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Organization: |
Vikasana |
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Address: |
PB # 23,
Near SJM College Galihalli Cross, Tarikere-577 228 Chikmagalur Dist. Karanataka |
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Contact Person: |
Mr.
A.M.Varghees Cleatas |
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Asha Chapter: |
Melbourne |
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Date of Visit: |
14th
Sept 2003 |
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Visited by: |
Rohan
Garnaik, K. Shashidhar and Rohini Muthuswami |
ORGANISATION:
Vikasana
office is located in Tarikere about 240 kms from Bangalore in the Chikmagalur
District. The field area of their work
is spread in two districts: Chikmagalur and Shimoga.
We reached
Vikasana office around 11 in the morning and were met by Mr. Varghees, Mr.
Simhaji (Trustee of the board) and Ms. Prabhavati (Supervisor of women
activities).
Mr. Varghees
told us that he has a MA in sociology from Mysore University and has worked
with various NGOs in the last 25 years concentrating mainly on environmental
issues. He founded Vikasana in 1988
(Vikasana because people should improve; Vikas-improvement). Viksana has been working in Tarikere taluk
(Chikmagalur District) and in Bhadravati Taluk (Shimoga District) for the past
fifteen or so years. Bhadravati is well
known for its steel plants and paper mills while agriculture is the mainstay of
Tarikere. The main crop is sugar cane,
coffee, areca nut, and when drought persists-Tobacco. Child labor persists in this area with children working as
coolies in the plantations.
They work
mainly on Dalit and Environmental issues including tank restoration for which
PPI has provided funds this year. They
also have established SHG( Self Help Groups ) for women and for the past five
years have started a Bridge school for the school dropouts with the aim of
integrating them back into the formal education stream.
Their work is
spread in 160 villages- 130 in Tarikere taluk and 30 in Bhadravati Taluk. In these
villages they have formed SHG for women. Each SHG has about 18-20 women who
contribute Rs 15/ fortnightly as and when possible.
Five years
back, Vikasana started a bridge school for child laborers and school
dropouts. The children are mainly
employed in the sugar cane plantations where they harvest the sugar canes, and
in coffee plantations picking seeds/fruits, and picking lime which is used in
processing in steel and paper industry.
The volunteers of Vikasana have rescued many children from these
places. Additionally, many children
have to drop out of school because of difficulties at home-they are needed to
graze the cattle or take care of sibling.
One girl was twice taken out of school because she was needed to take
care of her older sister’s children!
The official
literacy rate as per government statistics is 69%. However, Vikasana estimates it to be around 39%. Most of the children are first time
learners. The parents are usually
reluctant to send their wards to school.
The women’s sangha formed by Vikasana persuades the parents to send
their children to school. The grassroot
counseling is important as the mind set of the parents have to be changed
especially when the child is an earning member of the family. There have been instances when the parents
take their child away-of 40 children admitted one year, 5 were taken back by
their parents. Prabhavati told us that
they consul the parents that it is important to think about the future
too. Today the child might be able to
add Rs 15/month to the family income, but tomorrow with education they would be
able to earn more.
There are 5
government schools in Tarikere and many private schools. The normal tendency is to have 1 teacher for
every 25 children. In Ganesh Pura
(Tarikere Taluk) there is a one-room school where classes 1 to 5 are held.
The bridge
school admits 35 children per year. 25
children are housed in Tarikere itself and 10 are housed in another village
about 40 kms away. The bridge school in
Tarikere is exclusively for girls. Most
of the children are in the primary school; few are studying in classes 5th,
6th and 7th. 2
girls are now enrolled in class 8th. The children reside here for a
year during which time they are coached so that they can join the formal
school. Clothes, books, notebooks,
stationary, food (3 meals per day) is provided.
There are two
teachers at the Tarikere Bridge School and one at the village (Shivani
Hobli). Two ayahs/cooks have been
employed. The teachers live with the
children while the ayahs/cook comes every day.
Daily routine:
They get up
around 6 and have physical training for some time. Then they have breakfast followed by prayer. Studies follow. Lunch is around 1.30 pm.
In the evening they go out to play.
Dinner is at 8.00 pm followed by watching news on TV. On Sundays they are allowed to watch movie.
NOTE: This
year, the children admitted to the Bridge school have been directly enrolled
into the government school and the teachers help them with their home work and
provide extra tuition. As the children
are enrolled in a school, the govt provides mid-day meal.
Teaching Method:
Children are
taught using both formal as well as playway method. Mr. Varghees has got some teaching aids prepared for teaching
alphabets and numbers. In addition,
government has also prepared some books for the dropout children. Vikasana has also purchased books to read
for the children. Also the fact that everybody stays together helps in building
a positive and fun outlook towards education, which is essential.
Follow-up:
Vikasana does
extensive follow up to make sure the children remain in school. They counsel both the teachers and the
parents. Of the 35 children from last
year, 18 have gone back to their parents from where they attend the govt.
school. The remaining 17 are living in
hostels as they are unable to go back to their parents place due to various
reasons (parents not alive, parents working in the city…). If a child is not
ready to join the formal school after one year, then they are allowed to remain
with the Bridge school and additional tuition is provided.
Vikasana
learns about the children through the women’s federation, through their grass
root network, and through schools (the teachers provide them the list of
children who have dropped out).
The children for the bridge school are selected based on the
following criteria:
1)
Age 6-14
years
2)
Children
of Dalit and Migrant parents are preferred
3)
Children
of Landless laborers
4)
Is the
family educated: Literate vs. illiterate with the later given preference
5)
Is the
child working in far off places?
