SKCV is a
non-sectarian, non-profit making charitable trust
founded by Mr. Manihara in 1981 when he came to
India from London to study the culture, habits and
problems of the country. He was a street child and later
practiced many professions apart from a short stint in
the Hollywood. He was influenced by the horrible
conditions in which so many poor children were found
making a living on the streets and in the slums. He set
about doing something to help them in a small way in
Bombay, renting 2 rooms with personal funds and with
the help of doctors and some local contributions. He
then moved to Vijayawada in 1987 at the invitation of
the Mayor Dr. J.Shankar and started work with the street children of this area.
Vijayawada is one of
the major cities of Andhra Pradesh and is located on
the banks of the river Krishna. The population of
the city is 11 lakhs and there are more than 20000
street and working children in the city and it is
increasing every day. Vijayawada city is centrally
located in Andhra Pradesh and is a vital link between
North, East and South. The railway station is quite a
big junction. Every train passing from Chennai and
Bangalore towards Calcutta have to pass through
Vijayawada and the trains moving north, west and east
from Chennai also pass through Vijayawada. Secondly, the
city is also known for Film production. The success of
Telugu films is rated depending upon the success at
Vijayawada. It is also centre for trade and commerce.
The Machlipatnam port is close to Vijayawada.
Majority of the
children who are in the streets are runaway from homes.
This phenomenon is due to conflicts between parents,
forcibly thrown out by step father or step mother,
influences by the peer groups, ill treatment by family
members, attraction to city life - films and also due to
lack of love and concern and caring in the family.
The environment and
the atmosphere in the slums also encourages children
to be in the streets to earn a few more rupees for
themselves and also for the family. Children as young
as 3 years are found on the streets. Majority of the
children on the streets are boys and girls in the age
group of 10-12 years. Though the number of girls are
very less compared to the boys, the number of street
girls is increasing every day.
When the children run
away, they are forced to live on the pavements, under
bridges, make-shift shelters, railway platforms, etc.
They gather food from dustbins or by begging. Some are
engaged in rag-picking, shoe shining and others in
petty jobs. None of them go to school, their health
conditions are bad and many die an anonymous death.
Some of them who do manual work in the trains are prone
to accidents. They know nothing about protection. Only
their survival instincts will be active. They just live,
but it cannot be related to any of their survival
rights. They know nothing about development, their
health slowly gets deteriorated on the platforms and
streets. The life of girls is always a question of
concern. They are abused-physically, sexually and even
forced to take up sex work before they even realise what
is happening to them. Although most of them manage to
get food, shelter and clothes, by begging,
borrowing, stealing or even selling their bodies, what
they really lack is love, affection and security for the
future.
OVERVIEW ABOUT THE
SITUATION OF THE GIRL STREET CHILDREN IN THE CITY OF
VIJAYAWADA
The percentage of girl
street children when compared to the boys is less. But,
the need of the hour is to extend support to these less
number who are vulnerable to sexual abuse and
exploitation, especially in the wild and uncontrolled
world of the street. It forces hundreds of young girls
to be easy prey for rogues. Most of these girls are
picked up by agents and pimps and supplied to red light
areas in Mumbai, Calcutta and in some parts of Andhra
Pradesh. The lives of these girls have no future on the
street, they come, they see and succumb to vices on the
streets. It becomes essential that an outside
intervention takes place to remove these street girl
children from the streets. It is estimated, that in
Vijayawada there are at least 700 girl street children.
As mentioned earlier
the number of street children is on the rise. The
socio-political and economic scenario of the country is
forcing number of families to the verge of poverty. The
failure of agricultural crop (cotton) has led many
farmers to commit
suicide, leaving the
families in dire straits, causing many children to flee
home due to poverty and misery.
OPERATIONAL AREA
i. Santhosh Bhavan,
Gandhinagar, Vijayawada
ii. Prema Vihar
Children's Village,
Bhavanipuram, Vijayawada.
iii. Streets, Markets
and Bus and Railway Platforms of Vijayawada.
