Sunday, April 23, 2000		Article

From the loom to the classroom

Project Mala has set up five schools in the carpet weaving belt of Uttar Pradesh which is notorious for child labour. Sharad K. Soni describes an effort to change the lives of children expected to work in factories.

FOR decades now the carpet industry of Bhadohi and Mirzapur has been roundly condemned for child labour abuse. A number of non-government organisations (NGOs) are actively and vociferously campaigning against the alleged bondage of children in the industry.

There have been instances of children being transported from distant places by middlemen to work and repay loans given to their parents by factory owners.

Though the 1986 Child Labour Act specifically prohibits the employment of any child under the age of 14, surveys carried out in this region show there are still 1,30,000 children, almost 82 per cent of the entire child population between the ages of 6 and 14, who are in regular work and do not attend any type of school.

The strictly worded Supreme Court verdict against child labour may have curbed the practice, but it has not eliminated it. Since even the law has not deterred unscrupulous elements, a number of NGOs have come up with innovative ways of putting an end to the scourge.

Although official statistics showed that 95 per cent of the villages had a school within a radius of 1 km, the reality was vastly different. A number of schools existed only in official files and those that were there lacked basic educational environment.

Says Dr David Rangpal, CEO of Project Mala, "Economic hardships coupled with a near absence of educational facilities fuelled child labour to an extent that the abuse became rampant."

Project Mala, aided by a British philanthropist Robin Garland, then got on to the second phase of its plan to provide children and parents an alternative schooling. In 1990, it began setting up schools in the Mirzapur and Bhadohi districts of Uttar Pradesh both known for their carpet weaving industries.

Now Project Mala has five schools running in remote villages of these two districts. These include schools in Guria near Varanasi, Hasra, Patehra, Amol and Mujehra. They have been specially designed for personal growth, professional development and rehabilitation of child labour in the carpet industry.

"These schools have translated the National Policy on Child Labour (NPCL) 1987 into action," says Dr Rangpal and adds, "the project aims at educational rehabilitation of illiterate, impoverished and socially exploited child weavers."

At present there are 850 children enrolled in all the five schools and they constitute around 10 per cent of the child labour in these two regions. Though the target group is children aged between 9 and 11 who forfeit their childhood at the looms, there are also students between 11 and 14.

"As selection is made on the basis of income first, almost all our students come from the scheduled castes and tribes and have never had formal education," says Dr Rangpal and adds, "We don’t discriminate between boys and girls."

The schools offer a three-year condensed course in non-formal education (NFE) equivalent to five years in formal primary system (class I-V). After completion of the course, children are put to test by the state education department and then they are accepted into the formal stream of education at the post-primary stage.

The proof of the quality of education is in the fact that in spite of the condensed curriculum, not a single child has so far failed the state grade primary education certificate and almost 50 per cent children go for higher education.

Project Mala schools adopt the Minimum Leaving Levels (MLL) curriculum designed by the National Council for Education Research and Technology (NCERT) for non-formal education. It has also inducted some aspects along the Gandhian lines.

The schools also provide technical skills by way of vocational training in the field of carpet weaving and tailoring. Recently, an advanced weaving academy has been started at Guria centre for kids who have completed NFE at the Mala schools. The academy uses scientifically developed looms which have eliminated problems of working on old fashioned village looms.

Other programmes include construction techniques and food preservation. The idea of providing vocational training is that children can find employment easily after they finish school.

Project Mala has come in for praise by the NCERT which terms it as "a unique innovation in non-formal education". The International Labour Organisation (ILO) too has commended it as a well thought out and smoothly run project. It has appreciated the fact that the project has adopted the policy of progressive elimination of child labour.

However, weaning away children from the looms has never been an easy task, especially when debt-bondage is so rampant in India. Added to this the complete apathy of the community towards education.

"We had to adopt a persuasive approach and not a confrontationist one," says Dr Rangpal. "An intimate contact with the community helped us understand their socio-economic constraints. That made our task easy as we began propagating the long term benefits of education."

Years of persuasion has worked wonders for Project Mala. Parents are finally starting to realise that school education is the foundation of a good future for a child. Only then can he or she earn full wages as skilled adult even in the carpet industry. A growing number of parents are now willing to forfeit the loss of a child’s earnings for school.

Project Mala on its part provides parents a monthly stipend of Rs 100 per child to offset the loss of earnings. The fund provides scholarships for deserving children who want to go in for higher studies.

Over the past 10 years, a sea change is visible in at least 35 villages within the project’s operational areas. Parental attitude has changed and there is now demand for more such schools. There has been a change in family behaviour as well. Alcoholism, drug addiction and dowry demands have declined. "The quality of life of families has changed," says Dr Rangpal.

Though Project Mala is a success story, financial constraints have prevented it from opening more schools. Everything from a child’s uniform to textbooks to teachers’ salaries is paid from donations. Appeals are sent out to people for donations. It takes only Rs 4,000 to sponsor all the costs of a child for one year.

Though funds are trickling in, the heartening news is that many international donors like the UNHRC and the UNICEF are now stepping in to finance more schools under Project Mala.

Says Dr Rangpal, "Already the incidence of child labour has reduced by around 30 per cent in areas we operate. The plan is to extend the project to other regions and eliminate the scourge altogether."— NF