Non Formal Education

Building child right of the indigenous community

The project started with the support of Niwano Peace Foundation with the goal of holistic development of Children belonging to the most marginalized tribals among the tribals of Orissa.

  • Promotion of rights of the tribal child belonging to the most backward part of the tribal community.
  • Creation of non-formal education system for children between the age group of 3-14 years.
  • Promotion of nutrition and immunization of the children.
  • Linking of the non - formal schools with the formal education system.
  • Creation of peer reviewing system to encourage the education of children through the CBOs.
  • Promotion of kitchen gardens for nutrition of the child.
  • Linking of the project with existing govt. schemes to ensure its sustainability.
  • Weaning away of the tribal children from child labour.

Impact at a Glance: Non Formal and Preparatory schooling

  • The adivasi children who are afraid to go to school because of language and other problem are now not afraid to go to Primary school.
  • Increased capacity to speak Oriya which builds confidence.
  • Parents are interested on education.
  • Women are interested in better management of school.
  • In nearby villages also people are taking more interest on education.
  • Totally 18 children are mainstreamed this year.
  • In the morning and in the afternoon children's time is managed properly.
  • Attendance in school have increased.
  • Drawing, playing and other extracurricular activities inspired the creativity of children

Education Volunteers

The education volunteers have taken a lead role in sensitizing the parents on the need of education. They have taken a lead role in enrollment of children in school going ccampaign. The education volunteers are one of the main strength of the project. They are quite active in their village work both for child right, education as well as for parents economic empowerment.

Formation of school level "Shishu Adhikar Club"

These clubs have facilitated awareness building among the community in general and the parents in particular with respect to hazards of child labour and importance of education. The members of the club would motivate and mobilise the parents of the child labourers to send their children to school. All the teachers of the school would be involved in the process and the senior teachers would be responsible for guiding the members. The Clubs would sit once a quarter and review the progress and plan out strategies for future course of action.

Mass Rally

As part of the mass campaign, it has organised Gram Panchayat (GP) level mass rallies of community members, opinion makers, women group members, parents of child labourers, teachers and students. The rally will cover all the villages/hamlets of the GP and meetings would be conducted in each village/hamlet to spread awareness on the issue of child labour.

Campaign in weekly haats

The weekly haats (market) in the Panchayat is the centre of mass gathering. Haat days are normally off days and thousands of people come there either for making sales or purchases.

Training on life skills for children under 14 years of age

The literacy inputs to children will need to be supported by training on life skills. The children sought to be addressed by the project are children under distress conditions. Hence it is imperative to develop their ability to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. Their ability to demonstrate an adaptive and positive behaviour while interacting with others, his/her culture and environment will also make them a well balanced individual.

Economic Empowerment of parents through linking of CBOs/ SHGs to Financial Institutions and by promoting small scale enterprises

Poverty is one of the major problems of parents in sending the children to school. In order to economically empower them, they would be formed into Self -help groups and would start Income generation activities. To decrease the number of cases of child labour, the economic empowerment of the parents is necessary. This will be enabled through the following activities:

  • Developing and strengthening CBOs and SHGs in the project area.
  • Organising meeting of SHGs with bankers and other relevant Financial Institutions.
  • Starting small scale enterprises with available raw material.
  • Organising different Enterprise based training for parents.