STORY OF HIRALAL (FILM MADE BY SESAME WORKSHOP INDIA)

Considering the poor literacy amongst the tribal community and negligible presence of government support for primary education, this program was started in two villages and ended as handing of these NFE centres to the government to be operated as recognised schools. When the project ended there were 68 such centres with a total strength of about 5000 children, of which 36% were girls and 64% were boys and 94% of the students were tribals.

With a focus on the school education sector, Mahila Shiksha Karmi Project trained 102 women from the same community to be a teacher. These women went back to their villages after obtaining 3 years of training to start schools in their villages. 

This was an initiative to identify, motivate and train local youth, belonging to the same village where they will motivate community about primary education and teach young children. A training program of five years was prepared and women were identified to become trained teachers for running government aided schools. About 100 teachers are currently working for 33 schools in the district

Project aimed at providing quality education to the young children, through community mobilisation, identification of local youth to work as teachers. Young children who left schools were provided with informal classes to catch-up with the other children. School mapping and better teaching methods were explored and dealt with in the project.

Project was envisaged with a purpose to reduce child labor and ensure that all children in age of 6 -14 are in schools through community mobilization and strengthening of child protection structures in the district. 171 Gram Panchayat level Child Protection Committees (GP CPC) are formed and oriented to protect the rights of the children and prevent child labor. These GP CPCs are covering about 606 villages in Dungarpur District.   2300 SHGs (about 40,000 SHG members) are oriented on the child rights and importance of educating their children. SHGs organized special meets for this issue. Every SHG member was asked to identify two more families and be responsible to prevent any concern related to child labor in these families. The SHG members were also responsible to make sure that the children of these two families are regularly attending schools, therefore creating a network of about 200,000 families, free from child labor and where the children are obtaining education. a total of around 3,500 children were identified as non school going children, 2700 of these were enrolled in various schools.  PEDO’s Team has made presentations in 163 Gram Sabhas on the issue of child labor and Right to education act. Template for School development plan has been prepared and discussed for implementation. PEDO has oriented and is in contact with 1536 School Management Committees for the implementation of School development plans. SHG leaders are already playing a very important role in identification of vulnerable families and children. The SHG federation leaders are given the responsibility of sustaining the grass root level institutions (GP CPC) for child rights.  All these efforts and mobilisation of community has led to the declaration 100 villages as free from child labor and where all the children are attending schools, regularly.  The delivery system of social protection schemes was also targeted to be bettered. The identification of the right candidates for the benefits and linking them to various schemes has been a major task under the program. About 3500 families were linked to various social protection schemes, which have eventually bettered the lives of the children of these families.

The project is aimed to reduce deprivation and vulnerability of children through Child Sensitive Social Protection approach. The project is implemented in 37 revenue villages of 9 Panchayats of Bicchiwara and Dungarpur Blocks. The children and their caregivers are linked to the social protection schemes, to benefits orphans, Physically Challenged, female students, children living without their fathers, mothers or parents etc, for obtaining maximum benefits of the provisions of these schemes. Assessment of vulnerable children was carried out through mapping methods and it was ensured that the benefits of the schemes are reaching the child. Various communication tools were explored for reaching out to the children and their parents. About 2500 children obtained benefits due this measure.  Proper parenting tips were shared during the Self-help Group meetings along with ensuring the enrollment and regularity of young children in schools. All the SHG members have pledged to make sure that the children get proper education and health care. The schools were also brought under the purview of the program. Special camps to encourage the children to attend school, were organised. 426 children were enrolled in the schools. who had never been to the schools.