Empower through Education for Poverty Eradication

Dahod is one of the most backward districts among 26 districts of Gujarat. Most of the population here belongs to Bheel – a tribal community and are very poor having much lower level of education for various reasons. According to 2011 Indian census literacy rate in Dahod is as low as 58.82%. Lack of access to quality education and migration of parents make children drop out of school and join the unskilled labor force at very young age. Moreover child marriage ratio is also very high here which increases children’s vulnerability especially for girls.

This project aimed to intervene in a few villages of the district in order to improve quality of education through interactive and joyful learning methods along with increasing awareness among community people about their rights and various government schemes to avail benefits.

We started with organizing Balmelas (Balmela is a children’s fair where theme based activities are organised in form of fair. Children get learning space through interacting with the resources) in these villages to interact with children and assess their needs. Besides a baseline survey was conducted in five villages namely Rawalikheda, Junapani, Devaliya, Kotdakhurd and Himala – remotely located in Dahod District. The outcomes of the survey demonstrated the poor education level of children in project villages. It was very disappointing to see that 70% children from class IV were unable to count 1 to 100 and were also poor in writing and reading. Hence Balghars (community based complementary education centres)were started in 5 project villages to provide supportive education and other life skill development support to the children.

Moreover 1 Community Resource Center (CRC) was started in Junapani village which was a focal point to the people to access all the information about government programs and schemes. CRC also conducted various awareness generation activities – including district level workshops, trainings, campaigns and village meetings. The district level and block level government and local governance stakeholders were also involved in these activities.   

Moreover, in collaboration with schools in villages various interactive activities were undertaken with the children at schools. These included awareness generation about child rights and child protection as well as motivational activities to develop leadership and creativity qualities among the children. 

With regard to the last quarter, we organised a seminar for children at Junapani Resource Centre. The programme was conducted to distribute books and other stationary to the school going children. The chief guest of the programme Mr. Manoj Ninama (IPS) spent a good time with the children. 110 children were given books and the stationary.

We also organised exposure visits for children where in the children visited various government offices. The programme was supported by the Social Development Wing of District Police Department. They visited office of District Superintendent of Police (DSP), District Development Officer (DDO), and District Collector Office and to the District Court.

At the DSP office they were given information about women cell of police station, training centre and the information about the process of the complaints received. At DDO office the children were given orientation about mid day Meal Programme of the government which aimed to provide nutritious food to school going children in schools itself. The officer there also asked the children about their feedback for the programme. Moreover, he also asked the children to share their experiences and feedback regarding Public Distribution System (PDS) of government.

Lastly they went to the District Court and observed the proceedings of the court. The District Magistrate also interacted with the children in very informal manner and asked their dreams and plans for future. Children were very overwhelmed with this experience.

Thus we believe apart from the classroom education, exposure of the various places and interaction with the concerned duty bearers would not only enhance their knowledge but it will also help them to come out of the fear and phobia of people like Police and District Magistrate.