I was guest of honor for this wonderful program.
I prepared a big flower boke for 1500 students
Rainbow
homes is a campaign launched in Andhra Pradesh in the year 2008 to protect the
rights of, and help reclaim the childhood of, deprived girls in urban areas
which was extended for boys at a later stage. The categories of children
targeted for these homes are children on streets, children of homeless
families, children in begging, children in rag picking, children of sex workers
and in sex work, children in domestic work and facing abuse and violence,
children from farmers and weavers families those are effected by hunger deaths and
suicides etc. These children face multiple vulnerabilities due to no adult
protection-- either have no parents or escaped from abusive, violent
environments because of alcoholic or irresponsible parents. They are deprived
of education, distanced from health care, adult care and ridden with
psychological problems resulting in self-destructive habits like drug
addiction, leading to the alarming phenomenon of 'sustained underdevelopment'.
Aman
Biradari, a national trust started this concept of “Rainbow homes” with the
following salient features through its Andhra Pradesh chapter called Aman
Vedika.
·
Located in
government schools for the appropriate usage of aavailable infrastructure to
reclaim the childhood of these most vulnerable children
·
A home for the
children those are deprived of child hood and functional parenting
·
A place that
transforms these children to responsible citizens
·
A home that
ensure..right to life, right to protection, right to development and right to
participation of the children.
AmanBiradari
started implementing this concept in active collaboration with government as it
feels that it is the responsibility of the government to take care of such
children and to establish such mechanisms for care and protection of these
vulnerable children. It used the following ploicy frame work to engage with
government for establishment of these homes.
·
Right to
education act (RTE) and related GOs, Government of AP included Rainbow Home
·
Juvenile
Justice Act: As per the JJ rules it is the responsibility of the state to
provide care and protection for the children in distress directly or through
civil society organizations.
·
SSA (Sarva
Siksha Abhiyan) legal frame work mentioned this model of RSTC (Residential
special training center formerly known as RBC (Residentila Bridge course) as
one of the best practice.
SSA
has budget allocations for RBC/RSTC for the children out of the school. Aman
Biradari used these provisions for the benefit of these most vulnerable
children with active involvement of SSA. After establishing 2 homes as models,
Aman Vedika started advocating replication of the model through a group of 8
likeminded NGOs under the umbrella of Balyamitra Network. SSA and education
departments actively supported the initiative through providing RSTC support
and school buildings for these children. So far we could reach 1570 children
out of which 1096 are girls and 474 are boys through 17 homes or Residential
Special Training Centres RSTCs (10 for girls and 7 for boys) located in
government schools, with these children attending classes in 66 govt schools.
Most of the children are enrolled in the same school or nearest government
school. This was possible through a tripartite partnership between RVM SSA,
Civil society and the partner organizations of Balyamitra network. The proactive initiative of these stakeholders
not only enabled these children to access education but also provided
protection, care and social integration for these most vulnerable children.
Providing all these basic rights of children in the school premises proved a
successful strategy to cover the left out children, to remove the social stigma
attached to them, give them a sense of self esteem and facilitate
re-integration into society. Currently, these children are not only enjoying
their right to education as students but they have also reclaimed their
childhood.
In
the whole process education and SSA departments have different role to play.
Even though these children are supported by SSA through RSTC, the children
basically belong to the education department and brought into the schools owned
by education department. Children are first enrolled in to the schools
according to their age and brought to the RSTC. Children will go back to the
formal school after finishing their RSTC curriculum. Thus the children are
under the supervision of the both the departments.
Role of education department:
The education department
facilitates access to the premises identified by the NGO. Children have to be
enrolled in the school records and sent to RSTCs. The RSTC children are
included in the mid-day meal scheme, and their lunch is provided by the school.
After the completion of the RSTC, they are enrolled as regular students in the
school.
Role of SSA:
The
SSA sanctions and makes available the funds for the children’s needs, monitors
the education, and other routine work, looks at the accounts, and supplies the
educational material. Hitherto, each child was allotted a sum of Rs.10,000/-
per annum for a period of 10 months. Now, following the RTE regulations, each
child is allotted Rs. 20,000/- per annum for a period of 2 years.
Teachers for the RSTCs are trained by the SSA. Provision of basic
infrastructural facilities to the RSTCs is also the responsibility of the SSA.
BMN
is now on the threshold of a new phase in the care of children without
responsible adult care. In this context, children in the Homes run by
Balyamitra Network are celebrating their reclaimed childhood along with various
stakeholders of RSTCs and those who contributed to the cause. BMN cordially
invites you to preside over the event.
Requirements:
There
are many challenges that pose questions for sustained support for these
children.
·
The RSTC
support is available for only for a period of 2 years (It was one year
earlier). Children with no one and nowhere to go need require sustained long
term support to continue their education and settle in their life. Due to the lack of continued support after
the RSTC phase, these children may go back to the street or end up as child
labour. Currently only 50% of the children in the Rainbow Homes are supported
by the SSA despite being in the stipulated age group of 6-14 yrs. Hence either
education department or SSA should look into ways for providing longer term
support for all these children.
·
Previously the
SSA’s target group was children between 9-14 yrs of age. Now the the RTE
stipulates the age of the target group
should be between 6-14 yrs. However, the SSA has yet to wake up to this
extension—they are still calculating accounts according to the previous
stipulation of 9-14 yrs.
·
Even though
there is a provision for supporting the renovation of infrastructure in school
buildings and slightly modifying it for residential purposes, there are no focal
persons and guidelines to access these provisions. As a result the request for
such infrastructure development has to go from the Head master of the school
and revolves around many people at higher level. Hence it is extremely
important to notify the responsible people for infrastructure development and
corresponding process.
·
At times,
school teachers are not convinced with accepting these children as they feel it
is additional burden on them. Many resent them because they are from the
street, have no family that can be held responsible for them, and even after
the completion of the RSTC, teachers need to put in extra work to bring the new
children upto the level of the others.
·
In many
instances the teachers’ unions tried to propagate that the school is going to
be privatized, sometimes they even stooped to malign the staff in the Homes.
Hence it is important to lay down some clear instructions to the schools.
·
Infrastructure related requirements: Most of
the existing RSTCs in the school buildings are in the need of infrastructure
requirement like:
o
80% need renovation of buildings with
minor modifications
o
50% need electricity facilities
o
50% need drinking and running water facility
o
in 75% of the premises, construction and repair of Toilets and Wash
Rooms is an urgent requirement
o
30% need doors, and 90% need closed cupboards
o
75% need drainage facility
o
Surroundings of 25% of schools have to cleaned, as garbage is being dumped
o
50% need water storage tanks
o
40% need kitchen and wash area
o
90% of the buildings need white wash.
·
Other issues:
The space in the school
buildings is under utilised by dumping unwanted, broken and waste material in
at least 25% of schools.
Before the NGOs took up the premises to establish the
Home, they were faced with huge
amounts of pending electricity and water bills
100-% of the teachers
in schools need orientation on rules and procedures related to RSTCs.
to no adult protection-- either have no parents or escaped from abusive, violent environments be...
