Fun Fair for Children and Parents

Children from migrant families are often seen left out of schools, mainly due to their frequently changing living conditions. We, at Door Step School, try to identify practical difficulties of this section in the society. Different solutions are offered to handle community-specific challenges. It takes considerable time to gain trust of the parents. But once it is achieved, the results are very satisfactory and motivating.

One of our projects focuses on parents' participation in their child's education. We have been working in Baner-Balewadi area with certain groups of migrant families. After repeated visits to their houses and rigorous follow-up meetings, we could convince and help most of the parents in sending their children to schools. But the job is not over just with school admissions. A bigger challenge is to retain the children in schools despite language differences, daily commuting issues, mixed responses from the schools, and such other barriers. We are happy with the results so far in case of these families from Baner-Balewadi area. We decided to arrange a gathering for these people as a follow-up meet on larger scale.

A fun-fair was thus organized on 15th of January 2017, at an open ground in Baner. A small stage was set up for children to dance and play. Door Step School team presented street play on importance of education. Basic sanitation points were discussed with parents and children under WASH activity. All the attendees enjoyed fun activities as well as special snacks items arranged at the fair.

Our team was very well supported by enthusiastic group of volunteers from Wipro, Hinjawadi. They helped us in conducting various activities for parents and children. Local Municipal Corporator Mr. Baburao Chandere and social worker Mr. Lahu Balwadkar helped us in arranging the venue. They visited the fun fair for inauguration.

Around 80 parents and 180 children attended the fun fair. These parents have come to Pune in search of employment, from remote villages in Maharashtra as well as other states like Bihar, Karnataka, and Chhattisgarh. They live around Baner, Balewadi, Pimple Nilakh areas and work on construction sites or other such places on daily wages. The team has been working with them since almost an year now. Most of the children have been enrolled in nearby government schools and all efforts are being taken to retain them there until the families migrate to another location within or outside the city.

(Reported by Harish Phadke, Door Step School)

Connecting the dots...

Over the years, we have come across many self-motivated individuals and groups that are contributing to the cause of education for underprivileged children in the society. Some of them are helping the children learn through classes conducted at community level, some are creating awareness among the parents about importance of education, while some are actually taking the children to nearby formal schools and trying to retain them there. Although all of them are determined and motivated, it is a fact that they are facing many challenges due to limited physical and knowledge resources.

Door Step School is trying to connect the dots by offering knowledge support to such volunteers and groups. As an organization with 25 years of presence in the field of education, Door Step School can provide training and monitoring support, guidance in preparing and using innovative teaching tools, insights on community-level issues, and methods of pulling in other resources.

If you are part of (or know about) any such volunteer groups working (or willing to work) for education of underprivileged children in their area, do connect with us. We would be happy to help for optimum utilization of volunteering resources towards the larger objective of ‘Education for All’…

Write to eccex@doorstepschool.org or call 986-000-8070 for more details.

An Inspiring Story from Hyderabad

Bhanu Chander works as a STEM trainer for a Robotics company in Hyderabad. He and few of his friends wanted to help children in nearby slums get education. They visited the slums and interacted with parents and kids to understand reasons for children not attending schools. Apart from financial constraints, it was also observed that many parents did not know about local schools and their admission procedures. The volunteers approached a residential school and helped five children get admission. However, the children did not continue due to various reasons, fear and insecurity of the parents being major reasons. Accepting the failure of their first attempt, the volunteers then tried to get these children enrolled in nearby government schools. Most of the children belong to labourer families who have migrated from other states and cities to Hyderabad. Obviously, the children do not understand the local language - Telugu. The government school teachers informed volunteers that the children need to know at least basics of the Telugu language, if they want to attend the school.

Stuck in this situation, Bhanu started looking for help and came across Door Step School's programmes for migrant workers' children. In the month of October 2016, Bhanu wrote to us about his experience and plans about the children. His friends had already decided to start teaching the children on weekends, but they were clueless about how and where to start. During next one month, we had numerous interactions through e-mail, phone calls, and WhatsApp. We discussed various options like involving a local NGO from Hyderabad, conducting the study class in nearby school, building rapport with the parents, etc.

