Making Learning fun for children

It has been well said that the root cause for all the problems in our country is the lack of education and the low literacy rates prevalent throughout the society particularly among the economically and socially backward regions. Empowerment of women, children and the youth can successfully come about only by utilizing their skills and resources in the right manner and by guiding them in the appropriate directions as well. Navi Mumbai is a city that is associated with high tech infotech parks, international standard railway stations, modern apartment and complexes. Probably no one in their right mind would associate it with anything else. That’s the irony of the situation that this home of development and industrialization should also play host to one of the most impoverished and backward areas to be found. It is due to such circumstances that Aarambh made its humble beginnings from Turbhey Stores in Navi Mumbai in the month of December 1996. That one center in 1996 has now blossomed into 10 centers in Navi Mumbai under the guidance and able leadership of Ms. Shobha Murty, Mr. Sudhir Sudhal, Mr. T.K.S. Murty and Dr. S.S. Rao. Their work is coordinated into a program for education of children and empowerment of the youth and women and has been responsible for bringing about a change not only in the lifestyle of the slum community in Navi Mumbai but also in their attitudes. A small measure of their success can be gauged from the fact that people in these slum areas have now started approaching the NGO for the education of their children rather than the other way round.

Apart from Mhapegaon which is the United Way supported center, Aarambh is able to reach out to the slum communities by the medium of the community centers it has established in 10 different areas of Navi Mumbai which have been surveyed and chosen for the purpose accordingly.

The 10 centers have been designed to work on the programme that is being funded by CRY . Although the CRY administration suggested that a sample survey be conducted and on the basis of that the program be implemented in the remaining nine areas; Aarambh went ahead and conducted surveys for each area in order to better ascertain their needs and requirements before implementing the program in the areas. The survey comprised of the following:

• Educational Indicators
• Social Status: Statehood, Background of the families
• Economic Indicators: Income, Expenditure, Employment Records etc.

On the basis of the prevailing socio-economic condition in the ten areas, they may be divided as following:

• Very Poor Areas: The areas to be identified here are Sanpada, Sawligaon and Police Chowky. The indicators characteristic to all of them are, the extremely low unemployment rates with almost the entire population not holding a permanent job. They are thereby induced to indulge in wage labour in the number of construction sites that dot the area which depending on the season and economic scenarios can vary from barely sustainable to scanty. Health facilities are nil and therefore the people have to look for alternatives and are helpless in emergency cases. There is no school in the area is well and therefore the areas is lacking in all the relevant areas identified by Aarambh as part of its community program.

• Moderately Poor Areas: The areas such as Hanuman Nagar, Turbhey Stores, Koparkhairane and Digha would fall under this category. An interesting characteristic about these areas is that the people living there are migrants who have settled and have been living there since a period of almost 20-25 years on an average. Therefore unlike the extremely poor areas the people here are relatively close knit and thereby stronger and having the ability to stand their ground. Though the majority is poor, they are however well settled and possess permanent jobs with good wages. Most kids go to schools, which are not scarce considering that Koparkhairane has close to 3 or 4 schools in its vicinity. Their parents work mostly as vendors in the market or as workers in the major corporations who have set up their industrial units in the area.

• Relatively Less Poor Areas: The three areas of Juhugaon, Vashigaon and Bonkode form the “creamy layer” of the slums of Navi Mumbai as we may colloquially refer to them as. A major portion of the population here has been residing for generations and apart from residing in permanent homes, people also enjoy the luxury of permanent jobs, better salaries etc. However in spite of having schools in the vicinity, the number of dropouts is relatively high mainly due to the lack of interest of the children in the schools itself.

As part of the United Way project it is pertinent to give details of the Mhapegaon area as well, which would qualify as a moderately poor area considering its socio-economic indicators, are similar to that of Hanuman Nagar or Turbhey Stores apart from the fact that it is closely situated to Hanuman Nagar.

Since we there is a separate section devoted to the Mhapegaon project general details have been summarized here:

• The population is a diverse migrant population
• The migration of women came about as a consequence of following their husbands as they came to work in the industrial units, which are present in and near Mhapegaon.
• Therefore, the people are very keen to settle down as they wish to acquaint themselves with the surroundings and accommodate themselves.
• There is only one school for children, which fails to cater to the demand for education miserably.

Aarambh has devoted itself to the program called “Education – Our path to progress” which is a CRY funded project to a large extent.

