Center for Development - Kadam

Project Brief: Education of children affected and displaced by riots and the twon planning scheme of Ahmedabad
Project Type: Non-Formal Educational Centers (description)
Primary Focus: children from slums (description)

Secondary Focus: children who are working

Area: Urban
Supporting Chapter Contact: Cleveland
Status: completed - sustainable
Project Steward: Fehmida Kapadia
Project Partner(s): Meera malek
Other Contacts:
Project Address: , Center for Development,Ahmedabad,Gujarat,
GUJARAT 
Tel: 91 079 2657 7016
Stewarding Chapter: Cleveland
Oct 2011ClevelandUSD 9000
Mar 2011Work an HourUSD 8757
Feb 2011ClevelandUSD 2400
Jan 2010ClevelandUSD 11000
Nov 2009ClevelandUSD 4500
Apr 2009ClevelandUSD 9000
Feb 2009ClevelandUSD 4500
Oct 2008ClevelandUSD 3388
Mar 2008ClevelandUSD 4160

Total = $56705

The population in Piplaj comprises of families affected by the riots of 2002. These families have been relocated to the outskirts of the city under the Town Planning Scheme. Each family was provided a plot of 12ft by 15ft with no bathroom facilities or running water. The families themselves arranged for bricks etc to build the houses. There are over 500 families living in this area. The population is a mixed population of Dalits and Muslims.

Kadam has been working with these families since the 2002 riots. Currently they are runing informal schools to provide education to these children. The nearest school is more than 5 miles away and hence inaccessible to the children.The children are divided into grades I-VII with the aim of providing government-level education hat will help them get into regular schools. Children will be taking the government-based exams at the end of the year to graduate to the next level.

Most of these children are also employed as child laborers in nearby factories or work as rag-pickers.

The effort is the help integrate these children into mainstream education so that they can go to regular schools and obtain formal education.
Center for Development (CfD) came into formal existence on 25th of January in 1996.The group came together specifically to address the issues of education primarily in Muslim and Dalit community. CfD believes in their complete emancipation and in creating a society with deep communal harmony. It currently works in the city of Ahmedabad and in rural areas of Junagadh district of Gujarat. CfD’s target groups are Dalits, Muslims, Kolies and fisher folk communities. Women and children of these communities remain the focus group of the organization.

CfD started its work in 1998 with child labourers and has enrolled more then 1200 children into formal schools, till date. Irregular and inadequate income were the main cause of children’s school drop-out. Hence, they started income generation programs with their families. This helped greatly in keeping the children out of labour work. In 2001 there was a massive earthquake which affected the lives of many people. This again affected the education of the children. Schools were closed for months for renovations and parents were scared so they did not send the children to schools. The second consecutive year, 2002, saw communal carnage on a very large scale. Thousands of people were killed and more than 150,000 people were displaced and living in relief camps. The riots continued for six months and people were segregated in many colonies. The whole atmosphere was of suspicion and uncertainity. In this situation people could not think of sending their children to schools because of insecurity. Hundreds of children dropped out from schools. Many families shifted far away from their original living place to newly built relief colonies build by religious organizations. Means of livelihood were destroyed; economic boycott and polarization of communities snatched their livelihood resources. The families became divided and their lives were disturbed in all facets. The main affected groups were children, girls and women.

CfD has been working with riot affected people of Danilimda, Behrampura, Piplaj and Ramol area. They have been involved in peace building exercises with these people since 2002. Education of children was completely lacking in all these areas as most of the children did not go to schools and were drop outs. CfD started education centres for these children and also integrated peace building alongside by taking equal mix of children of both Dalit & Muslim communities in the centres. This helped the children better understand each other. During the parents meetings, the parents of children of the two communities also got a chance to interact with each other. This really helped in forging friendships and developing a better understanding between the people of the two communities.
CfD continues its work with the rehabilitation and education of riot affected victims.