The volunteers have now started their weekend classes in the slum. They are introducing Telugu, English, and basics of Mathematics to the children between 5 and 14 years age group. Around 20-25 children attend these classes conducted by volunteers on Sarurdays and Sundays. They keep a track of what is being taught in each session, so that they can plan further sessions with same or different volunteers as per their availability. Door Step School has a reading skill development kit already prepared and being used for Marathi language. We are trying to replicate a similar teaching module for Telugu. We are also working out how English and numeracy skills can be taught to these children with help of simple teaching tools and workbooks.

The volunteers recently celebrated Children's Day in the slum. Parents have started responding positively and are happy to see their children learning something new every week. The volunteers are very much determined to bring these children into mainstream of education by start of next academic year. The Every Child Counts campaign was launched by Door Step School in 2011, with a vision of involving concerned citizens in education of out-of-school children, making it an organic and sustainable model of community development. Bhanu and his friends from Hyderabad are setting a wonderful example of how citizens can contribute towards the larger goal of 'Education For All'.

Every Child Counts – Bengaluru Pilot

Every Child Counts – Bengaluru Pilot

Bengaluru continues to see significant construction activity. A vast majority of these construction workers are migrant labourers.  Education of their children poses a challenge. Only a small percentage of the children of migrant labourers attend school, the rest remains out of school because of various reasons, they need to stay at home to take care of the younger siblings, or schools are inaccessible or simply they can’t cope up with schools having stayed out of school for prolonged time.

Though various NGO’s and government have been working to address this problem, it is a work in progress, any help is usually welcome.
 It is with that premise, this initiative originated, asking the question:

“How can an ordinary citizen in Bengaluru contribute to the cause of the education of the migrant labourer?”

 That question brought together a team of a set of likeminded people, with a desire to contribute something to cause of the education of the children of migrant labourers. The first lead to finding the answer was the “Every Child Counts Citizen Campaign” or ECC.  Inspired by the successful journey of ECC Pune, which has been working for the last five years with a similar objective, the team aligned to the goals and methodology set down by that campaign.

The goals and the plan to achieve the goals began to take shape. The short term goal was to pilot an ECC Clone in one location of Bengaluru. Haralur road, which borders the HSR layout, Hosur Road and Sarjapur Road, which has been witnessing a boom in construction activities was selected as the pilot location. Enrolling the out of school around two government schools of Haralur road thus became the primary objective of the campaign.
The campaign adopted the same structure ECC Pune had laid out.

• Citizen would survey the locality, identify out of school children between the age of 6 and 10, and collect the details.
• Citizen would engage an NGO and with their help, use the data collected to chalk out a practical plan to enrol the children identified to the government schools. The best case would be NGO selected would have funding to set up bridge schools in that locality.
• NGO with the citizen execute that plan – enrol children directly to schools, set up bridging facility for the ones who cannot be enrolled.

As the citizen volunteers were not part of any NGO, the team choose to stick to the name of original – Every Child Counts – Bengaluru Pilot.

Given that the citizen volunteers had minimal experience in such surveys, the team approached for help, ECC Pune, Azim Premji Foundation and Gubbachi, all experts in this area.

Experts from ECC Pune were more than willing to share not just their experience, but also the toolkit required for the campaign. Gubbachi assured that if in case it emerged that there is a significant number of out of school children in Haralur road, they could potentially be the partnering NGO in the campaign.

Thus after an orientation session held attended by 11 citizen volunteers, the campaign kick started.  The citizen volunteers surveyed the Haralur area for 4 consecutive Sundays. Open source Android apps for surveying were also made available. The volunteers met with parents or relatives of children of the labourers.

The volunteers were received mostly warmly by the people. Their apprehensions would often ease out after a few minutes of conversation. Knowledge of local language became crucial to the success as majority of the people surveyed were from North Karnataka. Knowledge of Hindi, Telegu became useful too. The clusters surveyed ranged from decently organised labour camps by the big builders, to unhygienic chaotic shanties. Sunday 12.00 became the standard time for surveying the locations, as the team found the parents of the children being available on site for conversation.

Most of the parents were willing to send their children to school, provided some of the concerns were met. This included -

• a safe transport to the school,
• a day care for their younger sibling,
• mitigating unsafe conditions in the schools.

