From: Amritha Raghunathan
Date: Mon May 7, 2001 7:36 pm
Subject: APSA project review
Overview:
Funds requested to set up 10 ‘Potential Child Labour
Centres’ (PCLCs). Each will serve 40-50 children. The
goal is to prevent slum children from dropping out of
school in order to join the labour force.
Financial Breakdown:
Total: $19,250
All of it consists of recurring costs for staff,
materials, nutritional supplements, and rent for the
building.
Funds have been requested for three years.
Discussion:
The PCLC is a motivational resource centre for
children. Children are tutored in basic literacy given
an awareness of their rights, and provided with viable
alternatives to child labour like vocational training
and self-employment opportunities. They also plan to
provide extension classes in science, math, social
sciences and english, a laboratory for
experimentation, recreational activities, and
nutritional supplements.
Very positive site visit reports from Shanmuga and
Vishy. Both of them have commented on the practical
approach taken by APSA volunteers and their commitment
to serving the community as a whole. They manage to
affect many more children than their resources would
suggest, which is exactly the kind of ideal we as Asha
want to support.
Interventions for slum children are desperately
needed, yet very few organizations are working in that
field. The problem is largely ignored.
It is clear they have put thought into exactly what
kind of programme is needed. Instead of providing the
PCLC services for all standards, they have targetted
the time when children need it the most. Most slum
children do not reach the 10th standard, and start
dropping out around the 7th standard. Therefore, that
is why the programme has been set up to serve those
particular standards.
The few PCLCs that are already running show promising
results. Although most of the slum corporation schools
show a 50-60% success rate in terms of students
graduating to the next class, both the slums with
operating PCLCs showed rates above 90%.
APSA’s overall approach is good:
They have been working with the government and
existing system. Their main aim is that the students
go back to corporation schools already set up in the
area. They work with those schools in order to improve
the conditions. They also serve as a training
organization and have trained not only many of the
corporation school teachers but the Karnataka juvenile
service bureau and the Bangalore City Police as well.
This offers the opportunity for extensive impact.
They have built strong inroads and relationships with
the slum communities due to their varied programmes
which include:
1) Facilitating slum federations in order to give them
some political power.
2) A programme that targets children from outside the
city who have come looking for jobs. They are given
immediate counseling and support to get back to their
hometowns. This is crucial in terms of preventing the
child from immediately getting into a bad situation in
order to survive.
3) A slum credit programme has been set up.
Due to all these well-thought out, practical and
comprehensive programmes, it certainly seems as though
APSA is the right organization to implement the PCLCs
and make them successful.
Questions/comments:
The biggest thing is that they wish funds to be
guaranteed for three years. Therefore, after WAH funds
it, chapters will have to fund them in for two years.
It seems like APSA is a high-profile organization.
Have they attempted to get funding from the Karnataka
state government for their programmes?
What plans do they have towards self-sufficiency? What
do they plan to do after the three years? What are
other sources of funding? They claim that other
projects of their achieved self-sustenance. How did
that happen?
The site visit by Vishy says that a few of the 10
slums have community halls and only for the rest does
rent have to be paid for a centre. Yet funds have been
requested for rent in all ten slums.
How much community participation is there in terms of
planning the programmes? Do they interact well with
the organizers?
What is the parental support involved? What is their
response?
What types of vocational training and self-employment
techniques are being taught? What has been the result
of this?
Recommendation:
This is certainly a worthwhile project. It can be
funded for WAH as long as they do indeed have a plan
for becoming self-sufficient in the near future.
Amritha
From: Vishy
Date: Tue May 8, 2001 7:50 am
Subject: Re: FW: [ashaaz] Fwd: [asha-pwg] APSA project review
Hi,
Following are the answers:
It seems like APSA is a high-profile organization.
Have they attempted to get funding from the Karnataka
state government for their programmes?
****** Goverment also has schemes where they fund similar projects under NCLP
(National child labour projects) scheme. But the clause of this is : Project
need to deal with children working in hazardous sector . Construction work
for 7 year old is not an hazardous one. APSA is working with the government
to get this redefined. Now the progress so far made is : Govt lets NGO's to
define
what is hazardous and what is not.
This is the progress at concept level. But for getting funds need to go
through lot of middle men (Bribe)
and funds do not reach in time . There have been cases when NGO's have sued
govt for the delay.
