Project Asha Nutanhat Development Society 2011 – 12 Proposal by Tanushree and Somesh, AID Penn State

Purulia, West Bengal Drought prone, semi-arid region 31% of Purulia’s 2.5 million people live below the poverty line (according to WB government) Purulia has one of the highest rate, 11.8%, of out-of-school children of age 6-14 (ASER08)‏

Mission statement of Nutanhat Development Society (NDS) To help the less privileged in our community by making them aware of developmental issues; To utilize resources optimally and bring in a sustainable change in society; To educate, organize and build capabilities in community members; To enable them to demand social justice, a clean and green environment, and self-reliance.

Project Asha Aim Creating an environment to promote education among the less privileged tribal and backward children in Purulia. Helping drop-outs and non-enrolled children to avail of this opportunity to learn in centres designed for self- growth. Target Population Children up to class IV from 10 remote villages of Hura block, Purulia. The affected population mainly comprises indigenous tribal communities (Santhals, Kherias, Mudis, Mundas) and dalits (scheduled castes, and other backward castes).

Situation Large drop-out rate amongst tribal children No one at home or in the community to guide or teach them properly Most parents are illiterate and there is no environment in the village for education. The government-run primary schools are practically non- functional Child to teacher ratio is 100 : 1

Project facts Budget approved in : Rs. 4,09, : Rs. 2,97, : Rs. 4,10,396 Persons Involved: 300 students 10 teachers 1 Supervisor (Rasaraj)‏ 1 Office staff (Nakul) 1 Project coordinator (Kabori) Project poster in NDS office

Performance evaluation methods Site visits in 2008 (Simanti), 2009 (Arijit, Somesh), 2010 (Rini) Quarterly conference calls to NDS project coordinators and grassroots workers Quarterly report from NDS with performance data of each student

Distribution of students Gender Class

Overall student performance

Student performance: Bengali

Student performance: English

Student performance: Math

Project performance: Dropout

Project performance: Graduation ratio

Project performance: Bengali readiness

Project performance: English readiness

Project performance: Math readiness

Observations Steady progress in performance across all skills and villages; Some villages are performing better than others; Progress in English / Math is as good as Bengali; The standard of education in outgoing class is more or less equally distributed among villages. Photo Courtesy: Kokonad Sinha, Ritendra Datta Lot of interest among parents and kids; More villages want this kind of schools.

Future and concerns How to sustain: Look for government funding o No response Cooperation of local panchayet o Hope for some minimal amount Implementation of a fee structure o Requires involvement in livelihood generation of the locals o Propose to follow up implementation of NREGA in the locality Look for more external funding o Requires our help: we are preparing a detailed report on the project progress and model

Budget for Please open the Google Docs

Proposition Vote to fund NDS for Rs. 403, for