Nurturing Excellence in Tribal Children-Support Program Costs

Mrida works with tribal children from impoverished families (Gond, Baiga, and Ahir tribes) in eastern Madhya Pradesh by providing residential schooling, training in football, and coding to these children. Although enrolment in schools, especially elementary schools, has improved, the quality of learning outcomes leaves much to be desired. The dropout rate of children at the high school level is high at 25-30%. Even children who finish high school do not have strong prospects to look forward to. Skilling initiatives have not worked due to a lack of basic skills among youth as well as unwillingness to migrate long-term. One large-scale initiative in Mandla and Dindori districts has seen only 20% of youth who have finally started working after skills training. 

The community largely depends on subsistence farming or seasonal migration to cities, typically 2-3 times a year. With a failure of education and an acute dearth of opportunities to learn, rural children as young as 9-10 years are taking to consuming tobacco and gutkha products, impacting their bodies and minds adversely at this tender age. Through football and education, we are building an institution and culture of excellence in the region so that children and parents have positive role models and career pathways to look up to.  

Mrida is currently working directly with 260 tribal children with 120 girls and boys from 6 years to 17 years, living in the hostel and 140-day scholars who attend the Riverside Natural School, run by Mrida. In addition, we also work with 200 children from 20 villages through our football league, camps and scouting programs that we conduct regularly in the region, totally reaching 460 children in the region. We have built a 36-member strong team, comprising football coaches, teachers, core team and support staff.

We run the following programs:

1. Riverside Natural School and Hostel

2. Narmada Valley Football Program

3. Narmada Valley Aavishkaar Labs

In the short term, we are spreading a love for Sport and learning coupled with a need to stay fit and avoid bad habits. The children we work with getting access to opportunities and platforms to express and excel in Sports, Technology, and Education. In the long term, we are building confident, healthy, and positive role models for the region, who have worked hard to achieve success, fueling the movement out of poverty for the community.  

We have been able to achieve the following outcomes in the last 6 years of operations:

CODING (NARMADA VALLEY AAVISHKAAR LABS)

1.     15 of our Class 9 and 10 children who are first-generation learners and had not touched a Computer 3 years ago, are now coding in Python. 

2.     Four of our teams from the Coding Program were in the top six in a nationwide hackathon with 250 children from 10 cities. The coders have proven their talent earlier as well by excelling at IIT- Indore, competing with the best and winning numerous prizes. 

3.     70% of our children from Classes 6 to 10 are able to access email, search on the internet, take printouts and find the information they need.

SPORTS (NARMADA VALLEY FOOTBALL PROGRAM)

4.     Our U-17 girls team is the MP champion, beating teams from Indore, Gwalior, Ujjain, Bhopal and Narmadapuram. They represented MP in the historic 61st Subroto Cup organized this month, organized by the Indian Air Force where our girls and school were recognized with the 'Fair Play' award and were widely appreciated for their technically sound game. Most girls in this region fetch water and firewood, cook food, work on the farm and get married when they turn 18 (or sometimes even earlier). Our girls are changing the development trajectory of the region. 

5.     One of our 13 year old boys, Nageshwar Dhurvey has been selected by Minerva Academy FC, Chandigarh through a nationwide open trial with a full scholarship that includes schooling, football training, food and accommodation.

6.     One of our girls, Antara Dhurvey was part of the Maharashtra U-17 probables and selected to attend the Maharashtra state camp for the U-17 national women's football tournament, organized by Western India Football Association at Cooperage in Mumbai.

7.     We run the largest and longest football league in MP that runs for 3 months and sees participation of 350 players in the U-10 and U-14 age categories for both girls and boys. Through this program, we also raise awareness on tobacco and gutkha consumption by minors.

HEALTH

8.    No anaemia among our residential students, particularly significant in a region where 70% of children are anaemic, as per the NFHS 2015-16.