Project Build is an effort to facilitate educational opportunities for children of brick kiln workers. Since 2002, Asha's project partner, Pasumai Trust, has been operating several centers in this area that provide non-formal education to about 250 such children. In addition to their educational activities Pasumai Trust has also been able to galvanize the migrant worker population to advocate for their rights.
Project Build’s primary goal is
To create educational opportunities for the children working in brick industries.
To motivate children to enroll and continue their formal education.
To provide nutritious supplementary food for children.
To carry on advocacy and campaigning activities to change the education policies of the government to accommodate the needs of migrant labor children.
To organize the parents (Workers in brick industries) of the children working in brick kilns.
To create awareness about child labor in brick industries.
Your contribution to Project Build will help cover the school's expenses for one year.
More on Build-Pasumai Trust
Brick kilns are operational for approximately six months in the year - from January (after pongal) to June. Migrant workers return to their villages after June and participate in agricultural activities till the next work season. They are often paid advances, cloaked as loans, to ensure that they return to work next season. Since the pay for brick making is proportional to the number of bricks prepared, whole families sometimes participate in this hazardous profession. Taken together, the migratory pattern of brick kiln workers and rampant child labour have created conditions that make it difficult for children of such workers to receive an education.
Through a three-pronged approach of tackling children's education, migrant worker rights and the government educational system Pasumai trust has been able to provide a system of learning that works around the parent's migration pattern. In the WAH 2009 proposal they seek to create an infrastructure that would:
Employ teachers to bolster the educational capacity of the existing government schools near the brick kilns
Appoint facilitators who will assist in the logistics of transferring children from the government school in their village to a school near their kiln
Motivate the parents not to put the children to work and,
Create a platform to address worker's rights.
Two aspects about the project clearly align with this years’ WAH theme, 'Quality of Education': The first is that this project ensures children receive continuous education and second, existing government educational infrastructure is bolstered with additional teachers so that children get more attention in school. Build proposes to hire 4 teachers and 2 field staff who will be managed by a coordinator. Teachers would be added to the government schools while the field staff and coordinator intend to travel to worker's villages to work with the panchayats and local government bodies in order to promote children's education and spread awareness on child labour laws as well as worker's rights.
