Project Summary

The objective of this project is to create a suitable atmosphere for education of children, to empower girls/women and to orient them towards a sustainable livelihood.

** 2012 Funding Plan: A significant portion of our efforts in the next two years will be funded via a project grant received from the Dining for Women Foundation (http://www.diningforwomen.org/). ILP thanks DFW for their confidence in ILP to support this deserving intervention.

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Region Demographics

Sundargarh district is a border of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. It is a mining and industrial belt. The population here is predominantly tribal (70%) tribal and scheduled cases (10%), which account for the majority backward classes in this area. In Sundargarh, there is a significant difference (21%) between the literacy rates of males and females.

Sundargarh district has a high incidence of women trafficking and migration to other areas due to lack of education and scope for livelihood. Attendance in schools is very low (35% to 40%). The dropout rate is high owing to the lack of understanding of education oriented towards skill development, which could provide an independent sustainable future. This lack of the vision, often relegates children to mundane household chores. In the border areas of Sundargarh, the local dialect is Sadri. However, the formal schools operating in the rural interiors conduct classes in Oriya, which are often not well comprehended by the local children. This causes a fundamental issue of communication gaps. In regions where education is still not perceived as necessary, such communication gaps often become further roadblocks for not making efforts to become functionally literate. The target gram panchayats lack any supervision or help from the governement due to their remote location.

Plan of Action

1. Provide effective education to children in the age group of 6 - 16 years who had dropped out of school or had never been enrolled in school. Then move them into government supported local public schools. In 8 remote hamlets where there are no schools, we will run bridge schools for these children. These centers inculcate in the children the habit of going to school, address their initial inhibitions about the differences in the medium of instruction in the schools and their dialects, and motivate parents to send children to school.
2. Monitor the education of the children who are in the public schools. All the 47 schools in the target area will be covered. Enrollment, retention, and successful promotion to the next class are the primary aspects that will be addressed. In order to succeed in this effort, Pragati will work with the schools, teachers, children, communities and the local education department.
3. Ensure that there is active and relevant community participation in the village education system.
4. Provide skills development training (sewing / tailoring) to adolescent girls to give them livelihood options.
5. Sensitize the women and adolescent girls to the concepts of literacy/education, health and sanitation.
6. Prevent child migration and trafficking of adolescent girls/women by raising awareness in the community.
7. Develop a comprehensive, education and livelihood model, which can be replicated in other contiguous areas.  

Accomplishments

This section will be updated after completion of the first year of the project.

Success Stories 

Gomati Tanti (2011/12): Gomati Tanti is 16 years old. When she was 13, she was sent to a city to work for 2 years. She says, "I had a very bad experience in the city. I want to stay in my village and live with dignitiy". She was not paid for her work, and was tortured by the owner and the placement agency. In 2010, she returned to her village and is now a neo-literate through the ILP intervention. She looks forward to ILP's financial support to start some income generating activities.

Miky Sing (2011/12): "I dropped out of school as it was very far away. But the teacher at Pragati School was very good. So I started attending the Pragati School", says 8-year old Miky. Miky is now in Grade I. She regularly attends school and shows a keen interest to learn. ILP/Pragati have provided Miky with school uniform and learning materials.

Bansilal Lakra (2010/11): Bansilal Lakra a 13-year old boy who attended school upto Grade I, but then was grazing 3 goats and 6 cows since then. After ILP/Pragati project started, he went to the Bridge School centre in Chimtapada village. He says, "Didi (Pragathi Teacher) called me to come to the centre, and told my father to send me to school". He came with reluctance but he said, "Didi is nice and doesn't punish us like the previous school". Shanthalatha Ekka, another teacher in this Bridge School center says, "More than just a job, my personal desire is that these children must go to school - especially girls - and study well. So I use nice words and interesting games to make them to come to school".

Partner NGO 

• Pragati is a local NGO with nearly 22 years of experience in development work.
• Pragati has very good experience working with women, adolescent girls on the issues of women trafficking, education, and related issues in Sundergarh district of Orissa.
• Pragati’s founder has worked in Sundergarh district even prior to founding this organization and thus deeply understands the area, the issues and concerns of the tribal population, their dialects, culture and preferences.
• Pragati has partnered with several funding organizations (Example: TdH, Action Aid, Irish Embassy and Government of India) to carry out developmental work.
• Pragati is part of several networks such as National Alliance of Women, Indian Rural Energy Network, Gandhian Action Network, Jagynaseni (for anti Trafficking campaign in Orissa), Campaign Against Child Trafficking (CACT), SHAKTI network etc. These add to their strength of mobilizing advocacy support for issues that are faced by the local women, adolescent girls and the disadvantaged sections.
• Pragati has a strong team to take up the mission as envisaged in our project.