A RAINBOW FOR EVERY CLOUD
Who or what determines a person from the street? The UNICEF provides the definition — ‘Anyone under 18 years of age either lives or works on the street for most of the time’. In Pune city alone, 10,427 children live on the street, out of which 41.7 per cent, or approximately 4,275 are girls. This data was compiled through a survey conducted in 2017 by Pune Municipal Corporation, in collaboration with different NGOs, in all its 72 wards and two cantonments.
Living on streets without any financial or emotional support is an ordeal, especially for the girl child. The children are deprived of food, clothes, education. They are ignorant of personal hygiene and are at a high risk of being mentally and physically abused.
Stepping in to provide a healthy and safe environment for girls, the Rainbow Foundation India has come up with the solution of Rainbow Homes. The NGO, which operates from nine cities — Kolkata, Delhi, Patna, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Anantapur and Pune — has set up these homes in government schools.
Srilatha Morampudi, State programme manager, for Maharashtra region, says, “Rainbow Homes is a comprehensive care model where the foundation takes care of the girl’s education, health and fitness, nutrition and protection. We believe that until the child gets settled, it’s our responsibility to take care of her. The USP of Rainbow Homes is that we don’t run the shelters in private infrastructure but within the government school buildings. A lot of government schools don’t have a big number of students studying there, but they have a huge infrastructure. So we decided to make use of the available resources and provide it to the needy.”
In the Rainbow Homes started in 2015, 20 girls are enrolled each year. The current total is of 114 girls, and in Pune, the count stands at 350.
In the city, five schools in areas like Shivajinagar, Yerwada, Mangalwar Peth, and another one in Talegaon Dabhade have been refurbished as residential schools.
These homes are run in collaboration with PMC. “A highly qualified residential staff is available 24/7 for the girls. Being completely untouched by literacy, these girls, when they come to the home, are given bridge courses where they are taught the basics of every subject. And once they successfully finish it, they are enrolled in government schools for further education,” adds Morampudi.
Apart from giving them shelter and education, the foundation also focuses on training the girls in extracurricular activities such as drawing, dance, singing, art and craft and self-defense. One of the residents of Rainbow Homes, Aradhana came to stay there when she was only three years old. She, along with her mother, and siblings used to sing and beg for alms in trains. During a field work, the volunteers of the foundation spotted the family and counselled them to let the kids stay with the NGO so that they do not end up on streets.
The requests were initially rejected, but later the parents agreed to give their daughters a chance to change their fate.
When we ask the six-year-old Aradhana if she feels she is missing out on the love of her parents, she says, “I love here. I watch TV, study, get to eat good food and wear clean clothes. When I was on the streets, we used to wear torn clothes, go hungry and walk for miles.”
One of the youngest girls at the Rainbow Homes, Aradhana now speaks English, Hindi and Marathi. She loves to study and wants to become a police officer, fight crime and help children living on the streets.
DON’T OUTGROW BOOKS
Educated girl child is equal to educated family. Haven’t we heard this before? But how many girls actually get a chance to attend school and are able to continue with their studies. According to a 2016 survey conducted by Ministry of Human Resource Development, ‘A person aged 7 years and above who can read and write in any language is literate’. The data shows that out of all the girls enrolled in schools, the annual average dropout rate is 16.88 per cent. After so many initiatives by the government, improved school facilities and education system, a decrease in dropout rates by 1.2 per cent has been observed in the years 2012-13.
Illiterate parents, financial instability of the family, menstruation, giving priority to the male child, and a few other reasons are responsible for girls dropping out of school.
Ironically, the only way we can counter this social injustice is through education. Two city organisations are working to implement government policies on girl child education. One is the Bhagini Nivedita Pratishthan (BNP), which has been active for the last four decades and the other is Swadhar IDWC — Institute for Development of Women & Children.
The BNP was established in 1979 by Leelatai Shintre with an aim to empower girls and women from the distressed and backward section. Vandana Kelkar, secretary of BNP, says, “Despite coming from a background where education is never a priority, girls are willing to study. However, their family becomes the hurdle in their pursuit of education. When parents do not have anyone to take care of the younger kids, they make their daughters drop out of school. So, we’ve started a separate session for young kids and now, parents themselves bring them at the centre before leaving for work.” The organisation has also started adolescent projects to make the children aware about gender equality, menstruation, personality development, besides career guidance sessions.
“In government schools, the number of students is high and they don’t get an opportunity to interact with the faculty on a one-on-one level. So, we started a study centre for girls. They come to us after the school for tuitions where through drawing, games, stories, we get them to study and learn. We want them to excel in every aspect of life and not just score good marks,” she adds.
