PROJECT 1: Social Action for Literacy and Health (SALAH) This project is working with slum dwellers across 10 slums in the Bhandup district of Central Mumbai. The project seeks to address issues like illiteracy, child labour, lack of basic amenities, addictions among even young children and child marriage. The action plan includes providing birth certificates which would be required for enrollment into government schools, surveying and enrolling all eligible children in balwadis or support classes, providing ration cards to give families access to government welfare schemes and creating awareness within the community about child marriage. Support classes and balwadis operate in these areas and all eligible children will be enrolled.

Number of children impacted : 1200

PROJECT 2: NIRMAN This project works with children in three resettlement colonies in South-West Delhi. There are two groups of children that are targeted – children of workers from the unorganized sector, many of whom do not go to school and children engaged in labour. The main problem in these areas are the insufficient number of schools. The schools that are present also lack the basic facilities like toilets and drinking water. Many children stay at home to look after younger siblings while the parents are at work due to the lack of crèches or balwadis. Affordability of education is yet another issue which prevents children from going to school. Malnourishment and the lack of immunizations are some of the other key issues faced by children in these slums. Registration of Construction Workers with the Welfare Board to get scholarships for their children, Mobilizing the community to enroll their children into schools, quarterly follow ups to ensure benefits – are some of the areas this project works in, in order to ensure child rights Provisions are also being made to provide registration of births, health check ups and proper sanitation.

Number of children impacted: 2300

PROJECT 3: JANVANI This project works with 15 slums in the Shamirpet, Rangareddy district in Hyderabad. Out of these 12 slums do not have any educational facilities. The nearby educational facilities that are present do not have basic amenities and sometimes do not even have a proper compound. They lack basic facilities like toilets and drinking water, the former being a huge problem, especially for girls and lady teachers. The schools are also severely understaffed thereby impacting teacher- student ratio and therefore lack of quality education. Janvani focus includes identifying and enrolling children into schools, improving infrastructure of the two government schools in the area, monitoring of ICDS centers and formation and regular follow ups with youth and children’s groups.

Number of children impacted: 6310

PROJECT 4: Society for Occupational environment and social security (SOHES) This project works with 80 coastal hamlets in Thriuvellore, Kancheepuram and Villupuram districts in Tamil Nadu. They mainly work with the children among the fishing community. SOHES has first started work in these parts after the Tsunami and thereafter, along with CRY has taken up a more long term based approach. Only about 50% of the children in these areas attend school but the poor quality of government schools induces parents to try and send their children to private schools which are significantly more expensive and rather far away. Therefore even though enrollments in the primary level are still high, there are a huge number of dropouts in the middle and secondary levels. Moreover girls do not attend school because of the responsibility of younger siblings when the mother goes out to work. The lack of proper and nutritious food at the government maintained anganwadis give rise to deficiencies in the children’s physical and mental health. As part of the action plan, there will be 100% retention of the enrolled children. There will also be enrollment into schools for identified child labourers. Sensitizing the community at various levels, studying the impact of the Coastal Management Bill on women and children, setting up new elementary schools and monitoring functions of the PHCs in the areas are some of the other points.

Number of children impacted: 12421

PROJECT 5: DIKSHA: This project works with children in the red light zones of Kalighat and Khiderpore in Kolkata and Suri in Birbhum district in West Bengal. DIKSHA is about providing a safe platform for children and adolescents to express themselves and to grow as individuals. Born in August 2001, DIKSHA works with children, adolescents and young adults as partners in change. It focuses on the development of inner strength and emphasizes the integration of individual development with the needs of the community. When DIKSHA first started work in the intervention area, given the situation of poverty and the cycle of prostitution that existed – the project workers knew that in order to make the situation of children better and slowly bring them around to education there was a lot of groundwork that needed to be done to break the cycle of prostitution and improve the day to day existence of these children. Therefore the project workers put special emphasis on the Right to Protection to discourage second generation prostitution and pimping and to prevent trafficking. They also worked on participation to encourage the children to come forth and take a stand and discuss the issues that affect them.

Number of children impacted: 1082

PROJECT 6: IYWS – Institute for Youth and Social Welare IYSW was initiated with the basic aim of working with the students and the youth from the slums in Nagpur. IYSW looks at the youth and children as initiators of change in the society and hence plans to work with them. In the first three years, the support from CRY has helped the organization in building a committed team, establishing a strong presence in the community and initiating processes to enable the communities to understand rights of their children.