Near future not a realistic / practical to assume govt to fund project.
Even govt also had made progress over years.: They have started a
"Chinnara
Angala" : Back to
school project. Recent sruvey by Govt with help of school teachers have
identified about 10 lakh
children all over karnataka have currently dropped out of school. This
project aims at getting atleast 1 lakh
of them back to school. APSA has been working onthis project with Govt
****************************************************************************
What plans do they have towards self-sufficiency? What
do they plan to do after the three years? What are
other sources of funding? They claim that other
projects of their achieved self-sustenance. How did
that happen?
******In some cases Govt has adopted model similar to PCLC in some of the
slums .
Self sufficiency is by getting the children back to school witihn three years
without them
having to need PCLC after three years for complimenting that which is not
provided in school.
Vocational programme for grown up chilldren to help them be skill ful to
get some jobs.
****************************************************************************
The site visit by Vishy says that a few of the 10
slums have community halls and only for the rest does
rent have to be paid for a centre. Yet funds have been
requested for rent in all ten slums.
******Intial proposal has comphrehended that to some extent. Exact
numbers can be got when the actual work starts
****************************************************************************
How much community participation is there in terms of
planning the programmes? Do they interact well with
the organizers?
What is the parental support involved? What is their
response?
Children continue to live with their families. So without parents help going
back to
school is not possible. Other activitiesd like self help , micro credit
system works
closely with community around PCLC's
****************************************************************************
What types of vocational training and self-employment
techniques are being taught? What has been the result
of this?
In Nammamane : tailoring , screen painting , elecrtical repair work is
taught.
In tailoring they have two groups : One being taught. Other were they take
small orders
and deliver.
****************************************************************************
Regards
Vishy
By Murali Mani on Tuesday, May 15, 2001
- 11:36 pm:
I think this project is *very* good and
definitely worth supporting, once again, the question is all the costs appear
to be recurring costs -- what are they going to do next year? the school
*should* have an answer to that. Also, i think it might be better to actually
have their own centers rather than rent them for sustainability.
regards - murali.
By InfoShare Administrator (Admin) on Thursday,
May 24, 2001 - 08:55 pm:
Summary: (of points raised so far)
submitted by Neha Kumar neha@cory.eecs.berkeley.edu
History:
APSA is a grassroots community development organisation with a focus on the
development of the community of the urban slums, street children, child
laborers and children in distress (child victims of prostitution, abandoned
children, runaway children etc.) It was started in 1981 by a group of youth
with trade union and sociology backgrounds and a mission of empowering the
underprivileged sections of the community, especially the slums of Hyderabad
and Bangalore.
With vast experience in development work, APSA is attempting systematic
development of the urban poor by integrating social paradigms of
self-sufficiency at the family level with campaigns and advocacy at the macro
level. With right to participation and protagonism as its base, we believe in
the strength of the People and their ability to fight for their own rights.
APSA is one of the earliest organizations which vehemently spoke of and has
been successful in implementing the idea of 'People centered Development'. In
effect, this People centered Development has taken the form of the 12
comprehensive projects. Each of them stands as a testimony to APSAs commitment
towards equality and justice.
Project Description: The PCLC is a motivational resource center for
children. Children are tutored in basic literacy, given an awareness of their
rights, and provided with viable alternatives to child labor like vocational
training and self-employment opportunities. They also plan to provide extension
classes in science, math, social sciences and english, a laboratory for
experimentation, recreational activities, and
nutritional supplements.
The PCLCs cater to students from the 7th to the 10th standard classes in
government and corporation schools in slums where the success rate in terms of
students graduating to the next class is as low as 50 to 60%. The children who
are assisted here show a success rate of 95% when they appear for the Public
and school annual examinations and they are continuing their higher education
in colleges and technical institutions around Bangalore.
Goal: To set up 10 ‘Potential Child Labor Centers’ (PCLCs), each serving 40-50
children. The idea is to prevent exploitation of slum children, and to educate
them.
