Making Education a real option for all urban poor children. In the most vulnerable bastis


Since 1998
• Providing options for meaningful education for ‘urban’ ‘child labour’
• Background of the Children
• Identity – adivasi, dalit
• Occupation – waste-picking, begging
• Education – mostly never been to school, or dropped out in less than a year or two
 

Providing options of education at all odds
 

Studying – Counting with Materials
 

Sharing their own stories
 

Working with hands
 
 
1998 - 2005
 
• Conducted classes in the bastis and from rented pucca houses in the area of Kotra Sultanabad, Bhopal
 
• Tried to mainstream children and provided support to those going to schools.
 
• Shifted house 6 times during this span staying in one place for a year to 2 years.
 
 
2005 onwards
 
• Shift from an NFE (2 hour classes) to an alternative school (of 5 hours) to provide quality and meaningful education
 
• The centre premises were made available by the Police Department; an old just-about standing building, where the sheets on the roof had been taken by people as it remained abandoned for years, and the doors and walls broken open and rooms being used for toilet purposes by the community living close by. This was a 14-rooms’ place, of which we decided to put back 8 rooms in a functional shape.
 
• It was a mammoth task, but many of the team members squeezed out all their energies to get this in place. It was rebuilding in the literal sense, putting up walls, floor, and roof, whitewashing, building a boundary, and managing a budget. The elder children chipped in, the mothers watched, some fathers put in their labour, and the centre was inaugurated in the middle of August.
 
 
July 2005
 
A happy class at the centre
 
 
2006 - 2008
 
• The police building could not withstand the rains, and permissions to reconstruct were not being given. It was no longer safe to function from there.
 
• Shifted the activities to our office cum hostel, which was quite functional; we built an extra shed there, but it was still not adequate.
 
• Finally hostel was shifted to another place
 
 
July 2008 onwards
 
• Needed to vacate that place when the landlord wanted it back after a three-year lease.
 
• Have been continuous upheaval since then.
 
• Primarily collaborating with government schools for space
 
• Even though we have five-year lease signed from the district and the state level, school-level problems do not get sorted sustainably.
 
 
Space in government schools continuously changing and unstable arrangements
 
• Three months – four rooms between 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
 
• Continuous changes in school timings affect our timings
 
• Winter timings make it difficult to work in either shift because school runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
 
• Holiday at hours’ notice
 
• Rental of space to private parties for money or other government departments for training in holidays
 
 
July 2009
 
• Four rooms as part-time arrangement in one school
 
 
December 2009
 
• One room as permanent arrangement in one school
 
• Other groups studying in the parks for four months
 
 
 
December 2009
 
• One room in one school
 
• Two part-time rooms in second school
 
 
September 2010
 
• One room in one school
 
• No arrangement for other groups
 
• Three rooms in office are being used now for this purpose
 
 
       
       
       
       
       
   
       
       
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