COVID-19 Emergency: Prevent Return to Child Labour

A big thank you to everyone for your support of this project over the last few months.  

In our last report, we reported on the reopening of the Bridge School in mid-March and the return of the children after a gap of about one year. However, due to the re-emergence of the covid-19 pandemic, a lockdown was imposed in the project area in the state of Telangana, and the Bridge School was sadly closed again in May.  

Although the lockdown was lifted in Telangana in late June, there is still no prospect of the school reopening. Especially in rural areas, including the project villages, access to online education is limited, so children have to continue studying at home under tough conditions.  

Supporting children's learning and preventing child labour  

The covid-19 pandemic has led to a loss of educational opportunities for children and reduced income and unemployment for their parents.  

In the project, our experienced local NGO partner, SPEED, distributes educational materials to the children as emergency assistance, continues to make rounds of the project area, and conducts home visits in collaboration with the local community, mainly to the families of children attending the bridge school. We continue to assess each child's situation and provide support for their learning to ensure that the children do not return to child labour during the school closure. The children have been repeatedly practising and reading the materials provided to them, and when the SPEED staff visit their homes, children willingly tell them about the stories they are reading and which books they like.  

Efforts not to return to child labour  

When the Bridge School reopened in March, it was a great pleasure and achievement to see 75 children back in school. They themselves were eagerly awaiting their return! We also have seen a positive change in the children's lives during regular home visits – children have not returned to child labour during the school closure! At every home visit by SPEED staff, children tell them how they spend every day or that they have engaged in home learning. This is one of the most obvious progress of the project.  

Ongoing work to protect children  

Please let me share a story to show how your support contributes to children and their families' needs in one of our project villages.  

In a family of four children, both parents had been infected with the covid-19. When SPEED staff visited the family for the regular assessment, it found out that the family was in great need as the parents were day labourers. The children felt extremely lonely and anxious and needed support.  

So we supported the children to access the regional public health service and take a PCR test at the hospital. After they were confirmed negative, we helped to isolate the children from their parents at their home properly. At the same time, we provided food supplies to the family to not have to worry about their daily food needs. The continued regular visits by SPEED staff and the provision of food helped stabilise the children's emotional well-being and their parents' recovery. Now, the parents are fully recovered, and the whole family is living together.    

What would have happened to this family if local staff did not conduct the visit?

This event reaffirmed for us that it is crucial and meaningful to continue patrolling the village and visiting families to check on the villagers' current situation and communicate with them, as well as to continue to provide mental support to the children, even under such difficult circumstances.  

On the one hand, this support provides educational opportunities for the children. It helps to cope with the loss of income and unemployment of their parents. Still, on the other hand, it goes without saying that there is a need for further support and sustained efforts to prevent children who have been out of school for more than a year from going back to engaging in child labour.  

Together with SPEED, we will continue long-term, effective and sustainable approaches to supporting both children and their parents in this difficult situation. Thank you again for your support. 

A big thank you to everyone for their support of this project over the last few months.

The number of people infected with the new coronavirus continues to rise in India, with daily infections exceeding 360,000 on April 28. A curfew has also been imposed in the state of Telangana where the project operates.

In the village, before the second wave hit, schools resumed in February and March for those in grade 6 and above.That also meant our bridge school was allowed to reopen and children returned to the classrooms.

 Today, I would like to share with you the story of two siblings, a 13 year-old sister and 11 year-old brother who both returned to our bridge school from mid-April. I asked a staff member of our partner organization to connect me to them and we talked via video call from Japan (hence the poor quality of the images).

They had previously worked in the cotton fields and only started attending the bridge school in 2019, when the school was closed in March 2020 due to the covid-19 pandemic. Whenever the staff conducted home visits to their house over the past year they would be asked, "When will the school open again?”

Since the school reopened in March, they have been going to the bridge school every day. They told me that they are just happy to be able to play with their friends now. But they can't play together in large groups. They also told me that they have to wear a mask. “I have to change my surgical mask every day, so except for the days when the teacher gives me a surgical mask, I use a cloth mask that I wash myself. The tailor in the village makes the masks”. 

The virus has also changed their lives in other respects. They can no longer travel outside the village, and the festival that they were looking forward to attend was cancelled. When there was no school, they stayed at home every single day to take care of their family's chickens. 

“During the school closure, I studied using a home study kit provided by the PEACE-India project. My big sister also showed me her school notes on Telugu and English words [the official languages in Telangana state]". She went on to say, "I am sad because I can't see the people I want to see and I can't live in peace. I am sad. I wonder why the coronavirus came to us.” 

Thank you for your support. It has allowed us to help these children during these unprecedented times. We will continue our operations while taking countermeasures against the spread of the infection.