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.

Mobile Library

At Jaagriti, our focus has always been on developing basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills among the children. With this perspective, the initiative of Mobile Library has been started at Jaagriti to inculcate the habit of reading among the children, to enhance their learning and also keep them more informed about the world.

We have initially started with about 50 books, which contain very short stories in Hindi and English along with pictures describing the stories. Children first understand the pictures and then relate them to what is written in the book. The books have been procured from PRATHAM books and some primary level books, collected during the Joy of Giving week campaign, are also being used.

We visit the project every weekend to issue books to the children and also teach them how to understand and read the book.

The children can avail the service very easily, they don't need to have any Library Card and can borrow the books by just entering their name in the record book. Books borrowed from the library can be used for two weeks.

It has been 3 weeks since we started this initiative and the response of the children has been very good. As new academic session is about to begin next month, we look forward to conduct some drives to collect second hand primary class books for our children. We are also exploring options of using some software (such as CBFL program by TCS) to help us in this initiative and will also introduce a daily one hour reading period in our classes.

Like always, we look forward for your suggestions/comments to strengthen our initiatives and increase our outreach.

Thanks

Anchit and Kant