Help 750 child labourers go to school, not work

Amir remembers the day his parents convinced him to drop out of school. "I was bullied because I wasn’t able to learn my lessons as quickly as my other classmates. So Abba thought it’d be better if I left school and helped him make pashmina shawls instead.” he recalls.

But soon he realized that being confined in a small room to make shawls was not his dream. He wanted to explore the world and become a ‘big man’; not stay in Baramulla for the rest of his life. That is when a CRY project in his village helped change his story. They came over to speak to his parents, motivated him to go back to school and worked with his teachers to make sure he learnt his lessons well. They also ensured that he wasn’t teased by the other kids, which helped him focus on his studies better.

Today, he is studying in 6^th grade and loves going to school!

“I miss my father. I was about seven when he passed away. And everything kept on getting difficult. My mother would cry a lot. Some of the days we would eat just one time. I have four brothers and three sisters. They all started farming on our small land. My mother too goes away for days. She goes to the big nearby cities where she works as a farm labourer. I used to stay at home with my sisters and helped them in the household chores. I was good in studies but had to drop out when I was in second standard. It was not possible to work at home and then go to school also. My mother also got very sad that I had to leave my studies. In the next few years I also started going to the cities with my mother. I started helping her out in the farm and most of the time would help in the potato cultivation. But my story has changed since.

Would anyone believe that I have started going to school again! This happened because of the centre that opened in our village. It is for children who has stopped going to school. The teachers come to a lot to our home. They convinced me and my mother that I should learn and not earn at this time. And education could one day help us live a better life. My brothers and sisters too supported my journey back to school. At the centre, the teachers helped me to bridge the gap in studies and I was very fast in picking up. I am now studying in sixth standard. And I am very happy.” – Sona, Kotra district, Udaipur

Eleven year old Sona is one amongst the many child labourers from the tribal dominated Kotra district. Being one of the backward district and plagued by poverty, the district sees a huge number of migration to nearby states like Gujarat every year, with children being a sizeable population. With the support of our partner organization Kotra Adivasi Sansthan, we are making an attempt towards curbing the problem of child labour through setting up of Child Activity Centres. The purpose is providing remedial education to the children who are either out of school or on the verge of dropping out and facilitate their enrolment back to school.