School Admissions

Jaagriti touches a new milestone, enrolls 78 children from poor communities in Sector-10, 12, 13 and 17 in Dwarka, under Regular School Education Program (RSEP) into Classes I-VIII. This includes new admissions as well as school dropouts, taking total enrollment to 92+. For many children, this is their first experience of formal school education. Thanks for your continuous support to us! :)

Right to Education (RTE) Task Force

With the implementation of the Right to Education Act in India from 1st April 2010, there arises need for NGOs to work towards making the potential beneficiaries aware about the Act and also monitor the proper implementation of the Act, in coordination with other stakeholders. With this perspective, Jaagriti has created an RTE Task Force consisting of like-minded individuals from various NGOs across NCR, with the following dual objectives:

1.To generate awareness among communities and our neighborhoods about the various provisions of the act, its benefits and also help parents in enrolling their children in the nearby government schools/private schools (with 25% quota).

2. To regularly monitor the implementation of the act through RTIs, brainstorming sessions with relevant stakeholders, visit to schools, interaction with parents and children, follow-up sessions etc.

Following are the action points:

1. All the interested individuals/volunteers/NGOs can come together and develop a common understanding regarding various provisions of the act and also identify areas/communities where there is a need to generate awareness.

2. Small teams for different areas could be formed and teams hold responsibility for locating government schools in that area, developing rapport with the school authorities, conduct awareness sessions in the communities and helping parents in getting children admitted. Thus, the first objective of the task force would be addressed.

3. During the time admissions are not going on in schools, the small teams could focus on the second objective that is monitoring the implementation of the act in their area, its progress and the challenges.

4. Monthly/quarterly meetings of all small teams could be held and we can interact, brainstorm and share best practices and progress reports.

At Jaagriti, we have already started working on this and are running RTE Act awareness and school enrollment drive in Sector-10, 12, 13, 17 in Dwarka, New Delhi. There are estimated to be more than 100 children not going to school and we are visiting the community, interacting with the families, making them aware about the benefits of the act and also helping the families get the children admitted in a nearby school.

Join the Task Force now!! For further details/queries, please email at info@jaagriti-india.org

Community Development Program

In association with the Rotaract Club of NSIT, Jaagriti has started a Community Development Program, with the following objectives:

· To understand education, economic and health and nutrition background, and various challenges faced by the families in the communities under Jaagriti, with special focus on need for micro-finance and status of women and infant care.

· To generate awareness and consciousness among the families about the importance and benefits of education, health-care and nutrition so that these are taken-up as a choice and not coercion.

· To evaluate what difference Jaagriti has made to their lives, how we can further provide support to them, and develop a bond of trust and affection between the children, their families and Jaagriti.

This would be helpful to Jaagriti in developing sustainable solutions for addressing the needs of the communities, taking into account the communities background and the challenges being faced by them.

Special focus will be on community of construction workers (migrant labourers) at our projects, as they are one of the most vulnerable sections of the society with very limited facilities, negligible government support and receive low wages.

The NSIT Rotaract and Jaagriti volunteers have developed a questionnaire (attached) for this and also done some studies (about state of construction workers, BPL cards, government schemes, micro-finance etc.) to conduct the survey more effectively.

The program is being implemented from today and will move ahead in a phased manner:

Phase 1: Survey of 50+ families of migrant labourers, along with focused group discussions to generate awareness about need for education, health and nutrition and various government facilities available to them. (April 2010)

Phase 2: Compilation of Data, result analysis and final report preparation. The finding of the surveys will be shared with relevant stakeholders at both, state and central level. (May-June 2010)

Phase 3: Discussions, Brainstorming sessions and presentations within community to generate awareness and also within Jaagriti team to make our initiatives more effective.

The above is a pilot program and it will undergo lot of changes during the various phases of implementation. Once completed, the above 3 phases will be replicated at other communities under Jaagriti and various follow-up sessions will also be planned.

NSIT Rotaract Volunteers: Medha, Rishab, Chanpreet, Nehal, Chandramohan, Mahima, Kamini, Vibhor, Shryans and Manish

As always, we need your suggestions and comments to make the program more effective and fruitful.