The Excesses of Helping Out Mom and Dad
The headlines read, “Construction booms as India heads towards a Global Industrial Giant Status.” But behind this construction is the pitiful plight of the back breaking labor of thousands of brick kiln workers and their children. By its very nature, work in brick kilns is seasonal, – December through August, and 90% of its labor pool are migrant workers from neighboring areas (source districts). Workers pledge their labor and get an advance of Rs. 45,000-70,000 from middlemen, at the time of employment. Brick kiln workers usually stay inside their work places for the entire season (7-8 months) and work around 12-14 hours per day, including 7 hours of nighttime work. Bonded labor is not uncommon in this line of work.
2014 Events
ILP Annual Dinner - Oct 11th, 2014 "An Evening for Literacy" - ILP Annual Dinner on Saturday, Oct 11th, 2014 at 6PM, at India Community Center, Milpitas. ILP Youth - Talent Show - Sep
A Visit to Schools in Jharkhand Villages
Are we trying to solve a problem with another problem? So it appeared to me when I recently visited schools in some of the remote Jharkhand villages with a group of India Literacy Project (ILP) volunteers. As we drove past extensive paddy fields, we enjoyed the lush green landscapes and monsoon rains. On the first day, we stopped by six villages in Lohardaga along with our partner NGO LGSS, led by Mr. C. P. Yadav and his staff. The entire NGO team is highly committed to improving the education scene in the Kairo block of Lohardaga district.
Learning to learn values
For quite a few months, I have been dwelling on this thought on how to teach values to children (through ILP’s MDLS program we work a lot with High school children and hence that was the focus area). No, I am not an epitome of good values which gives me the right to teach someone values (by the way, no one is an epitome of values and nobody should teach values and I will come to that in a bit), but I couldn’t think of an alternate word for it back when I was thinking about it. I knew values were not about good or bad or right or wrong and I had my own perspective on it, but somehow, it was neither topic enough to engage children nor was it a universal thought… it was just my take on life.
This is no ordinary 71%
Second PU results came out last week. One of the girls, Pragati , supported by ILP scored 71%. Everyone at ILP was extremely happy at the achievement. Even NDTV came over to cover her as part of their series on education. Surprised? And wondering why a girl, who scored 71% marks, became this significant, when the first rank student in Karnataka probably scored 98% or more.
10th Standard results of our ‘Puraskara’ students
Tenth standard results came out last week and this year (2012-13), 9 students of our ILP Puraskara scholarship program appeared for SSLC and their results have been heartening and inspiring. We had a 100% pass percentage with 3 First class, 3 Second class and 3 pass class. Irrespective of their ranks and distinctions their accomplishments are important for all of us because all these children have done themselves proud against all odds.