In Conversation With: Vardhishnu – the NGO fighting child labour

GIVE.DO is in conversation with Adwait Dandwate and Pranali Sisodiya who are the founders of Vardhishnu, a Maharashtra-based NGO that fights child labour by giving underprivileged children educational opportunities to improve their futures. Vardhishnu started as an organization when its founders came across more than 100 children wading through a landfill sorting out trash to sell later on for some food to eat. This heartbreaking incident served as the impetus to establish the NGO and Adwait Dandwate and Pranali Sisodiya realized that education is the most empowering path to accomplish this objective.

 

Since 2013, the organization has created 5 safe spaces of learning for children living in urban slum settlements. In these safe spaces of learning, children are introduced to the basics of reading, writing, health education and life skills. In equipping these children with academic skills, the NGO enables the children to be integrated into mainstream education and have a childhood out of the landfills, which are dangerous environments for children. In this interview we speak to Adwait Dandwate and Pranali Sisodiya about the impact of child labour on children and how their organization is fighting this through education. 

 

Give.do: What mental and physical impact does manual labour have on the minds and bodies of children who are still growing and developing?

 

Adwait Dandwate and Pranali Sisodiya: Due to consistently working in an unhygienic environment, skin diseases, scabies are very common among all the children. The children also get cuts on their hands and legs due to sharp objects in the waste. Animal bites are very common. 

 

Give.do: How does Vardhishnu tackle this problem through Anandghar’s safe spaces of learning? 

 

Adwait Dandwate and Pranali Sisodiya: Child labourers face lots of violence in their lives. There is a violence in their homes, in the community, at work places and from society at large. But they do not have spaces where they could feel a sense of belonging, where they are treated with love and most importantly respect. 

 

Anandghar tries to feel this void. Based on the core values of love, compassion and respect, Anandghar acts as a bridge between children, parents, schools and society at large. Anandghar provides basic formal and informal education and skills in a joyful, contextual and experiential environment to child waste pickers and child labours to take them out of the clutches of child labour and make them capable of joining mainstream schools while investing parents, community members, schools, government institutions as well as society at large, in the wellbeing of the children. 

 

To give these children a fair chance to take control of their lives and to live a life with dignity and ensure that they enroll in mainstream schools and follow the path of education towards a better future, we are focusing on following fundamentals:

 

• Nurturing academic skills: To enable children to read and write fluently in Marathi (their local language) and acquire basic numerical aptitude, thereby increasing their chances of sustaining in mainstream schools.

 

• Nurturing life skills: Age appropriate life-skills for the social-emotional wellbeing of the children.

 

• Investing in the parents, community members and others: This is to ensure the well-being of the children through home visits, parents meetings and Mohalla Sabhas.

 

• School enrolment & sustenance: To enroll and sustain children in mainstream schools by leaving child labour behind. We conduct enrollment drives, pay school fees, buy uniforms, stationery and other required material for children.

 

• Hygiene and physical well-being: To inculcate hygienic habits and quit substance abuse. We conduct health camps, provide nutritional food to children everyday and provide complete health-care to sick children.

 

Give.do: Is there a book or documentary film you recommend for people to learn more about this issue?

 

Adwait Dandwate and Pranali Sisodiya: There are multiple books in Marathi which highlight the issues of child labour. ‘Daridyachi Shodhyatra’ by Heramb Kulkarni which is one such book. Jhund is one of the most famous films of recent times which very well depicts the life of child labourers. People can also watch this documentary on Vardhishnu’s work if they are interested in knowing more about the challenges of children from vulnerable backgrounds and how we have been able to effectively answer those challenges. 

 

Support Vardhishnu

Child labour in India is a crime against children that still needs to be eradicated. Due to crippling poverty, many children are pushed into working in dangerous environments but education can empower them and future generations to the point that their childhoods are spent in school and preparing for a more safe and dignified life. Your support can help Adwait Dandwate and Pranali Sisodiya reach out to many more children and transform their lives and the lives of their families through education. To support Vardhishnu:

 

Support Vardhishnu

 

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