Empowering Children through Saksham Shiksha Kendra

Children from DNT community in Maharashtra face educational issues due to three reasons:

●      Geographic location: These communities live in tandas (habitation), most often far away from the main village/towns/cities. Due to this, access to quality education is poor.

●       Seasonal migration: For livelihood, families of children practice seasonal migration due to which children’s education is not regular.

●      Language barriers: The language spoken by the community is ‘Gormati’ whereas the schools in the region teach in either Marathi / English. Children take time to adapt to the languages for even basic communication making school education a little more difficult.

Other prominent issues that restrict education for the children in the region include child marriages, gender-based violence, drop-out of adolescent girls, increased family responsibilities at home, lack of awareness and exposure about education, etc.

Samarthya has established 10 Saksham Shiksha Kendra (Support Classes) to bridge the gap between the DNT tribal children and the mainstream community through education. Saksham Shiksha Kendra has been working to address these issues since 2008 and has worked with over 2300 children in 10 tandas so far.

Through these everyday 2-hour classes, children have access to learning communication and learning. By involving the children, the organization also works with the parents of children and the communities to spread awareness about the importance of education in today’s world. The Kendras are led by teachers from the community, called Shikshagrahi, who are trained and paid for their work.

Samarthya aims to expand the program to reach children in 10 more tandas in the region, impacting 700 kids living in these tandas. Saksham Shiksha Kendra will provide mobile libraries, educational outings, bi-lingual resource materials and educational support across the 10 tandas for 700 children and their families. Community events which encourage participation in cultural and sports will also be organized to boost their confidence and ability to express themselves.

The project will also include community members to engage the children in different learning activities like banjara mirror work, banjara jewellery making, banjara embroidery, basic stitching, dance and music, etc. 

Impact is measured across three fronts:

●      Attendance rates: By implementing the project in 10 tandas, the organization will reduce the gap between the DNT tribal children and regular school children by increasing the rate of attendance to more than 90% in schools,

●      Improved academic performance: measured in the final school examinations

●      Increase in school-level participation: in activities related to cultural, sports and academic,.

In the long run, the organization aims to reduce the rate of child marriages in the region by enabling access to higher education.

The project also aims to include the parents in the process of educating the community about education to make it a part of their cultural identity. By encouraging active participation of parents in School Management Committees, the representation of the tribe’s issues in school with respect to bi-linguality, discrimination and lack of opportunities can be addressed. This will result in children having access to quality education.

More importantly, the project hopes to create a feeling of identity for every child in the DNT community as an individual who has the desire to lead a better life in the future.