"Nayantara" a Girl Child Sponsorship Programme

Nikki is a girl of 14 years, lives with her parents and one elder sister and two younger brother and sister in Turturi T.G Division of Alipurduar district of West Bengal. Her father Binod has education up to class IV standard and he is a labour. Her mother Anita is illiterate, works in ta garden as a garden worker. Her parents earn Rs. 4000.00 per month against hard labour and have to maintain their six member family in extreme financial hardship. Nikki lives with her family in a small house in the tea garden, which is not their own house but the garden owner allowed them to stay in the house. The house is made of teen sheet and the condition of the house is poor as is very old and most of its parts are broken. They don’t have any drinking water source and household toilet in the house. The physical environment of the house and its surroundings is not good, but there is no option for them to shift somewhere else.

The parents of Nikki are not aware enough about environment and its cleanliness; not even know what is good or bad, also don’t have initiative taking care of their children. Her father is addicted with local made alcohol, consumes almost every day and often creates unrest and breaks the harmony and peace in the family.

Nikki is physically thin and malnourished. She never guided by her parents taking care of her health and personal hygiene. She is reading in class VIII in a local school but was very irregular attending school as she couldn’t follow lesions during class room sessions. Moreover she was not so attentive and interested studying in school. Her parents were also reluctant about her irregularity attending school, poor performance and her least interest for study.

In the meantime two coaching centres for backup support to the children like Nikki have been established. After knowing the fact and family condition of Nikki through survey, she was counseled to continue her study better way, necessity of education, its benefit etc. During counseling she became motivated to take backup support through the coaching centre. The intention of setting up coaching centres was shared with the parents of Nikki and advised them to send their child in the centre. Nikki’s parents realized the need of their child and agreed to send her to coaching centre.

Presently, lot of changes has taken place in Nikki’s life. She became regular attending both coaching centre and her school and was found interested in her study. Nikki is getting tuition support preparing her home tasks, improving her general knowledge and involved in extra-curricular activities. She is also getting nutritional supplementation in the coaching centre and improvement in her health status has been observed. Nikki desires to help the poor people and wants to become an example in her community. 

Girls are not legally allowed to get married before at least 18 years. but unfortunately we observed  for a long time that there are many poor families in this remote part of sundarban who are being forced to get married their girl child before 15 or 16 only due to financial problems. Early pregnancies, risk of maternal and child mortality, poor health condition of child and mother, including the problem of malnutrition are the obvious outcome of this practice.

 The initiative of NAYANTARA PRAKALPA by  Sabuj Sangha is taken to improve the life and status of the girls by helping economically and morally backward families of this village of Nandakumarpur, so that those families do not arrange marriage of their girl child before at least 18 years and ensure their education at least upto higher secondary.

 It is decided that Sabuj Sangha will provide those girl child required books, educational kids, monthly tution fees, provide free coaching for English and mathematic, and even few things like cosmatics  for use in their daily life.

we never expected that level of changes that Sumana got after taken admission in Nayantara” said Sumana’s  parent. Sumana was a bright student from the beginning. She only needed proper guidance and motivation to flourish herself. and within this short span of time she upgraded to a great extent.

‘We are really grateful to Nayantara for motivating and guiding my daughter. Before taking admission in Nayantara of Sabuj Sangha, my daughter was not studying regularly and was roaming around with others in the neighbourhood. She was engaged in playing most of the time. There was no discipline observed in her life and also not involved into proper hygiene practices. Now she is much more regular in her studies and became very disciplined as she is getting support from Nayantara”. responded Shrestha’s mother

It was really necessary to take such an initiative like Nayantara for the betterment of the community. This initiative is really beneficial for the entire community of Nandakumarpur. Such initiatives should go hand in hand with the government. Therefore, linkages with the local stakeholders were established namely Prodhan and Member of local Gram Panchayat, Parents, teachers of different school. They are pleased with this intervention and they desire to continue this initiative in future for community betterment and we are still in the learning period.

Story of Adhunika:

Adhunika can be easily spotted in the classroom, among the other girls due to her vivacious nature. “But six months ago she   was not the same, she used to hide seeing a stranger”, says    Pravati Mondal, teacher of  Nayantara, at Nandakumarpur, where Adhunika has been coming for the pas six months Adhunika’s mother Aparna, who being only sourse of income in the family works door to door for earning and she is the only daughter of them. Her father Sidhheswar , has been suffering from physical illness and not able to earn. With the responsibility of household work of the  family  Adhunika couldn’t continue her study. Having lost her voice in such a vulnerable family, she found it back again after coming to Nayantara.