Break-up of funds:
Number of centers 10
Number of Children / center 40 to 50
2 Teachers Rs 2000 *2 *13 Rs 52000.00
Stationary Rs 5000.00
Sports Material Rs 5000.00
Exposure Trip Rs 5000.00
Nutritional supplement Rs 1* 40 * 24*12 Rs 11520.00
Rent for center Rs 1000 * 12 Rs 12000.00
Total /Center Rs 90520.00
Total for 10 Centers/ year Rs 905200.00 i.e approx US $ 19250.00
Recurring Costs: Teachers’ pay, nutritional supplement for students and the
rent for the center.
Positives:
1. Positive site visit reports from Shanmuga and Vishy. Practical
approach taken by APSA volunteers and commitment
to serving the community as a whole.
2. Both slums with operating PCLCs showed a 90% success rate in terms of
students graduating to the next class, as compared to most of the slum
corporation schools with a 50-60% success rate.
3. Good overall approach:
They have been working with the government and
existing system. Their main aim is that the students
go back to corporation schools already set up in the
area. They work with those schools in order to improve
the conditions. They also serve as a training
organization and have trained not only many of the
corporation school teachers but the Karnataka juvenile
service bureau and the Bangalore City Police as well.
4. They have built strong inroads and relationships with
the slum communities due to their varied programmes
which include:
1) Facilitating slum federations in order to give them
some political power.
2) A programme that targets children from outside the
city who have come looking for jobs. They are given
immediate counseling and support to get back to their
hometowns.
3) A slum credit programme.
Concerns:
1. Recurring costs for three years, which means that after WAH funds it, it
will have to be funded by chapters for the next two years.
2. Have they attempted to get funding from the Karnataka
state government for their programmes?
3. What plans do they have towards self-sufficiency? What
do they plan to do after the three years? What are
other sources of funding? They claim that other
projects of theirs achieved self-sustenance. How did
that happen?
4. The site visit by Vishy says that a few of the 10
slums have community halls and only for the rest does
rent have to be paid for a centre. Yet funds have been
requested for rent in all ten slums.
5. How much community participation is there in terms of
planning the programmes? Do they interact well with
the organizers?
6. What is the parental support involved? What is their
response?
7. What types of vocational training and self-employment
techniques are being taught? What has been the result
of this?
Responses:
2. The Govt. also has schemes where they fund similar projects under NCLP
(National child labour projects) scheme. But the clause says: Projects need to
deal with children working in hazardous sector. Construction work for 7 year
olds is not hazardous. APSA is working with the government to get this
redefined. Progress so far: Govt. lets NGOs define what is hazardous and what
is not. This is at the concept level. To get funds we need to go through a lot
of middle men (Bribe) and funds do not reach in time. Hence, it does not seem
practical to assume that the Govt. will fund the project.
The Govt. has made progress over the years: They have started "Chinnara
Angala" : Back to school project. A recent Govt. survey (with the help of
school teachers) has identified 10 lakh children all over Karnataka who have
currently dropped out of school. This
project aims at getting at least a lakh of them back to school. APSA has been
working on this project with Govt.
3. In some of the slums, the Govt. has adopted a model similar to PCLC.
Self-sufficiency is getting the children back to school without them having to
need PCLC after three years for complimenting that which is not provided in
school. There is a vocational programme for grown up chilldren to help them
become skillful and get a job.
4. The initial proposal has comprehended that to some extent. Exact
numbers can be obtained when the actual work starts.
5. Other activities like self-help, micro credit system works
closely with community around PCLCs.
6. Children continue to live with their families. So without parents help going
back to school is not possible.
7. In Nanmane: tailoring, screen painting, electrical repair work is taught. In
tailoring they have two groups: In one, they are taught. In the other, they
take small orders and deliver.
Contacts:
Asha Contacts:
Ullas Nambiar ( Steward for APSA-PCLC,Asha- Az,USA)
email: Ullas.Nambiar@asu.edu
Phone: 1-602-430- 3748(cell)
#204, E Lemon,Tempe, Az - 85281, USA.
Visvesvaraya(Asha-Banglore Contact for APSA-PCLC)
email: vishy@india.ti.com
Phone:91-80-3207855 (H)
Msp,Texas Instruments, Golf View Holmes,
Wind Tunnel Road, Murgeshpalya, Banglore –21,India.
Vijay Dwarakanath(Asha-Az Project Coordinator) – vjdwar@hotmail.com
APSA- Association for Promoting Social Action
‘Nanmane’ 34 Annasandrapalya, Vimanapura Banglore 560 017.