6)
What is
the child’s background-they have a sort of questionnaire for children whereby
they judge the child’s interest
7)
Discussion
with parents-Consent of the parent is sought before admitting a child to the
bridge school.
TEACHERS:
Are recruited
from the village and the teachers reside with the children at the Bridge
School. They are selected on the basis
of education received (minimal high school pass), and whether they have basic
understanding of Kannada, English, and Hindi as well as whether they are
motivated to work with the children.
Vikasana has connected with APSA, Bangalore (supported by Asha) and they
send their teachers to APSA and other places for training. Also they are
visited by some professionals who teach the teachers some skill sets( like
knitting, making candles etc ) Vikasana also works with the existing government
schools to sensitize them about the problems faced by the drop-out children.
They have been getting good support now with the Block Education Officer and DC
of Chikmagalur evincing support, teachers who were reluctant are not supportive
of the activities. The Police department is also supportive
FUNDING:
The existing
bridge schools are funded by Karl Kooper Institute (KKS), Germany. Vikasana provides food and shelter for one
year. Three meals are provided a day.
The parents are requested to provide in kind- 25 kg Ragi/year and 1 pair of
cloth and chapels for their wards.
However, all parents are not able to provide this so out of 75 children
are so supported so far by Vikasana, about 15 are without support.
Initially, the
Bridge school was supported by GoI under Women and Child Welfare scheme (it was
the year of National Literacy Campaign). When the scheme shifted to Dept. Of
Labor, the funding dried up and they had to find other sources of funding.
The proposed Bridge School is located in
Bhadaravati. Vikasana plans to rent
space for the school. One of the
buildings is the community hall that will function as schoolroom. They will be renting one of the huts for the
children to reside. The rent for this
space will be borne by the community/SHG.
Vikasana has identified 10 villages (these are more like slums as
Bhadravati is a small town with a population of 25,000) and 25 children have
been selected. 10 of the children are
boys and the rest girls.
Budget: The budget proposed is reasonable.
Children
: The first thing you notice about the children, once their initial
shyness has wore off, is that they are inquisitive (questions were bombarded on
us: what is your name, your father’s name, your mother’s name, your brother’s
name, your sister’s name, your grandmother’s name…we cried pax), bubbly, and
excited about things in general. In
Tarikere we sat with the children and asked them questions about their
studies. They were able to read
Kannada, English, and Hindi as per their level at school. However, when we asked them to translate a
chapter in English (which the child had just read through) into Kannada, they
were unable to do so. They identified
the solar system and were able to answer questions about it. They knew what news they had watched on the
television. When asked what they wanted to do after school, most of the girls
answered that they wanted to be teachers and that too English Teachers. They
also wanted to know what we do and whether we go to school.
We asked one of the girls whether she knew about computer and she said yes she
knew about them. So we asked next what
was about it that she liked best and she said that the best part was that when
she was writing on computer she did not have to worry about making mistakes as
she could erase and rewrite.
Most of the
children were drop outs both at Tarikere and Bhadravati. In Bhadravati there was couple of children
who had never been to school because initially his father was opposing it and
now his mother opposes the idea. She wants him to herd the cattle that are what he is
doing. In the schools where the worst
thing that can be said to be a kid is “ you are fit to only herd cattle”, it is
not difficult to imagine the taunts these kids have to bear from both fellow
students and teachers. Vikasana is trying to sensitize teachers to this as
mentioned earlier. The children, both girls and boys, said they dropped out
because of problems at home. They had
to either help out at home because the mother was sick, or go out to earn because
of economic conditions, or help out when there were young children. One girl said that she had to drop out
because her sister had a baby and they wanted her to look after the baby. Few of the children were laborers at coffee
and sugarcane plantation. Few of the
girls were/had been working as household help.
One of the girls at Tarikere had been a bonded laborer and had been
rescued by Vikasana. The economic condition at home is quite miserable with the
father generally wasting money on alcohol.
Talking to the children at Bhadravati, one could make out the
desperation in their voices about their life and how they would like to get out
of it. They are willing to continue
school if funding is available. The
girls at Bhadravati wanted to know whether they would be provided with
schoolbooks, stationary, meals etc.
The project is
definitely worth supporting. Awareness
programme undertaken in the background, already existing network and
concentrated in-house schooling would surely pay results in the target area in
the long run. Intervention is needed and the Bridge School appears to be
helping the children be integrated into the formal school. Constant monitoring will be needed to make
sure that the children remain in school and Vikasana appears to be addressing
this issue. We need to enforce teaching
method so that the children are not only able to read the lesson but are able
to understand and interpret it. Also,
the project will need sustained funds probably longer than 3 years. However, as Vikasana has been able to run a
Bridge school for the past 5 years, doubtless they would be able to find
support for the Bridge School at Bhadravati too if needed beyond the intial 3
years.
Mr.Verghees pointed out to us that instead of trying to find support for extended periods of time, he wants to start with three so that it will not be a huge sum of money and then try to find extensions based on the performance of the school). One of the other overriding factors is the number of girl students that are being supported (It will not be lost on any of us that the girls face the maximum hardship when it comes to staying in school). We also did not find any religious bias and there were some Muslim students who wanted to be in the school, the president of one of the self help groups is a Muslim and we had a chance to talk to her (Chikmagalur has a good muslim population, it was the home of Baba Budan who introduced Coffee to India from Arabia).