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Children's Welfare Society (CWS)  

CENTREREDA
(This program is no longer supported by CRY)

CHILDREN'S WELFARE SOCIETY (CWS)

Economic constraints force parents to send the children to work. The answer to this problem is to follow a more dual approach. It is not only to get the children out of work and into bridge class/ formal schools but also to provide better opportunities for the parents in order to eliminate the need for them to send their children to work. This was implemented very successfully by Children's Welfare Society (CWS), a CRY-supported initiative, in Ghorewal in Sonebhadra district in Uttar Pradesh, North India.

To share two examples with you. Subhag Lal was born in Ghoraval, a district of Uttar Pradesh, India, famous for carpet weaving. To pay off his family's debt, Subhag Lal like many other children in the district, spent his entire childhood weaving carpets for less than minimum wage, instead of being in school. But all this changed when Children's Welfare Society (CWS), a CRY supported initiative took up Ghoraval's cause. Today, Ghoraval has 98% of its tribal children in schools, 12 primary schools operational along with functioning primary health centres. As for Subhag Lal, he became a graduate and is Ghoraval's Pradhan (village chief) today. He ensures that all the children in his community have the power to exercise their basic rights and are free to follow their dreams.

When Urmila Kumari sat for her 8th standard Open School Exam, she had overcome odds so great that her appearing for the exam can almost qualify as a miracle. 10 years ago, children in Urmila's village were working on looms in the infamous carpet industry, bonded for life with little hope of an education. Urmila's life was changed by Children's Welfare Society (CWS). The organisation was founded with CRY support and addressed the growing problem of child labour in the carpet industry. All the children across the 5 villages where CWS worked were out of school. Their parents were bonded labourers, forced into bondage because of crop failure and the children had to work to ensure the survival of the family.

The approach

Non-formal classes (transit centres) for working children were started, enabling them to get a chance to educate themselves in spite of having to work. The organisation started working towards improving the wages of the parents, ensuring that their children wouldn't have to work. 28 neighbouring villages joined in making it a true people's movement. CWS also worked towards the return of community land seized by the local landlord to the villagers and collective farming started, with inputs from experts on farming methods and marketing of produce.

The results

Today, there are 17 primary schools and 2 middle schools (government) in Ghorewal and 98% of the Adivasi children attend. One-time bonded labourers have become village pradhans (chiefs) and women's self help groups and micro-credit societies have been formed no longer requiring aide from CRY or CWS.

What was CRY's role in all of this?

• Funding the non-formal education centres and balwadis (pre-primary centres) for the working children.
• Funding the community organisers in CWS who brought the community together, giving them a perspective on their rights.
• Helping CWS plan campaigns and programmes aimed at mobilizing the community.
• Providing training and organisational inputs that ensured the accountability and effectiveness of the programme.
• Linking the child rights agenda with the macro issues of livelihood.
• Building a leadership team in CWS and giving them inputs on how to advocate for the community rights.
• Linking CWS to other NGOs through the state and the country, thus enabling them to share experiences and learnings.

This, in a nutshell, is what CRY attempts to do with each of the organisations and thousands of communities it works with. The core of which is the belief that each child has rights that society and the state owe her - the right to survive, to develop, to be protected against exploitation and to participate in the decisions affecting her future. So when the work done by CWS enables 13-year old Urmila Kumari to sit for her Open School Exam, CWS has only ensured that her family, the immediate community of which the family is part of and the local bureaucracy have all recognised this right of Urmila's - the right to an education.

CENTREREDA
(This program is no longer supported by CRY)

The districts of Madurai, Dindigul and Theni, in southern Tamil Nadu, are prone to severe drought. As a result, migration and landlessness are common, and children are sent to work in the knitwear units at Tirupur to support their families. A whopping 30% of the child population works instead of going to school. They pick flowers, graze cattle, serve in the tea stalls and automobile workshops, make baskets and so on. Loans taken from rich landlords, at high rates of interest, are rarely paid back, leading to an increasing incidence of bonded labour of both children and adults. Female infanticide is highly prevalent and the sex ratio in the region is an abyssmal 1000:896.

The story of Annakamu is typical. She used to get up at 4 am everyday and head for the flower fields of Nillakotai. These fields are inhabited by venomous snakes and Annakamu had lost friends to snakebites. Nonetheless, she had no option but to risk her life every morning, because her large family (nine members) needed the money she earned. She dropped out of school in standard 3, to become a child labourer.

Annakamu's life changed when CENTREREDA (Center for Rural Education Development Association) a CRY-supported project working in Nilakottai block in Dindigul, intervened. In association with 10 other NGOs in the near-by districts, CENTREREDA has formed the CBC (Campaign for Balanced Childhood) Network, which focuses on educating children and eliminating child labor. After repeated counseling sessions with Annakamu and her family, CENTREREDA were able to persuade Annakamu's family to send her back to school.

Today Annakamu is in the 5th standard and intends to study further.

CENTREREDA's approach

• Make the community aware of the need for education.
• Guide the community on issues like healthcare and alternative sources of livelihood.
• Encourage women to demand the rights of their children.
• Rescue and rehabilitate children in bonded labour- 30 children have been so rescued and rehabilitated over the past year.
• Get actively involved in the Village Education Committees and thereby train the community to monitor, retain and mainstream the children into formal schools.
• Train the CBC staff on child rights to help them better organise the community into a people's movement.

CRY's role

CENTREREDA is just one of hundreds of child-development initiatives supported by CRY. For these initiatives, CRY -

• Educates communities about their rights, so that they do not get exploited.
• Helps develop a leadership team in the project and teaches them to advocate for community rights
  Funds non-formal education centres and balwadis* for children.
• Empowers families and communities to give their children the best possible education and healthcare.
• Helps NGOs like CENTREREDA plan campaigns and programmes aimed at mobilising the community
  Provides training and organisational inputs that ensure the accountability and effectiveness of the programme.
• Improves health standards by training communities on basic hygiene and healthcare.
• Links NGOs through the state and the country, enabling them to share experiences and learnings.

At the core of all this work is the belief that each child has rights that society and the state owe her - the right to survive, to develop, to be protected against exploitation and to participate in the decisions affecting her future.

*balwadis - pre-primary schools