Being a fast learner Adhunika quickly acquired competency in language and math. She is also learning several art and craft along with computer classes. “The knowledge of art and craft classes helps me in making different objects like doll, toys etc.”, says Adhunika. With her increased confidence and skills, Adhunika wants to earn a living by making different product in her home. She is equally good in dancing and in academic performance in her class.

The initiation of Nayantara Programme has supported immensely to the vulnerable adolescent girls. They have started getting support to continue their education and not falling in the traps of societal odds like early marriage, unsafe migration, trafficking, child labour, drop out etc.  

The Nayantara Programme is giving support to these girl children in muti fold aspects namely distributing educational materials like books, pens, pencils, geometry box, exercise copy, eraser, sharpener, drawing copy and colour pencils etc so that there will be no interruption in accessing education for financial reasons; Providing coaching support especially in Mathematics and English as the rural girls are found to be weak in these two subjects.  Periodic evaluation of her progress is monitored by taking weekly and monthly tests by the teachers.

These girls have been supported by a “Hygiene Kit” containing of body soap, shampoo, cream, tooth paste, tooth brush, sanitary napkin set, comb, hand towel etc to maintain their personal health and hygiene.

Nutrition support has also been given to them every morning before starting of the coaching class. Low cost protein with cereals is supplied for this purpose.

They also participate in co-curricular activities which have been arranged under the project.”Bratachari” is one of them. They like the songs, dance and the physical activities in the Bratachari class and actively participates in the class.

They are very fond of Art & Craft classes which have been arranged for exploring her creativity and imaginations which finally lead to a child’s proper mental growth. Every Sunday morning they come for the class.

Overall, these underprivileged adolescent girls are very happy and excited about getting the support. It has opened with a new horizon in their life. The children who were almost deprived of basic rights is now into the proper environment of education because of this support. Therefore, they, along with their family members are really grateful for the support.

“Nayantara “Programme of Sabuj Sangha is aimed for the adolescent girls who want to continue their education, but cannot complete it because of several socio economic obstacles in their path. In Sunderban, girl’s education has no importance in most of the families. The parent’s literacy level is mostly very poor or completely illiterate and therefore, these girls could be termed as first generation learners.

Most of the adolescent girls are dropped out and engaged in household work, look after their siblings or elderly persons of the house, often they joined as child labour or as maid servant in near or distant locality and became the victims of child trafficking and child abuse. Most of them are compelled to get into the trap of early marriage and become the victim of adolescent pregnancy. Risk of maternal and child mortality, poor health condition of child and mother, including the problem of malnutrition are the obvious outcome of this practice.The girl children are very much neglected in all respect and deprived of their basic rights. This is culturally accepted by the parents and other community people & continuing generation after generation.

Sabuj Sangha believes that the curse of poverty can be removed by education and empowerment. This concept develops the Programme “Nayantara” where adolescent girls of 13-18 years old are ensured to access education. The Programme also helps them to learn vocational courses after 18 years and other extracurricular activity which helps them to earn in future.

Suchitra is in class IX and studies in Nandakumarpur High School. She stays in the village of Nandakumarpur in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, India. She is a very studious girl and wants to study. She lost her father two years ago who was a cancer patient. Suchitra is the middle of her another two sisters and one brother. Her mother was a housewife before and illiterate also. She did not do anything except household work until her husband was alive. But after his death she suddenly falls into limitless misery. Her husband’s treatment takes entire of their savings and all the assets. She is an illiterate and so it was hard to earn money to run her family. Somehow she gets a job of maid servant in neibourhood. Suchitra has an elder sister who reads in class XII, a younger brother who reads in class III and a sister who reads in class VII. Her sister has a tumor in her forehead. She need to treat immediately but cannot get minimum treatment for their poor economic condition.

Through this Programme, she is getting support in various aspects like coaching support in subjects namely English and Mathematics with experienced teachers for 6 days a week; she is supplied with all the study materials like text books, exercise books, pens, pencils, eraser, geometry boxes etc; monthly examination has been taken and she is getting good numbers in class tests and in school.

Also getting nutritional support consisting of low cost food like puffed rice, Bengal gram, roti with vegetables, banana and breads etc is another feature; classes to enhance physical and mental abilities are also getting focus.

Hygiene support consisting of hygiene kits containing sanitary napkins, comb, toothpaste, tooth brush, hand towel, cream, shampoo and soap for her personal hygiene maintenance.

Suchitra is also taking active part in various life skills training programme.

Suchitra is very much interested about the coaching class and the supports she is getting through this Programme. Her family decided that they will also support her to complete her education. She wants to be a teacher in future and she will definitely succeed by the help of this support.

More of such support is required for these underprivileged adolescent girls so that they could move towards education and empowerment gracefully.