Education For Carpet Working Children

Background

The project idea emerged from the experience of Garwah Chapter of AID and their work with carpet working children for more than 6 years.  The project was launched in December 1999 in Meral and Ramana blocks of the Garwah district.
The purpose of the project arose from the long-term plan for elimination of child labour in the carpet industry by 2010, initially identifying about 11,000 children of which there are currently about 6,200. 
The project drew its experience of providing creative education for carpet working children and involving their parents and communities.  It different from the creative education project insofar of the increased community participation and involvement and is being run through the villagers.  

Some of the important achievements accomplished by the project and grouped into areas of activity, were :  

Alternatives to Government education

• 894 children (ages between 6 and 15) enrolled for basic education. The overall average mark in basic education  by all children attending was 84%, the boys achieving an average of 88% and the girls 80%.

• This year the school centres operated five curricula and five sports.  AID provided learning materials and sports equipment to each centre to meet the lesson plans.  Like last year,  an abridged curriculum based on standard textbooks supplied by the State Government for primary (6-8 years) and middle school (9-15 years) were introduced for the purpose of moving the children into the main stream education system.

• As part of the ongoing publicity campaign among stakeholders,  numerous publications have been updated (based upon last year).  These included   the newsletter (Kathaki Pukar about activities in carpet units), special publications on food security and bonded labour and various hand bills.

• The life coping and life building elements of education in this year been  have incorporated into village organizational direct action programmes.  As part of the curriculum this year, the practical aspects and benefits of regular savings, circulating money saved for meeting credit and from which the children obtained direct benefit and central to alternative education.

• This year the cultural and sports programmes were given prominence by drawing them to attention through the use of music, drama, festivals and skits.  This developed their learning through participatory child to child education.  It both expanded and developed learning in ways which were interesting, enriching, lively and learning oriented through the use of a variety of learning methods.

• 274 children within the operating villages were admitted into formal mainstream State education.  During the year 94% of the village children enrolled, the mix being 56% boys and 44% girls.   This is a fundamental part of the project's programme to encourage the project to connect up with State education and campaigns for this purpose have been conducted in 30 villages.

• Through the SHG's for women has brought about increased enrolment of girls in schools and consequently reduced the gender gap from 50% a few years ago to currently less than10%.

• Peer education on a range of child deprivation issues was given to 102 boys and 52 girls enabling them to educate those with whom they came into close contact i.e. work mates, siblings, family members and friends.  It is believed they helped and influenced about 454 people,  giving them additional teaching.

• The project identified 94 child leaders and they were trained to guide and help other working children.  They became role models to influence changes in other children.  Consequently they influenced increasing numbers of children and youth through the campaigns for abolition of child labour and rights to education.

• The project also confronted the problems of the child and early marriage.  At child / youth forums they were encouraged to pledge not to marry before18 years of age.

• This year a drive was made to get communities involved in the enrolment of village children into schools.  The success of this initiative is being monitored through the government schools, their teachers and performance of children indicating improvement in quality of education.

• It is also evident that the many activities are bringing about ownership of problems by the communities in respect of child labour abolition and rights of children, particularly the right to basic education.

• 317 children were given vocational training through the community college and extension centres.  New courses were added this year for electronics, fitter engineers and computing.  The skill and job oriented courses for welding, automobile repair, tailoring and carpentry are continuing.

Health empowerment

• Health education sessions (120 hours total duration) were conducted for many groups of children between the ages 8 to 15 years.  They were instructed in the following : occupational health - personal health - hygiene and sanitation - community health - nutrition - water borne diseases - malaria. Disease awareness levels varied between 59% good, 29% moderate and 12% poor.

• Over an extended period it was found that 98% of children in the villages had increased in height and weight due to improved food nutrition.

• Numerous camps and campaigns for several aspects of health were organised :

  • 67 health camps

  • 6 campaigns on malaria, water borne diseases and occupational health diseases related to carpet work

  • 61 camps on improving nutrition which included 12 food processing sessions on preserving locally available fruits and other foods for future consumption.

• It was also found that immunization has increased by 13%, use of government health services by 8% and use of childcare services by 11%.  Health information is also now more accessible and readily available.
• A malaria outbreak hit the area this year and as a result of project investment the women groups with the support of the village Panchayats staged a mass protest against the failure of malaria services which brought swift response and action by the health service providers.

Parental empowerment

• 112 men and 91 women from the CBOs were given training on making more effective use of Government programmes in their respective villages, creating an awareness of their application in dealing with poverty and other related issues.

• Village education committees and women SHGs are taking increasing responsibility for the operation of Creative Education Centres (CECs) and Government primary schools.

• A team of 12 representatives from child forums, SHGs, village education committees (VECs) and teachers visited Tamilnadu in the Southern part of India,  to gain first hand knowledge and experience of how the various education and health programmes are operating in that State and learn from the experiences of those responsible in Tamilnadu.

• Throughout the year the village forums held regular meetings at fortnightly, monthly, bimonthly and quarterly intervals.

• This year 15 SHGs were added to bring the total membership to 1241 women. They have affiliation with block federations called Mahila Mukthi Vahini (Women Liberation Front) forming stronger social solidarity in dealing with gender and child rights issues.  The project provided opportunities to expand inter-group meetings, exchange experiences and develop networking.  The groups work with the government policy and administrative systems.

• The liberation of 15 bonded adolescent and child labourers in Uttar Pradesh were liberated arising from action taken by SHGs in Ruxi village of Garwah.  This provides evidence in support of the success of the learning processes and their dynamic impact upon government.

• Parental awareness meetings were organised twice a month in all villages for both parents dealing at times with extreme situations e.g. leaving new born babies in the streets.

Empowerment of Panchayats

• 294 volunteers from rural and tribal villages were given training in order to assist with activities of SHGs.  The problem areas were in the practical issues of communicating child rights and motivating social actions through the Panchayats.

• 12 villages were selected and using trained specialists, financial micro planning meetings were conducted in anticipation that government will develop planning and budgeting schemes through the Panchayats.  They  produced local plans which had been presented in the grasmshaba (village council) meetings in the presence of the Block Development Officer and other local authority personnel.  The ultimate outcome was the sanction of new roads, irrigation structures and construction of drinking water wells in 7 villages.  Also agreement on additional and improved education facilities.  All this to be undertaken, controlled  and managed by the Panchayats.

• Significantly,  the Panchayats were now to take increased responsibility for the alternative education centres working through village education committees (constituted previously through the project) and responsible for the decision-making, direction and management processes.  The campaigns for education (reversing child labour) were actively supported at all levels i.e. village, sub - district and district.

Objectives

The goal of the project was to empower the parents and their communities to reduce / prevent child labour in carpet units and at the same time to improve the educational and health status of the children.  The project commenced in December 1999 and was concluded in March 2004.

The activities previously undertaken by the project have now been integrated into and initiatives taken :

• Women groups
• Young carpet workers forums
• Village Panchayats Education for all centres (Sarva Siksha Abiyan) of the government
• Villagers are continuing the centres with their financial contributions
• Educators and volunteers generated through the project are continuing their activity