Reaching out to
street children in order to understand and analyse
their life situation, socio-economic, psychological
and emotional needs.
Providing
opportunities for basic services, such as education,
care, skill training, employment, recreation,
counselling etc., for the healthy growth and
development of street and working children.
Making the
children aware of themselves and their problems,
thus mobilising their potential to help themselves.
Spreading
awareness and understanding among the general public
about the problems of street children.
Re-uniting
runaways with their families wherever possible.
Setting up of a
network towards a co-ordinated effort in working
with street children.
Conducting
research studies on street and working children.
Instilling in the
children a sense of harmonious living, thus
contributing on a local level to the global need for
a healthier and more peaceful future.
Mr. Manihara is
working towards building second ring of leadership.
Very receptive and
open to new ideas.
Opportunities are
created for the growth and progress of the staff.
School programme
is providing education to street children and also
for the children from closeby villages, Manihara, a
very good public relations person, is diplomatic and
has built good rapport with number of public figures
and institutions.
The Vidya Vihar
school has created interest among children to take
up academic studies.
The girl street
children would give opportunity for number of girls
for education and vocational training. It would also
secure them from pimps and dadas.
The programme
caters to needy children and gives opportunity for
further growth among children.
The government has
come forward to support the Santhosh Bhavan
programme. The organisation is also working towards
Corpus Fund.
Does not have
qualified and experience staff in handling
counselling aspects.
Street contact
programme is weak, needs more inputs and strength.
More children are
landing on the streets and the space in the
organisation is limited. It has to develop good
street educators to deal with street children.
It has to build
good rapport with Railway and Police team in
enabling street children to go back to homes
Although
in the mid year SKCV underwent a traumatic experience
the year ended with a happy note. The floods, collapse
of the buildings, loss of property, material, ration and
the personal belongings of the children, the struggle to
safe guard the
valuables, sheltering in
temples, mosques and church, the rush at Santosh
Bhavan, irregular school hours finally saw good and
stable buildings coming up with timely support from
different quarters to bring back the life of the
children at the village to
normalcy. Now the new
buildings in the village would withstand any floods in
the future and it will provide many deprived and street
children an opportunity to develop and grow. The
organisation has worked tirelessly in rebuilding the
lost ground.
The Vidya Vihar has
been providing excellent coaching to the children. The
education material developed and used are of excellent
quality and create interest to the learners. At present
65 children are undergoing education at Vidya Vihar at
various
level. The ten children
taking up National Open School examination is a good
indicator of the progress made by the school. The
encouragement and motivation provided by the teachers
would enable another 8 children to take up National Open
School (N O S) examination in the year 2000.
The number of
vocational training courses have increased. Tailoring,
Cooking and Catering, General Maintenance (House
Keeping, Electricals), Chappal and Sandal making. The
vocational training has provided 54 children to learn a
skill and to
venture out successfully
in future. Along with vocational training, Life
education should be provided. Now the vocational
training being shifted to Santosh Bhavan, one hopes
more number of children would be interested in joining
vocational training.
The creation of Second
rung of collective leadership from children is a very
good development in the organisation. The children have
lived and learnt at SKCV and wish to serve SKCV all
their life. They are being in administrative and
accountancy work.
This development is to be
encouraged and hence small amount of honorarium is
required to meet their daily requirement.
SKCV aims to extend
support to as many street and homeless children as well
as to other needy children (working children) regardless
of caste or creed. Providing basic education, vocational
training, health and hygiene, love and affection, job
and home placement of these children, in case where
possibility exists.
Sri Krishna Chaitanya
Vihar (SKCV) and the children had a very disastrous
year. The monsoon rains and the floods engulfed the
Bhavanipuram children's village and created huge loss to
building and materials. But, the organisation has been
able to overcome the loss, through timely support by the
kind philanthropists of Vijayawada, and trustees of SKCV
in India & U.K. CRY has extended emergency
(Rehabilitation) support through a financial support of
Rs. 2.44 lakhs. SKCV raised around 15 lakhs to construct
strong & stable building. The Wakf Board of the state of
Andhra Pradesh extended its support by providing
permission to construct the building in its leased land.
