunteer and one teacher had conducted the session with the children regularly.
• Shastri Shiksha Sadan Primary School has been identified for implementing Gyantantra at the ground level.
• 60 children of Class- IV after having taken Gyantantra course at Shastri Shiksha Sadan School are already promoted to class V with far better results.
• 20 women and girls have been enrolled into the stitching and tailoring classes.

 Impact of the program: 

• Shastri Shiksha Sadan School has enrolled students of 450 while hardly 100-150 used to come; after the installation of Computer systems and followed by the classes,the attendance just doubled.
• Parent teacher meeting became more useful and meaningful – they felt their children are getting quality in education.
• Quality of academics has improved; children are careful and prompt in spellings etc, make sentence and essay writing also.
• Govt. teachers are also become active and responsible. They are also visiting the field along with LI community mobiliser for child tracking and also the home visit.
• 16 Women & Girls are regularly pertaining training of stitching and tailoring & paper bag making.
• Girls and women have already started work  through neighbor and home based order
• Few girls are mobilized within themselves to start a business
• ICT project featured by Leading English Newspaper “The Statesman” featuring Literacy India`s initiative at this School.

 Stories of Change among children/women

Name:  Pushpa (Name Changed)  Age: 12 Years  Location:  West Bengal

Pushpa, 12 comes from a destitute family and they reside in a small rented accommodation in Daspara, Howrah. They are a large family of nine members and originally belong to a small rural area in Patna. Besides Pushpa they have two sons and two more daughters. Her father is a daily wage labourer and also runs a small stationary shop simultaneously. He is just a class X pass and not very literate. Pushpa’s parents were not ready to send her to school, and wanted to engage her in only the household chores. They wanted to get her married off, but the ICT Gyantantra digital learning program fascinated Pushpa to such an extent that they were compelled to send her.  When Pushpa had joined the program she understood only Hindi, initially. She could write in Hindi and knew only the basics of the language. Her Mathematical Aptitude was limited to the knowledge of tables from one to two and some introductory addition. After going through the course curricullam of  ‘Gyantantra Digital Dost’ , today, she can solve a lot more than just basic addition problems. She knows how to multiply, subtract, divide and solve fractions. She can read and write sentences in Hindi and in English, as well.She can easily run a computer which is a pride in her which could be sensed by the parents.

 Name:  Lovely (Name Changed)  Age: 23 Years  Location:  West Bengal

Lovely’s mother works as a domestic helper and her father is a newspaper vendor at Howrah station. She has two siblings, one brother and a sister. She has studied only till class I and her experience was quite dreadful. While she was in school, her teachers would scold her incessantly and keep punishing her. Her parents did not support her as well and no one helped her with her homework. She stopped attending school due to this distressing situation.When Lovely heard of Literacy India’s vocational training program she joined without any delay. She started coming to Literacy India’s Karigiri learning centre for training in tailoring and stitching. As she’s just studied till Class-I, she faced a challenge in measurement and product costing. As soon as it was identified that she had been facing such hindrances, Literacy India’s staff started personal interaction with her and convinced her to take the special class in functional mathematics through ICT based ‘Gyantantra’. She was very hardworking, diligent and picked up quite fast. She writes all the theoretical sessions in her drafting book meant for sewing/tailoring.

Today she can cut and measure using a tape and is planning to enroll in an open school( Distance learning for Older persons) after completing the training. At the same time she plans to start a home based tailoring business for the community. Lovely says “I am very happy and blessed to be a part of this training. It gives me opportunities such as tailoring and functional education. I do not feel inferior anymore in fact I feel competent and I can earn as well.”

 Name:  Poonam (Name Changed)  Age: 30 Years  Location:  West Bengal

 Poonam completed her class X standard and her father arranged her marriage. She got married off at the mere age of 17 and her day started with domestic chores. After a while, she gave birth to a child. During her childhood she used to dream of completing her studies and wanted to work in an office. She felt unhappy that she had to get married in her teens instead of pursuing her studies.  Literacy India’s Karigiri Centre brought hope in her life.  She had enrolled in the tailoring and stitching program with great optimism and aspirations.  She picked up fast and turned out to be a quick learner.  Her work has an impeccable finish and design.

Today, she manages to balance both her domestic chores and tailoring activities. At the moment she is looking forward to the the completion of the course and then she plans on starting a business in designing baby frocks, gift items and so on.