The initial survey was led by volunteers with prior experience.  The apprehension that whether novice citizen volunteers would scale to their level dissolved in the second week, where the first timers did a wonderful job of initiating and carrying on conversations with the labourers.  Though the number of volunteers dropped, the volunteers from the same locality continued the survey till it covered the target area.

With 52 children identified in approximately 1 square kilometre, the first phase of the campaign achieved what it set out to achieve, a handful of volunteers completing the survey of the locality, identifying children in the age group of 6-10. The labourers found were mostly from north Karnataka, and the rest from West Bengal.

The campaign has now moved on to the next phase, evolve a plan of action along with Gubbachi.  The data thus collected have been handed over to NGO Gubbachi.  Therefore the campaign stands at a crucial phase, where without any funding, it has to solve problems such as setting up a bridge school, arrange for transportation, etc. The positive response from Gubbachi has kept the hopes of the team high so far. The team hopes that in the coming weeks, it will be able to address most of these challenges.

- Reported by Ranjit A Pillai, ECC - Bengaluru

Even they want to go to school...

Let us help every child get education.

Call 986-000-8070 to report

out-of-school children in your area.

'Every Child Counts'

A citizens' campaign
to ensure every child gets its right of
free and compulsory education.

Let's Help Out-of-school Children Get Into Schools

Door Step School runs Every Child Counts campaign to ensure every child gets its Right to Education. We need volunteers across Pune city, for helping out-of-school children reach schools. Volunteers can participate in parents' awareness sessions, survey and admission process, arranging transport to and from schools, and follow-up with schools for regular attendance of enrolled children.

Areas that need immediate volunteer support are -

• Hadapsar
• Kondhawa
• Katraj
• Undri
• Pisoli
• Kharadi
• Chakan
• Khed Shivapur
• Pimple Saudagar, etc.

Call 986-000-8070 or write to volunteer@doorstepschool.org to join this campaign.

You can also attend the open meeting on every Saturday at 3:00 PM. Purpose of this meeting is to provide an open platform for the volunteers already working with Every Child Counts campaign, to share their experiences and ideas. Also, an orientation for new volunteers interested to join this campaign is conducted with help of ECC core team or other experienced volunteers. Status of survey, admission, and follow-up activities are reviewed and further plan of action is decided.

Meeting Location:
Door Step School,
3rd Floor, Dattakrupa Building,
Opposite Karishma Society,
Off Karve Road, Kothrud, Pune.

Please confirm your attendance on 986-000-8070.

Surveys, Parent Meetings, and School Enrollments

For several years, Door Step School has been working for education of children from migrant and marginalised communities in Pune. As a part of these efforts, the Every Child Counts (ECC) campaign was launched to ensure every child between the age of 6 and 14 years gets its right to free elementary education under Right to Education Act, 2009. While conducting the ECC campaign activities like survey and admissions, the role of parents in their children’s education was observed to be minimal. Hence another project called Parents' Participation in Child’s Education (PPCE) was started to increase awareness among parents. Through this project, we work with parents for a longer duration, educating and empowering them about various aspects of Right to Education Act and schooling of their children.

The month of May saw the surveys starting in full swing, to identify out-of-school children across the city. In the month of June, these surveys were followed by meetings with parents and enrollment of children in nearby PMC/PCMC/ZP schools.

By the month of June 2016, our Every Child Counts field team surveyed more than 1,000 locations (construction sites, brick kilns, temporary slums, etc.) across Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, and other fast-developing outer areas. Around 1,100 children were found in the survey, out of which 600 have now been enrolled in nearby government schools. About 50 volunteers from various corporates and institutes in Pune contributed close to 200 man-hours in the campaign activities. Similarly, 200 parents were interviewed under Parents' Participation project, with help of 20 volunteers.

The survey, parent meetings, and school admissions will continue in coming months and more volunteers are required for reaching out to more out-of-school children living in the city. Please share these updates with your contacts and help us get more volunteers for ECC and PPCE activities. Thanks!

