Child Protection India Project #3539

Education Scholarships for Child Laborers in India

by Lotus Outreach

Education Scholarships for Child Laborers in India

Project Report | Apr 3, 2015
Impact on Children due to Global Giving donors.

By By Glenn Fawcett and Suraj Kumar | Project Leaders

At the kiln ready for school.

FINAL GLOBAL GIVING REPORT – BRICK KILNS KIDS (BKK)

APRIL 2015:

Impact of this program and contribution of Global Giving & GG donors -

Since 2009, Lotus Outreach has been supporting migrant child laborers out of work and into schools through scholarships that provide free transportation and a small stipend in the Indian districts of Mewat and Palwal. Through our initial work in education advocacy, we discovered that hundreds of out-of-state children of illiterate migrants were laboring in the region’s 32 brick kilns. In the area, children as young as five work in horrendous conditions as brick kiln labor and cannot attend school. In addition to being of the lowest socio-economic caste, they were excluded from local government incentives because of their migrant status. Our program has been serving these migrant families by offering their children access to free, secure and consistent transportation to and from school and also a small stipend that has at various times provided such things as school uniforms, shoes, school-books, school bags and pullovers against the bone chilling winters, to ensure their children can stay in school.

With a tremendous amount of support from GlobalGiving donors, we were able to bring 2077 children from 32 brick kilns enrolled in three schools during the five years till date. This program was not only about access to education, it was also a continuous dialogue with illiterate villagers encouraging them to see the importance of educating their children in their efforts to break the cycle of poverty. Our work has to some extent reduced demand for the BKKs bus service that has been decreasing by year from 715 in 2009 to less than 100 by the end of 2014. We also recognise the impact of the Indian national rural work guarantee scheme (NREGA) in reducing migration by providing a minimum level of work for daily wage labor in their home villages.

We are delighted than instead of migrated with parents, children that would have earlier been working in kilns and are now staying back at home in native villages, continuing their education and helping their grandparents left behind by the family. These children, about 12 years of age and above are now motivated to continue their studies and complete school education which can make them eligible for some skill training and then get a good work. We hope that once out of work at an early age of six or seven, the children develop interest in education and then are able to complete school education as their parents are also supportive and not forcing them to work at early age. We found that migrant parents do not send their kids to schools from the place where as they are considered outsiders and movements of their girl child out of habitation is considered unsafe.

Great finish to a wonderful program:

We had 30 students from brick kilns during the academic year after the families came back in November and December 2014. Five of them have graduated from the Primary school of Bhanguri and one of them, Laxmi, will now join our Blossom Bus and continue her education in Aharwan High school. She is hopeful of completing High school and looking forward to a bright future. In her words:

“I was coming to the school for last five years traveling on buses provided by Lotus Outreach and was not much interested in education in the beginning as I thought school would be too tough. Gradually I started learning a lot because of love and affection of our teacher and started loving education and company of my beloved teacher and my friends in school. My Brother Sushil has also graduated and will also join upper primary school in the nearby village. I believe that I will not be working 14 hours a day on the brick kilns to earn my livelihood when I am grown up and married to an educated person. I have also realized that education is necessary for all. Thank You Lotus Outreach.”

And a final thanks to GlobalGiving and donors for making it possible for the Brick Kilns Kids program to assist 2077 children of the most vulnerable families to escape the cycle of poverty!!

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Jan 6, 2015
Sushil Declares the Importance of Education

By Thomas Waltcher | Interim Director

Sushil Expresses His Views on Education

Since the beginning of the 2014 academic year, 30 students have been coming from their homes surrounding the brick kilns and traveling on transport provided by Lotus Outreach to school in the Bhanguri village in Hathin block. This past December our program manager Suraj delivered supplies to these students as he also heard from Sushil, one brilliant young student with a high view of education--

On December 16^thwith temperatures on an early winter day dipping way below average, these children of itinerant migrant laborers were very happy to receive winter sweaters, school bags and stationery. Amongst them were some very young children that braved the biting cold to attend school in the morning, but as always, were willing to come as they enjoy their days at school so much.

Among them was 12 years old Sushil, who has been attending school on Brick Kilns Buses regularly for the last four years. Sushil is very intelligent and serious about education. His teacher asked him to tell us his views about education and his future plans.

Sushil very enthusiastically told us, “I would have been making bricks today instead of coming to school if the transport was not available to children from brick kilns like myself.”

He also opined, “Education is very important for children as they are like animals without it.”

He further said, “Through my devoted teachers, along with formal education I am learning good manners and moral values at school.” He also told us in great detail about the road safety measures he has learned in the school during a campaign started by the Police Department in the State.

There are hundreds of parents of children in our program who have praised the efforts of Lotus Outreach. This program has made an indelible mark on the lives of hundreds of students vulnerable to child labor in the absence of the opportunities we have given them. Please keep supporting bright students like Sushil and give the gift of education!!

Sushil Receives Supplies

Other Students Line Up for Supplies!

Links:

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Oct 7, 2014
Keep Children Out of Brick Kilns and in School!

By Thomas Waltcher | Assistant Director

Jaiveer with his two daughters at school!

Many migrant child laborers in rural India are forced to work in brick kilns and fail to receive basic education. Lotus Outreach believes that education is not only a fundamental right, but the most powerful catalyst for human development. Fund this program to bring transportation, uniforms and tuition stipends to such families in need and take part in the universal gift of education!

Jaiveer’s story shows a migrant family that is both benefiting from our program and continually working hard to ensure education comes first above all else.

Jaiveer lived in the village Kothia near Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh with his wife and four daughters. He had no land or regular job and desperately needed income for his family. A contractor approached him and offered him work at a brick kiln in the Palwal district. Jaiveer was desperate for work to feed his family, but also concerned about his eldest daughter, Sonia, who was six years old and studying in first grade. He wanted to ensure his daughter not be deprived of school in a new, unknown place.

When he expressed his concern to the contractor, he was surprised at what he heard. He was told that Sonia would be enrolled in a government school and free and safe transport would also be provided by our program through the White Lotus Trust to attend school!

Jaiveer was thrilled to hear this and migrated to Palwal with his family two years ago. His daughter Sonia enrolled in the Bhanguri village government school. Sonia travels between home and school in a safe mini bus called Blossom Bus that our program provides and monitors.

Sonia in now in third grade and her younger sister Rachna also accompanies Sonia to school in the Blossom Bus to study in first grade. Sonia is an excellent student and has made many new friends at school. Although most girls in the area work at brick kilns after coming home from school, Jaiveer is working hard to ensure that Sonia, Rachna and his other daughters stay out of the kilns and study.

Jaiveer is happy and thanks White Lotus Trust and Blossom Bus donors for their big support without which his children could never have continued their studies. According to Jaiveer, his children would have inevitably entered the brick kilns to work as child laborers without such support.

Please support Scholarships for Child Laborers program! Just $20 is enough to cover a student’s fees for the whole year. Help many more families like Jaiveer’s avoid child labor and receive basic educational needs. Donate today!

Sonia in class

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