Field Project

Shaaleyede Nanna Nade: My Step Towards School

21st April 2016, Thursday

With quite a lot of struggle Rajkumari ma’am and I were able to arrive at the awaited meeting at the Karnataka State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR) regarding the hopefully successful, highly rights protecting and reformative campaign called ‘Shaaleyede Nanna Nade (My Step Towards School) in order to enquire, make aware and encourage the rightful beneficiaries i.e. the children to continue/go to school. It’s imperative to do so and this is backed up by the Right to Education (Free and Compulsory) Act of 2009.

Mr. Mariaswamy has been in charge of organisation and 28 Taluks are being covered with the plan of mass enrollment. Every area has a nodal NGO that will be converging together for the campaign to ensure efficient results. For their precious presence the children will be given refreshments.

22nd April 2016, Friday

Today was an eventful day and catalyst towards the awaited campaign. For the purpose and understanding of the issue there was an extensive survey conducted to investigate and infer upon the root causes of school drop outs/children yet to get into schools. Societal and cultural reasons were focused upon with an added stress on child marriage. More importantly the enquiry was on why they participated in child marriage. The Samaja Parivarthane Janandolana (SPJ) is the NGO that has organised this survey in all six districts of Karnataka with a sample of 20 case studies each. This is a CRY funded venture and in addition the NGO individually enquires into many other issues other than child rights with a 15 year gap.

We as interns were asked to observe the coding and correction making process with two impressively enthusiastic members of the SPJ (Mr. Murugesh and Mr. Narayana) and an experienced survey inspector at a data entry office. The questionnaire that we came across was excellently worded and investigated into the root aim of the survey with efficient ease. Many instances arose where we were baffled of the ground reality and participated in a lively debate on the issues discussed with the SPJ representative (Mr. Narayana). They are hoping to successfully compile the inferences into a booklet as soon as possible.

23rd April 2016, Saturday

The most awaited day had arrived and the streets were bustling with hundreds of children, volunteers and representatives of BOSCO, Sparsha, APSA, Paraspara and Surabhi along with other nodal NGOs as well as KSCPCR around the Mysore Bank circle. It was very overwhelming to see the immense dedication and interest each and every member of the campaign was showing. The march was to be conducted till Jain University where the official awareness drives would take place.

The march was impressively successful with many of us surprised yet proud of the energy and talent that the children had regarding

slogan shouting, banners and most importantly the groundbreaking drum performance that a group of girls from Sparsha (a nodal NGO) led the procession with. That led to a successful result of the aim of the campaign i.e. to make a lot of people attracted and interested to know about the campaign that education is imperative and rightful as the RTE clearly states, most importantly though their literal step towards school. Here it would be incomplete if the alliance organized sound system and vehicles were not mentioned and applauded on their enthusiastic and moving announcements of slogans of “Shaaleyede Nanna Nade” along with other inspiring slogans. Also were it not for the immense support of the CRY volunteers the march wouldn’t have been successful. Their enthusiastic aid during refreshments distribution as well as food made for an efficient food flow during the program.

The awareness drive was highly inspiring and encouraging with various words of the wisdom from the panel of esteemed and eminent persons from various fields, both educational and non-educational. Not to forget the continuous encouraging words and support that Mr. Mariaswamy gave at every turn of the program. His efforts and determinism is quite applaudable, where he’s even going to the extent of transforming this venture to the 7 educational blocks of Karnataka. It was very moving to see him encouraging students to showcase their talents in turn giving them a push towards grabbing onto their rights and equal status in the society. This was glaringly evident when the Sparsha girls did another round of drum performances which got a blaring round of applause. The sounds of their feet, drums, instruments and most importantly their continuous chant of “Hai” made for quite a vivid image of empowerment.

With the gaps and loopholes still found in the RTE act it is extremely imperative that reformative ventures like this take place and we as interns are extremely grateful and proud to have been a part of this excellent effort. We would like to thank CRY for collaborating in this project and Rajkumari Ma’am for being our continuous guide and mentor.

-A report by interns Akshay Reddy and Prerna Nautiyal