The National Award for Child Welfare Individual Category 2015 was conferred upon city-based Sangita Vardhan for her work with children from out of school and very deprived category, rescue and rehabilitation of children in beggary from nomadic families, children under Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act of 2015.
Vardhan is the Founder and Chairperson of Vatsal Chaya Trust and Member, Administrator’s Advisory Council UT Chandigarh.
The National Child Awards are given every year, selected from entries from all states and UT’s, five in institutional category and three people in individual category, as well as to children with exceptional ability. They are given by the President in Rashtrapati Bhavan on Children’s Day every year.
Sangita works in Chandigarh where 20 per cent of the population is below poverty line as per 2011 Census through Vatsal Chaya Trust of which she is the Founder Chairperson.
“I try to tackle the big challenge of heterogeneity of children’s contexts and their barriers to successful integration and inclusion in school and place particular focus on scaffolding support so that children dont fall off the grid . Children in adversity have overlapping needs like poor health, abuse, violence, proximity to crime, psycho active substance abuse, malnutrition, regressive gender practices, lack of life skills so bringing them to school is only the first step,” she said.
Sangita added that children need to be helped through transitions of age, school levels and circumstance.