FAQsWeaving the Dreams of Children
Economic constraints force parents to send the children to work. The answer to this problem is to follow a more dual approach. It is not only to get the children out of work and into bridge class/ formal schools but also to provide better opportunities for the parents in order to eliminate the need for them to send their children to work. This was implemented very successfully by Children's Welfare Society (CWS), a CRY America supported initiative, in Ghorewal in Sonebhadra district in Uttar Pradesh, North India.
Subhag Lal was born in Ghorawal, a district of Uttar Pradesh, India, famous for carpet weaving. To pay off his familys debt, Subhag Lal like many other children in the district, spent his entire childhood weaving carpets for less than minimum wage, instead of being in school. But all this changed when Childrens Welfare Society (CWS), a CRY America supported initiative took up Ghorawals cause. Today, Ghorawal has 98% of its tribal children in schools, 12 primary schools operational along with functioning primary health centers. As for Subhag Lal, he became a graduate and is Ghorawals Pradhan (village chief) today. He ensures that all the children in his community have the power to exercise their basic rights and are free to follow their dreams.
The Approach
Non-formal classes (transit centers*) for working children were started, enabling them to get a chance to educate themselves in spite of having to work. The organization started working towards improving the wages of the parents, ensuring that their children wouldn't have to work. 28 neighboring villages joined in making it a true people's movement. CWS also worked towards the return of community land seized by the local landlord to the villagers and collective farming started, with inputs from experts on farming methods and marketing of produce.
The Results
Today, there are 17 primary schools and 2 middle schools (government) in Ghorewal and near a 100% of the Adivasi children attend. One-time bonded laborers have become village pradhans (chiefs) and women's self help groups and micro-credit societies have been formed no longer requiring aide from CRY America or CWS.
CRY America's Role
Childrens Welfare Society is just 1 of 13 child-development projects supported by CRY America. We partner with CRY, Child Rights and You, India's premier and most reputed child rights organization to ensure that grants are optimally utilized and the quality of projects is enhanced. CRY's experience in capacity building and monitoring has been developed over 26 years. This ensures that resources are deployed so as to address the root causes of poverty, exploitation and discrimination and grassroots projects are helped to maximize the impact of every dollar.
To this end, we support and enable any or all of the following:
- Funding the non-formal education centers and balwadis (pre-primary centers) for the working children
- Funding the community organizers in CWS who brought the community together, giving them a perspective on their rights
- Helping CWS plan campaigns and programs aimed at mobilizing the community
- Providing training and organizational inputs that ensured the accountability and effectiveness of the program
- Linking the child rights agenda with the macro issues of livelihood
- Building a leadership team in CWS and giving them inputs on how to advocate for the community rights
- Linking CWS to other NGOs through the state and the country, thus enabling them to share experiences and learnings.
At the core of all this work is the belief that each child has rights that society and the state owe them - the right to survive, to develop, to be protected against exploitation and to participate in the decisions affecting her future.
*transit schools: non-formal education centers that supplement regular primary education and motivate children to learn and want an education
