“India stands second of 12 countries where grade 2 students cannot read a single word from a simple text (World Development Report, 2018)
The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns created mass scale unemployment in the informal sector as millions of migrant and daily wage earning families lost employment overnight and returned to their respective villages. However, this mass migration and weak economy created far more problems.
CINI founder and Secretary, Dr. Samir Chaudhuri says “We are seeing a lot of collateral damages on the sidelines of COVID-19. Apart from the scarcity of food and shelter during the crisis, we have seen children becoming malnourished, sent out to work as child labourers and girls forced to early marriage or getting trafficked. Physical and sexual abuse, and cases of domestic violence against children are also on the rise. We need to take cognizance of the situation right now and treat it a social, cultural and mental emergency.”
To overcome this emergency in a sustained manner CINI is training women and youths in villages and slums of West Bengal. These youths will in turn keep a vigil on the families and provide education care and support to the pregnant and lactating women, adolescents and children.
“We feel, keeping them engaged in education is the best way to prevent them from becoming
child labourers, or prevent them from early marriage and being trafficked” says Kakoli Dey, Assistant Director CINI. Women members of local Self Help Groups will take the lead in these activities supported by local government to develop Child-Friendly Communities (CFC) in the villages and slums. Our front line workers collaborate and complement the services of government workers such as Anganwadi and Asha workers, thereby adding value to them.”
These communities will provide for the following
• Education to children & adolescents by direct teaching support
• Providing them with books/stationeries etc. to continue education
• Sensitizing the children on Life Skill Education / SRH / Mental Health etc.
• Tele-counselling the children having psychosocial / mental health issues through Teenline Services
• Micro-nutrient supplementation to the children through provision of IFA
• Providing the older children with sanitary napkins
This will ensure that children in vulnerable families be school ready when the schools re-open, do not drop out of school, end up as child labourers, or married off early . On average there are about 500 to 600 families in each CFC unit in a village or up to 5,000 or more families in each slum area.
The support to this programme will ensure that children grow up without being hungry, free from disease, and get quality education.
| S.no | Description | No. of beneficiary | Cost to support 1 family per month (INR) | Cost to support 50 families per month (INR) | Yearly cost to support 50 families (INR) |
| 1 | Online Education to children & adolescents | 50 families | 400 | 20000 | 240000 |
| 2 | IECs and Awareness Generation initiative | 50 families | 100 | 5000 | 60000 |
| 3 | Learning Center (Run a safe space in the village equipped with IFA, Sanitary Napkins, Drop Box, Education Support Materials (Exercise Books, Pens, Pencils, Crayons, chart papers etc.)) | 50 families | 200 | 10000 | 120000 |
| Total Cost | 700 | 35000 | 4,20,000 | ||
Rs 700 per month for 1 family will help them stay out of hunger and get quality education.
Indiadonates is a tax exempt entity, and all donations made through Indiadonates will be tax-exempt under Section 80G of Income Tax Act.
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Child in Need Institute(CINI)
CINI is an Indian non-government organisation that works for the upliftment of poor children in India. Established in the year 1974, they have worked in tandem with various internal and external stake holders to strengthen the capacity of deprived children and women to improve their health, nutrition, education and protection conditions. They aim at strengthening local governance processes t...read more
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