The field of service that the project has is: Education, Health and Empowerment of the Youth and Women; with the sole objective being to utilize education as such a tool for the backward classes particularly for women and the youth for they show great promise in this regard, so that they are able to utilize their minds and bodies in the best manner possible for their own and the community’s benefit as well.

Subsequently, the program can be further divided into the following categories on which Aarambh works upon:

1. Education
2. Vocational Training
3. Community Health Care
4. Community Mobilization

These involve the following:

Education: The education program which is mostly CRY funded has been implemented in almost all of the centers of Aarambh, apart from centers like Digha, which cater to the vocational training programs. The following activities are conducted at the centers:

• Support and tuition classes for the slow learners or children suffering from a learning impairment.
• NFE or Non-Formal Education classes for all those children who used to attend school but were forced to drop out and also the children who have never attended school in their life.
• Computer education classes for the children where they are made to cover the fundamental basics of computer technology.
• Apart from these, certain activities like painting, music, games etc. are also conducted at the centers.

Vocational Training: Vocational training classes, which are conducted at the Aarambh centers, have the immense responsibility of training and imparting skills to the youth and women to sustain employment and livelihood. Vocational training includes the following:

Computer Training: Digha, Koparkhairane and Turbhey Stores are the centers equipped with computers. At the Digha center, Mr. Ajit Patil and Mr. Sanjay Amre take computer Hardware / Software classes.

The center is equipped with 4 multimedia computers and is used by 25 students for the Software classes and 6 students for the Hardware classes.
The class timings are as follows:

• Software Classes: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
• Hardware Classes: 5.30 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.

The curriculum for the Software classes includes Windows, Word, and Excel etc. whereas the hardware students learn Hardware Repair, Internal repair and also repairing of individual parts.

Later on theses students will be going for summer jobs and later the next batch will join from the 1st of June till the 10th of June.

The center also makes use of the JAWS software for the visually impaired in order to enable them to learn computing. Shekhar Majumdar, one such student managed to learn the keyboard in just three days. That speaks volumes about the determination of these people.

Tailoring Classes: Mrs. Seema Amre at the Digha center is in charge of conducting tailoring classes for the women in the locality so as to enhance their independence and provide them tools for income generation and sustenance.

Health Care: The slums in Navi Mumbai need education and community empowerment but they would fail in the task if they are unable to stay disease free and do not ail from any disability. These would hamper their growth and they would lose the precious incentive to work hard and also lose the opportunities, which are hard to come by. Keeping this in mind and the need for health measures to be taken for women, children and the elderly in particular, the following activities are conducted under Health Care:

• General Health camps for children, the elderly and women.
• Health Education classes for nursing mothers.
• Municipal Corporation aided programs for camps on T.B., Malaria control.
• Health camps are conducted on a monthly basis for Height/Weight monitoring for children.
• Dental camps are conducted on a bi-annually basis.
• Eye camps for children, which include cataract removal for the elderly, are also conducted on a bi-annually basis.
• Aarambh also indulges in work with other NGOs on Leprosy, T.B. and family planning.
• Apart from support from Municipal Corporations in the form of provision of doctors on call, there are also tie-ups with MGM and private hospitals for special services, free heart operations etc. For the heart operations around 500 cards have been distributed for free treatment.

Community Mobilization: Last but not the least is the role of the community mobilization programs. It must be stressed once more that the reason for Aarambh’s success and its ability to work effectively in the slums is due to the widespread support it enjoys from the people of the slum community. This has come about and can increase in the later stages if the community is mobilized to enable it to achieve greater independence and the ability to counter the forces working against it. The following activities are conducted as of such:

• The issue of family planning and related issues have been stressed upon and work is conducted in this regard I the form of monthly meetings which have now seen greater involvement of the men in the community as well.
• The community is brought on to level terms with the issue of child marriage, which is a common phenomenon in slum communities with a migrant population.
• Work is then taken up for ration cards, sanitation, water, electricity etc. so that the community is able to demand its rights effectively and can make ample use of the same. For the community mobilization programs, apart from the community mobilizers, the entire teaching staff is also involved, as all hands are required on the deck for such a task.

Subsequent to a detailed discussion of the above-mentioned four heads, here is a presentation of the progress so far and the major activities planned for the current annual session of 2005-2006 under the above-mentioned heads:

Child Enrollment so far