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The objective of the project is to provide access to basic education to the children of the poorest families who are recently settled in Vidyutsadasivapuram village, Chittor District, Andhra Pradesh. The funds required for the project are $11-12K p.a. for the three years and $25K for the construction of school building. The original proposal sent by MICDA is presented here. This proposal has been converted into the Asha-Delaware checklist format and can be found at this link.

Project Objectives and Needs

An NGO called MICDA (Mother India Child Development Association) is operating a school in Vidyut- sadasivapuram of Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh under National Child Labor Project. The school serves children of landless laborers who have recently been settled on government land. The school is run as a composite of 3 NCLP schools as each NCLP (National Child Labor Protection) school is meant only for a maximum of 50 children. Thus the NCLP school caters to the need of only 150 children, however the demand is from approximately 300 children in the area. The short-term objectives of the project are to provide access to basic education to the children of the poorest families who are recently settled in the project area in a safe and joyful environment. The long term objectives of the project are to pressurize the state to provide the basic education facilities to the children of the area.

Project History

Vidyutsadasivapuram in Puttur mandal of Chittoor district, A.P, is an uninhabited village till recently. Endowed with a rich ground water and surface water potential, the village affords unlimited possibilities for development of the landless poor. Consequent to the Estate Abolition Act of 1948, this village was taken over by the Government. Right from 1948, several landless poor had been requesting the Government to allot the land among them for their livelihood.. For more than 15 years, Dr.Subbramaiah, the Chief Functionary of MICDA, has been working for allotment of this land among the landless poor belonging to the 13 villages around Vidyutsadasivapuram.

Perseverant, Dr.Subbaramaiah succeeded ultimately. The Joint Collector-cum-Settlement Officer of the Chittoor district had, in his 1995 judgment, declared that the land at Vidyutsadasivapuram, in fact, belonged to the Government. By August 1995, 418 landless households had migrated to Vidyutsadasivapuram and started reclaiming them. All the 418 families have put up temporary thatched huts. The District government extended their full co-operation and had issued lease 'pattas' (land title deeds) to 418 households at the rate of 1.5 acres of land per household.

OXFAM (India )Trust supported Dr.Subbaramaiah by providing financial assistance for 'Legal Aid and Community Organization' while he was fighting court cases filed by the land grabbers and other vested interests . The cutting and burning of bushes in the entire land was completed with the assistance of OXFAM and ACTIONAID, another NGO.

After distributing the partially leveled land among the 418 poor households, four important hurdles still remained in the progress of the new settler community becoming self sufficient, these are:

• Development of reliable irrigation facilities

• Further leveling and bunding of land

• Development of roads, drinking water facilities, housing electricity and

• Development of educational, health and medical facilities

Asha-Delaware is attempting to raise funds and provide support for the educational aspect of this project, as defined by the following needs

• The present school under NCLP is running with the support of the government, however the support is going to be withdrawn from the 2000-2001 academic year.

• Details of the staff: Teachers: 8 (male 6, female 2), Minimum Qualification of the teachers: Graduation. There are 2 PostGraduate Teachers among the 8. Administration and Accounts Assistant: 1, Cooks: 3.

• The school is being run in the temporary thatched shelters. There is no other infrastructure available for the children of the school.

• Expansion plans for the future: MICDA expects to construct a permanent school building and reach out to the remaining children of the community and provide formal education. There are no schools of any kind in the project area of Vidyutsadasivapuram.

There are no schools of any kind in the project area of Vidyutsadasivapuram. 

Constituency to be served by the Project

The main constituency are the 300 or so children of landless laborers who are currently in danger of losing government funding for whatever school facilities they have.

The local community in the habitation belong to poorest Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribe and Backward class community and are socially and economically marginalized. The community was landless before they came to settle in this habitation and is mainly dependent on daily labor wages (depends on the availability of labor) for their livelihoods. Even after the allotment of land the community is yet not able to derive any benefit from the agriculture activity as the land distributed needs development and provision of irrigation facilities. MICDA is undertaking various land development and watershed programs presently on the land, which was provided to these people with an intention to provide income support to the community. However it would take another 2-3 years for the community to start getting some sustainable income from the land. The present average income levels are Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 per annum from daily wage labor. The male literacy rate is approximately 12% and the female literacy rate is approximately 4%. However there is a great enthusiasm in the community to send their children to the school. The source of this information is from the primary source collected by MICDA during their work with the community.

The present child labor school temporarily located in the habitation with the support of the district government provides education facilities from class I to class VII. The temporary school is housed in the thatched structure. Even this temporary school is in the danger of closure from the coming academic year (2000-2001). As a result of the acute poverty suffered by the community the schools which are situated in the other areas (Puttur which is 14 kms away) can not be accessed by the children.

Community and Volunteer Involvement in the Project

The current President of the organization, is Mr.K.V.Venugopal, an Advocate by training but social worker by practice. The president and the General Secretary of the organization are jointly empowered to undertake all financial transactions and are collectively responsible to the governing body of MICDA. Of the 11 members, 6 are women. The President and the General Secretary belong to different castes and are not related. Other members of the managing committee are not related to each other. They represent different social groups and hail from different parts of the Chittoor District. The only thing that unites them is their commitment to the objectives of MICDA. Thus, the Governing body of MICDA represents relatively young, educated and committed social workers representing different social groups. The parents of the children who are the residents of the community are mostly illiterates, still MICDA is organizing them and motivating them to send their children to the schools regularly and in a hygienic manner.

Continued funding of the project

There are no sources available for the running of the school once NCLP scheme is withdrawn. The project will be made sustainable by bringing pressure on the state to provide grant for the running of the school after 3 years. The availability of infrastructure and established demand for the service will motivate the state to provide the necessary grant for further running of the school.

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