Ankita (name changed), 13, will soon be able to continue her studies in another month She dropped out of school two years ago, after her father passed away, to support her mother in earning a livelihood. Since then, she has been accompanying her mother to work in fields and homes of other people.
Ankita’s case has been taken up by the village level child protection committee (VLCPC) of Jarkesimlabad village in Kera panchayat of Chakradharpur and forwarded to the district child protection officer for providing sponsorship, a scheme of state government to provide Rs. 2000 per month for education of children from extremely poor financial background. The paperwork is completed and soon she will start receiving the amount of sponsorship.
Like Ankita, 20 other children in need of sponsorship have been identified in 15 panchayats of Chahradharpur in a joint effort of Srijan Mahila Vikas Manch (SMVM) and Save the Children (STC) in the last one year. The process for getting them linked with sponsorship scheme is ongoing.
Nargis Khatoon, secretary of SMVM said, “We along with STC, are working in 116 villages of 15 panchayats in Chakradharpur to constitute and strengthen the VLCPCs for over a year. The impact is evident as unlike the other VLCPCs in the district, the once we are working in are proactive and immediately bring up the matter of child protection when they come across one.”
A total of 1648 children in need of care and protection have been identified in these 15 panchayats of which 69 are high risk with them being either orphans or involved in child labour. All these 69 children have been linked with the various government schemes by SMVM and STC.
The VLCPCs, trained by the two organisations, are now working extensively towards child protection.
Virendra Naik, Munda (head) of Jarkesimlabad village said, “We now know the duties and responsibilities of VLCPC. Now, every time we come across any case related to child rights violation like child labour, child marriage or school drop outs, we immediately contact the members of these organizations who then take up the matter to district level.”
Md.Islam Ansari, project coordinator of SMVM informed that two categories, school drop outs and single parents, have the maximum number of children.
"We are trying our best to link maximum number of dropouts with mainstream schooling and sponsorship. Last year we managed to get five girls enrolled in local Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya and this year we have applied for enrollment of 13 girls," he said.