CASE – I (JHARKHAND) “PRAYAS (प्रयास)” (in Giridih District, Jharkhand) ‘Enrolling Dropout and Irregular Girl Children back in School’ Situation: Drop out of students in the age category of 6-14 years mostly Girls from Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Communities in Giridih district of Jharkhand.

Process Followed – Identifying dropout children and categorising them as per number of days absent; (RED – up to 3 days absent, YELLOW – up to 7 days absent, BLUE – more than 7 days absent) Meeting with SMC on the issue and identification of families from where dropout happened SMC and Parents meeting on sensitisation of the later Volunteer orientation and conducting tuition centre for re-enroling back the children where days absent were higher Involvement of PRI for mapping of the vulnerability of the families Enrolment of families in Social Security Programs (MGNREGA and IAY primarily) Children’s Collectives’ involvement for peer encouragement

Outcome This process is continuing for last few years and in the last one year alone the number of Girl Children enrolled in a single school rose from 45 to 78 which is whopping “74% increase in Girls Education”

CASE – II (JHARKHAND) BADHAI PATRA “बधाई पत्र” “From Child Marriage to Child Education” Situation: Koderma district of Jharkhand which shares its border with Bihar, inhabitants of the intervention area are mostly from Scheduled Caste and OBCs. Among these communities Child Marriage (CM) is still very much prevalent.

Process followed – Sensitisation and Capacity Building of PRI members on the issue of CM Larger community level involvement by PRI members themselves on the issue of CM; awareness, sensitisation, capacity building and so on... Vulnerability mapping in terms of socio-economic conditions of the families Panchayat introduced to issue a Badhai Patra (customary congratulatory letter) signed by Mukhiya and also by both parents and in-laws of bride and groom As primary tier and most significant governance mechanism, people have greater faith on PRI so people look up to it as an authority to abide by its rules Oath taking by adolescents group members towards continuing education at least till the age of 18 years

Outcome This process has been initiated in 8 villages of 5 Gram Panchayats under Satgama block in Koderma district of Jharkhand where no child marriage cases have been reported last year. 65 families included in this process through identification of vulnerability in last one year where equal number of Girl Children were prevented from CM and are now continuing their education

CASE – III (ASSAM) CCRE- Child Centric Reflection Exercise. “Initiative towards ownership of school by the community” (initiated since last 1 year) Situation: Covering 35 schools (primary and upper primary) in 13 villages of Rangia and Hajo Block of Kamrup district in Assam

Process Followed - Critical and important stake holders of the community like- Village Head, Village Development Committee, ASHA, ANM, AWW, SMC members, School teachers, religious leaders came together and did the mapping of education situation It includes all the component of school development including infrastructure development of villages for facilitating children to reach schools Three years road map developed for school development and monitoring mechanisms were in place This CCRE will be shared with the Government department as a model SDP which considers all aspects of village which are associated with access to schools

Learning so far Through engagement with, SMC - SMC members are not well aware about of their role and responsibility as reason they are not fully active in terms of monitoring the schools as well as to plan for development of Schools. However with CCRE approach it has been observed that ownership among SMC members towards schools have enhanced SMC members have started taking some proactive measures like developing temporary fencing of the schools, repair of the school table and desk, conducting meeting at village level with the parents for increasing enrollment, promoting kitchen gardens at school premises, monitoring teacher attendance.

Contd... Through engagement with, Teachers - It has been observed that teachers lack motivation in teaching. In this regard we have been organising programs with the school teachers with the help of retired school headmaster who has performed well during his tenure in school. This has motivated school teachers who to interact with children and how school teacher can manage their time with the busy schedule of school. This has motivated some of the selected school teachers to be regular in school and with creativity. As Result - Development of School Report Card In selected 35 schools, school report card has been prepared with active participation of community leaders and the SMC members. School Report Cards have been developed based on the indicators such as infrastructure, quality teaching and quality learning outcome. Interestingly community, during Gram Sabha day, are also placing the school report card, so that it can also be included in village plan of action and also become a regular agenda.

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