We did a survey in the government schools in the villages of Rajasthan, Maharasthra, and Uttarakhand and realized that the main factors hindering quality education in these schools were
1) Lack of infrastructure, poor access to clean drinking water
2) Lack of sanitation and hygiene
3) The poor economic profile of parents who find it difficult to manage school expenses
4) Lack of gender-sensitive approach in education.
We acknowledged that children can be retained in the school by creating an education-need among them. A healthy school environment not only encourages the parents to enroll their children but also arouses interest in the minds of children to complete their education.
The parents of government school children are mainly daily wage earners who have irregular and meager income sources. Hence, they cannot afford to buy the basic education necessities for their children. One Adhyayan kit is provided to every child to take care of her stationery needs for the year. It contains-
→ A school bag
→ A set of 10 notebooks
→ Colour pencils
→ A box of pencils/pens
→ A stationery box with an eraser, sharpener, and a scale along with many wax crayons.
We have distributed such 3,200 Adhyayan kits to children in Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Maharashtra.
Story of Megha
Megha is a student in class 3 of the Ashramshala at Mahalaxmi, District Palghar in Maharashtra. She is very happy today as she has a new school bag, notebooks, pencilbox and also a set of wax crayons. She says she loves to draw and paint and these wax colours are the best gift she has ever received. She has been asking her father who is a farmer to get her colours as she wanted to paint a picture of her school and house in the village. She promises that she would gift us a painting next time we visit her. We are happy that we will receive a wonderful gift from this beautiful child and we ensure that her dreams of pursuing her interests don’t remain unfulfilled.
29 per cent of girls and boys, the most marginalized, drop out of school before completing elementary education*.
Help us fight for educational equity in India.
*SRI-IMRB Surveys, 2009 and 2014
Spreading warmth with Sweaters
States in North India have chilly winters, which means that children either miss school or fall sick because of insufficient warm clothing. We have distributed 1400 sweaters to underprivileged children in govt schools in the Kota district of Rajasthan. ‘It was a very sad state to see students coming to the school in tattered woolens in harsh winter’ Hanotiya is a remote village in Rajasthan where alcoholism and drug abuse are rampant. The teachers told that most of the villagers are daily wagers who go for work in the nearby city or are dependent on their meager farm incomes. Whatever money is earned goes into alcohol and drug abuse and children are deprived of the basic necessities of education including school uniforms and sweaters.
When our team member Mrs. Manju Bhargava visited the govt primary school in Hanotiya Rajasthan, she was sad seeing the way children came to the school in harsh winters when the temperature dropped down below 10 degrees Celsius. Mrs Manju is a retired Principal who has dedicated over 40 yrs of her life to teaching profession. In her vast experience, she has taught in both govt and private schools and understands the differences in the educational experiences for the students in both the setup. The school teachers informed that children often miss school as it gets very cold during winter months.
Samarpan distributed sweaters in GPS Hanotiya and 12 other schools in rural Rajasthan ensuring a warm winter to 1400 children.
As Manju Bhargava says, “Little things have the potential of making huge difference in our lives. This small step would go a long way in ensuring a better future for these little kids.” And as she distributed these sweaters to the students, she also promised to bring them more gifts if they attended the school regularly
Dignity with Uniforms
In many of the govt schools, children wear old and torn uniforms. This affects their sense of dignity and also does not offer sufficient warmth against the harsh weather. Further, due to repetitive wearing of the same uniform, the children develop skin infections. We have distributed 400 sets of uniforms to the needy.