The organisation has overcome the problem. The disaster
has not deterred their work with working and street
children.
At Santosh Bhavan,
nearly 150 children were treated for Malaria during the
monsoon season at SKCV charitable hospital. Majority of
the street children are vulnerable to rabies and more
than 200 children were treated at the government
hospital. Awareness has been created among the children
about the disease/infection and a formal complaint has
been lodged with Vijayawada Municipal Corporation.
The Santosh Bhavan
night shelter received 350 children from the streets
during the year for shelter, food and medicine. It plans
to extend its service in the coming year to more number
of children. It has also received support from Central
Government for the night shelter, which was long
overdue. Though it received 350 children during the
year, only 70 children showed interest towards literacy
& education. Education classes are conducted every day
between 6.30 to 8.00 p.m. The number of children
fluctuate for the NFE classes.
The SKCV vocational
training has been shifted to Santosh Bhavan. The
earlier centre was located close to national highway,
there was distraction from the public and also parking
of lorries and interaction by children with drivers and
cleaners was causing problem in building character of
the children. As the surrounding area was used as lorry
parking area, prostitution was on the higher rate.
At Santosh Bhavan, the
rooms are spacious and institutional set-up is existing
for inculcating training and in building good character
to the children. Vocational training has enabled 53
children to take up skill training under the following
trade:
Table -1
Vocational
Training
Numbers
Commercial Art
4
Screen Printing
4
Tailoring (Girls)
4
Tailoring (Boys)
5
Computer
7
Animal Husbandry
5
Agricultural
4
Cooking & Catering
9
General
Maintenance
5
Chappal and Sandal
making
5
Scooter Mechanics
2
TOTAL
54
BHAVANIPURAM:-
PREMAVIHAR
The Bhavanipuram
children's village supports 115 children. These 115
children are engaged in various activities - 65 children
study at Vidya Vihar and rest of them are engaged in
various vocational training. The details are in Table.
1. Ten children from, Vidya Vihar took National Open
School Exams in May?99. The children/students are very
much interested in passing 10th. They are enthusiastic
about learning and are serious about it. The interest
and determination of these 10 children has motivated
another 8 children to prepare for exams in June? 2K.
Seven older children will be completing B.Com/BA by the
end of June?99. Some of them would continue to work for
SKCV.
As mentioned earlier
due to monsoon rain/floods in October the village was
totally destroyed. First few shelters are ready and the
cowshed and work on other buildings are underway. As a
result the regular activities at village was affected.
All the boys were shifted to Santosh Bhavan till
December?98. The Vidya Vihar also commenced from January
?99, after a gap of 2 months.
The NFE material used
in the education centres is excellent. Education
Materials from Germany, Holland have been modified
according to the local need. NFE material are used very
effectively to get aligned to formal school syllabus.
Six teachers along with Ms. Bhakti Manihara conduct
classes from morning 9.30 to evening 4.30 p.m. Education
comprises of Maths, Science, Social, English, Telugu,
Drawing, Physical exercises & Games.
65 children are
studying in the following classes:
Education Level
Number
Group " Primer "
16
Group I A
8
Group I B
8
Group 2
8
Group 3
9
Group " Seniors "
7
National Open
School
9
Total
65
Apart from studying at
Vidya Vihar 6 children are enrolled in private schools
and 4 children are studying for college education as day
scholars and 2 of them through correspondence.
At SKCV (Balaprema) the
first batch of 15 children are moving out to take up a
job and lead a life on their own. About 14 young boys in
the age group 15-22 have decided to continue at SKCV.
Mr. Sudhama is being trained to be Deputy Director of
SKCV, Krishna Prasad to be a Cashier and Correspondent,
Arjun to be Accounts Assistant. This batch of children
are called as "SKCV future group". They meet
twice a week for about 5 hours. The organisation has
sought support for the salary of the future group. The
salary sought is very minimal. The thought of giving
salary to these boys is to enable them to be self
reliant and to meet the cost of personal needs.