Swadhar came into existence 24 years ago to spread awareness about education. Now, they provide educational material and scholarships to girls from a poor background. Every year, 20-25 girls get scholarship from the organisation.
“We look out for donors who would take care of the education of the girl child,” says Suhrudini Prasad, convener, Girls Education Support programme.
Another obstacle in girls’ schooling is that they are married off early. “We try to counsel and convince the parents and if nothing works, we make sure that the girl continues her education post marriage,” she adds.
FOR MORE DETAILS, VISIT
- pmc.gov.in
- kavachamovement.org
- www.rguhs.ac.in
- mhrd.gov.in
2019 THEME — GIRLFORCE: UNSCRIPTED AND UNSTOPPABLE
Nearly 25 years ago, some 30,000 women and men from nearly 200 countries arrived in Beijing, China for the Fourth World Conference on Women. The conference culminated in the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
In the years following, women pressed this agenda forward, leading global movements on issues ranging from sexual and reproductive health rights to equal pay. Today, these movements have expanded. They are being organised by and for adolescent girls, and tackling issues like child marriage, education inequality, gender-based violence, climate change, self-esteem and girls’ rights to enter places of worship or public spaces during menstruation.
This year, under the theme, “GirlForce: Unscripted and unstoppable”, we will celebrate achievements by, with and for girls since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
Courtesy: www.un.org
START WITH BASICS
Menstruation is a common biological process and yet it is the least discussed because of the taboos associated with it. In India, around 113 million young girls (data from kavachamovement.org) feel vulnerable at the time of menarche. More than 70 per cent girls suffer from reproductive diseases due to lack of proper sanitation and knowledge of hygiene.
Bharti Trivedi, managing trustee of Kavach- A Movement, who has been working as a sex educator from the last one decade, has held many interactive sessions with children. During one such session at a corporation school in Mumbai, Trivedi was chatting with the Principal, when a girl came in seeking permission to take leave for four days. When questioned about it, the girl replied that she had got her periods. The student was asked to take sanitary napkin from the faculty and sit in the class. But for her, the sanitary napkin was not the problem, an undergarment was! She was not wearing any as she didn’t have one.
It hurt Trivedi and she decided to start Kavach so that no girl would encounter such indignity. She says, “When I first started Kavach and asked for financial support from friends through social media, no one believed me. Everybody thought I was lying. In a city like Mumbai it is hard to believe that one section of our society can’t even afford underwear.”
After some struggle, she finally distributed undergarments to 800 girls, two pairs for each of them. Later she thought of including basic products for personal hygiene and introduced the ‘Kavach-kit’. The kit is a combination of two pairs of undergarments, four packs of sanitary napkins, a khadi towel, and a bathing and washing soap. So far 5,000 plus kits have been distributed to the girls.
THERE IS HELP
Young children, in the 5-12 age group, are at a high risk of being abused and exploited. Approximately 35,000 to 40,000 cases of abuse (mostly girls) are reported every year in our country. To fight such crimes, Nirbhiya Ek Shakti was started by Anuja Kapur, a criminal psychologist. It is a hub for victim assistance and intends to help acid attack victims, abused children and women by providing them guidance, legal aid and rehabilitation, irrespective of age, caste and creed. The organisation is currently working in Delhi with six girls who fall in teenage and early 20s age bracket.
Kapur says, “I have tried to do my bit by providing financial, legal aid and reorganising the survivours to be back with society again. To be there, listening to their suffering and bringing justice to them by acting as a cushion in their hour of need is what I simply do.”
“Young girls who have been raped and faced acid attack, suffer from long-lasting negative impact. Giving them justice is the least that can be done,” she adds. The risk factors that promote such abuse include lack of education, exposure to maltreatment in their childhood, family violence, forgiving attitudes of women which perpetuates the violence, and so on. “We as a society have a duty to take steps to protect women and to help promote a culture that does not allow or accept violence against them. A better world for girls/women will only be possible when our daughters are empowered, and there’s no gender-based discrimination,” observes Kapur.
The statistics show that out of all the victims of abuse, only 10 per cent receive a helping hand. Unfortunately, many do not get professional help and there are cases where the victim loses her life due to the trauma. Kapur says that it might seem like the numbers have gone up in recent years, but actually it is the reporting that has increased. “Earlier, women used to think that if they report, they’ll lose their respect in society. But now, in a developing India, women feel empowered enough to speak up and spread awareness,” she says.