Number of children impacted: 1,691

PROJECT 7: NAVSHRISHTI: CRY has been working with Navsrishti for the last 10 years in Nangloi. Their work is predominantly with the Gosai and Banjara communities and since last year, on a pilot basis, they have started building their understanding on resettlement issues in Haulabikalan and some initial work has been started there as well. Navsrishti has also been the pioneer in raising issues of missing children in Delhi.

Even though a large number of children have been put into primary school through Navsrishti, as well as directly from the community, secondary education still remains a distant dream for most of these children. The project workers have also built up a good rapport with the school authorities which has in turn led to better quality of education and a good level of enrollment and retention. However the secondary education system still has a long way to go. There are no secondary or middle schools within the intervention area and the children have to travel over long distances to attend the schools that are available. Most of them are not even able to find space in those schools since they are already full.

The project workers at Navsrishti have filed RTIs on opening new schools within the area but for land to be sanctioned for this there has to be active coordination between the DDA and the MCD, which so far has not happened.

Number of children impacted: 2500

Project 8: Maldharis Rural Action Group (MARAG): This project works with several marginalized communities like the Adivasis, the Dalits, the Kolis – with special emphasis on the shepherd or pastoral community known as the Maldharis in 2 districts of Kutch and Surendranagar in the state of Gujarat.

The project is actively working on building networks between the parents and the school administration to improve the quality of the basic facilities provided to encourage children to attend school more regularly. Simultaneously they are also working to generate awareness amongst the communities on basic services that they can demand from the government to make it easier for them to make ends meet. They are also sensitizing the communities about the effects of child labour on the mental and physical health of the children. Children’s groups are also being formed to provide the children with a platform to take up issues important to them and express themselves.

Number of children impacted: 5000

Project 9: Jago Foundation works in the state of Jharkhand in 51 villages of the state. These villages are situated close to the coal and mica mines in the state and most of the inhabitants in earlier times used to derive their livelihood from mining and selling coal and mica. However, over the years, there have been several disputes between the controlling authorities of these mines and one major dispute led to the flooding of a major portion of these mines. Therefore these portions had to be shut off and the result was huge loss of employment. Some of this labour initially moved to the mica mines but the demand for mica exports has petered off since then and therefore there has been large scale migration from these areas in search of gainful employment. Therefore the people are constantly on the move providing very little stability for their children.

Over the years, with help from the project staff, several groups have been formed within the community to create sensitivity about a variety of issues. The adolescent girl groups have proved to be very strong in this respect taking up issues like child marriage and domestic violence. 5 child marriages have been stopped in the last year, through their efforts. The community as a whole is responding to the interactions with the project team as can be seen from the success stories that are now trickling in.

Number of children impacted: 9630

Save the Children will address the care and protection needs of street and slum children in New Delhi and Kolkata by setting up child friendly spaces and providing education. The NGO will work with children of pre-school age at ICDS centres through our early years programme. For older children between 15-18 years of age and will provide life skills training and link them to vocational training opportunities.

Save the Children will implement early childhood care and education in the Okhla/Govindpuri slums of Delhi, working with 400 children. The NGO will mobilise parents around health and hygiene and the importance of early childhood care and education, training Anganwadi workers, sensitising 400 mothers and linking their families living in slum areas with social protection and food security schemes.

Save the Children will work with 700 children living on the streets, 300 children in Northern Kolkata and 400 children around Nehru Place in Delhi, providing them safe and child-friendly places through Facilitation Centres that will run approximately 6-8 hours a day, and link with shelter homes operated by Government and non-Government agencies as “night safe shelter” for street children.

The NGO will facilitate access to bridge courses for children who have missed out on education and health services. The NGO will facilitate enrolment in formal schools, provide training in life skills (e.g. emotional and physical self-control, sexual health, protective measures from abuse, self-esteem). The NGO will also establish links with vocational institutions, for example, training children to lead heritage walks as Delhi and Kolkata are tourist cities. While we will focus on formal education for street children aged between 6-14, the market-oriented vocational links will focus on the 14-18 age group.

For children enrolling into formal schools, the NGO will connect them with students at local private schools to mentor and tutor these children with their homework. Save The Children will train teachers in a total of 16 schools in Delhi (6) and Kolkata (10) on inclusive teaching methods so that street children enrolled in these schools will not drop out. Through this programme, Aviva and Save the Children will indirectly positively impact the lives of 6,400 children.