Rehabilitation and
reuniting with the families was given importance this
year. As result 43 children from Santosh Bhavan and 37
children from Bhavanipuram were reunited with their
families.
In spite of disaster,
the organisation has made efforts to reach out to the
street children (Boys and Girls) in the best possible
manner. The high light of this (98-99) year is reuniting
80 children back to their families, creation of future
group to look after the affairs of the organisation and
building of concrete structures at the village. SKCV has
taken a lead role in forming Forum for Child Rights in
Vijayawada, wherein the Mayor of Vijayawada is the
chairman. This forum monitors the programme in relation
to street children. The jurisdiction of this forum is to
Vijayawada.
The financial
management of the organisation has improved. The Books
of Accounts, Vouchers and Supporting documents are in
place. Explanation have been provided for expenses
incurred.
A.
After the programme
review during the year the following were discussed to
improve the systems and the programme at SKCV.
Maintenance of
register for food materials supplied - on day to day
basis.
Recruitment or
place street educators to enable street children to
return home and at the same time guide the street
children not to fall prey to rogues or into vicious
circle.
Motivated the
teachers to attend the teachers training and to
incorporate formal school syllabus to enable street
children to take up state board's exam.
Discussed very
extensively about the systems to be followed with
respect to accounts. Now the systems have improved
considerably and can be moved to safer zone.
Took part in the
second round of BLD workshop and are working to
place the same in order.
Importance to be
given to family placement and counselling than
running the centre as an orphanage.
Although in the mid
year SKCV underwent a traumatic experience the year
ended with a happy note. The floods, collapse of the
buildings, loss of property, material, ration and the
personal belongings of the children, the struggle to
safe guard the valuables, sheltering in temples, mosques
and church, the rush at Santosh Bhavan, irregular
school hours finally saw good and stable buildings
coming up with timely support from different quarters to
bring back the life of the children at the village to
normalcy. Now the new buildings in the village would
withstand any floods in the future and it will provide
many deprived and street children an opportunity to
develop and grow. The organisation has worked tirelessly
in rebuilding the lost ground.
The Vidya Vihar has
been providing excellent coaching to the children. The
education material developed and used are of excellent
quality and create interest to the learners. At present
65 children are undergoing education at Vidya Vihar at
various level. The ten children taking up National Open
School examination is a good indicator of the progress
made by the school. The encouragement and motivation
provided by the teachers would enable another 8 children
to take up National Open School (N O S) examination in
the year 2000.
The number of
vocational training courses have increased. Tailoring,
Cooking and Catering, General Maintenance (House
Keeping, Electrical), Chappal and Sandal making. The
vocational training has provided 54 children to learn a
skill and to venture out successfully in future. Along
with vocational training, Life education should be
provided. Now the vocational training being shifted to
Santosh Bhavan, one hopes more number of children would
be interested in joining vocational training.
The creation of Second
rung of collective leadership from children is a very
good development in the organisation. The children have
lived and learnt at SKCV and wish to serve SKCV all
their life. They are being in administrative and
accountancy work. This development is to be encouraged
and hence small amount of honorarium is required to meet
their daily requirement.
THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN
REVIEWED BY MAHENDRA AND VASUDEVA SHARMA OF PROGRAMME
SUPPORT UNIT OF CRY, BANGALORE AND FOUND SUITABLE FOR
CRY's CONTINUED SUPPORT. FOR THE PERIOD APRIL ?99 TO
MARCH 2000 TO S. K. C. V. ON A HALF YEARLY SYSTEM OF
DISBURSAL.
Independant Report
Although
in the mid year SKCV underwent a traumatic experience
the year ended with a happy note. The floods, collapse
of the buildings, loss of property, material, ration and
the personal belongings of the children, the struggle to
safe guard the