Breaking the vicious circle

For the families that come into the region in search of labour, life becomes a tedious routine. Primarily from areas like Beed, Ahmednaga...

For the families that come into the region in search of labour, life becomes a tedious routine. Primarily from areas like Beed, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Solapur and Jalgaon, life is working in sugar factories, planting roots and setting up shanty huts around the factories, cutting, binding and transporting the cane to be crushed.

The problem is that while parents and elder siblings are hard at work from the proverbial dawn to dusk, the younger children are left to care for homes and animals. Schools and learning have been left far behind in native villages and it is not uncommon to find children between the ages of eight and 12 years smoking, betting and completely illiterate.

Naturally, this is not only the story of sugar manufacturing labourers. It is one of the hazards of any cash crop labourer. But Prabhakar Limaye, principal of Veerkar High School was not about to allow this cycle to continue. In 1982, he set up the Shambhar Divas Shala 8211; a school that ran for the course of the harvest period and that catered to the children of the katkari adivasis who were primarily forest dwellers but who farmed rice in the monsoon season. His experimental school put the village of Padsare in Raigad district on the map. A full-time Ashramshala or residential school run by the Ballaleshwar Pratisthan for these children now stands in place.Good ideas spread naturally and Ballaleshwar Pratisthan, Rotary Club of Pune Parvati and Prachiti Jnana Prabodhini set up another school in 1992 8211; this time the sakharshala near the Yeshwant Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana at Theur. With support from the Vasantdada Sugar Institute, the children of the nomadic trade now have a school to go to.

Explains Surekha Avate, assistant coordinator, Prachiti, 8220;The school normally starts within two weeks after Diwali and then goes onto March end. The children are kept busy from early morning to about 7.30 p.m. But studies are just one part of this day. The day starts with morning prayers and exercises and is followed by know-your-environment walks, recitation, study and entertainment.8221; She has spent an entire season at the school.

8220;The teachers and motivators are selected locally to teach from nursery upto the fifth standard. The teachers may have a diploma in education or have passed the 10th and 12th standard. We train them to teach language and mathematics. The motivators who are normally college or school-going students live at the project site for about a week and are a vital component of the school because they must convince both the students and the parents of the importance of education.8221;

A manual of operation is now available for anyone who wants to start a similar project. One of the oft-repeated ideas is that completing the curriculum is not as important as facilitating understanding. Besides listing games and recreation that the children can be involved, expenses have been calculated for 50 children for 100 days. This comes to approximately Rs. 10,000. 8220;Much of this funding comes from the Rotary Club, Ballaleshwar. Pratisthan and Save The Children 8211; a Canadian organisation opposing child labour which has been providing funds for the last two years.8221;

The manual describes the programme as 8220;8230;the concept of a 100 Day8217;s School has come to be firmly accepted everywhere as a powerful experiment towards spreading primary education throughout.8221; That Ichalkaranji, Solapur, Nasik, Baramati and Nagar districts have responded to the concept is sign of its do-ability8217; and the recognition of the need to get these children out of potential trouble and into an atmosphere of learning.