गेल्या अनेक वर्षांपासून, पुण्यातील स्थलांतरित व वंचित कुटुंबांमधील मुलांच्या शिक्षणासाठी 'डोअर स्टेप स्कूल' काम करीत आहे. या प्रयत्नांचाच एक भाग म्हणून, शिक्षण हक्क कायदा २००९ (आर.टी.ई.) अंतर्गत ६ ते १४ वयोगटातील प्रत्येक मुला-मुलीस त्यांचा मोफत प्राथमिक शिक्षणाचा हक्क मिळवून देण्यासाठी 'एक एक मूल मोलाचे' (एव्हरी चाइल्ड काउंट्स - इसीसी) हे अभियान सुरु करण्यात आले. या अभियानांतर्गत शहरातील व शहराबाहेरील वस्त्यांचे सर्वेक्षण व त्यातून मिळणा-या शालाबाह्य मुलांचे शाळाप्रवेश करीत असताना, आपल्या मुलांच्या शिक्षणामधे या पालकांचा सहभाग अतिशय कमी असल्याचे दिसून आले. अशा पालकांचे शिक्षणाच्या महत्त्वाबद्दल प्रबोधन करण्याच्या उद्देशाने 'मुलांच्या शिक्षणात पालकांचा सहभाग' (पेरेंट्स पार्टिसिपेशन इन चाइल्ड्स एज्युकेशन - पीपीसीई) हा वेगळा प्रकल्प सुरु करण्यात आला. या प्रकल्पांतर्गत आम्ही पालकांसोबत दीर्घकाळ काम करुन त्यांना शिक्षणहक्क कायदा व आपल्या मुलांचे शालेय शिक्षण याबाबत सजग व सक्षम बनविण्याचा प्रयत्न करतो.

यंदाच्या मे महिन्यामधे शहरात व शहराभोवती नव्याने विकसित होणा-या सर्व भागांमधे मोठ्या प्रमाणावर शालाबाह्य मुलांच्या सर्वेक्षणाचे काम सुरु झाले. त्यापाठोपाठ जून महिन्यामधे, सर्वेक्षण केलेल्या ठिकाणी पालक सभा आयोजित करण्यात आल्या, तसेच मुलांना जवळच्या पुणे अथवा पिंपरी-चिंचवड महानगरपालिकेच्या किंवा जिल्हा परिषदेच्या शाळांमधे प्रवेश मिळवून देण्याचे काम करण्यात आले.

जून महिन्यापर्यंत आमच्या 'एव्हरी चाइल्ड काउंट्स' अभियानातील कार्यकर्त्यांनी पुणे, पिंपरी-चिंचवड, तसेच सभोवतालच्या भागातील (बांधकाम साईट, वीटभट्ट्या, तात्पुरत्या वस्त्या, अशा) सुमारे १,००० हून अधिक ठिकाणांचे सर्वेक्षण केले. या सर्वेक्षणात जवळपास १,१०० मुलांची माहिती गोळा करण्यात आली व आतापर्यंत त्यापैकी ६०० मुलांना जवळच्या सरकारी शाळांमधे प्रवेशही मिळवून देण्यात आला. पुण्यातील विविध कॉर्पोरेट कंपन्या व संस्थांमधील सुमारे ५० व्हॉलंटीयरनी इसीसीच्या निरनिराळ्या कामांमधे जवळपास २०० एकत्रित तासांएवढे योगदान दिले. त्याचप्रमाणे, पालक सहभाग प्रकल्पांतर्गत आणखी २० व्हॉलंटीयरच्या मदतीने २०० पालकांशी प्रत्यक्ष चर्चा करण्यात आली.

शालाबाह्य मुलांचे सर्वेक्षण, पालकांसोबत भेटी, आणि शाळाप्रवेशाची प्रक्रिया यापुढेही चालूच राहील. आपल्या आजूबाजूला राहणा-या आणखी शालाबाह्य मुलांपर्यंत पोहोचण्यासाठी अजून ब-याच व्हॉलंटीयरच्या सहभागाची आवश्यकता आहे. कृपया ही माहिती आपल्या संपर्कातील व्यक्तींना पाठविल्यास, इसीसी व पीपीसीई या प्रकल्पांसाठी व्हॉलंटीयर मिळविण्यात आम्हाला मदत होईल. धन्यवाद!