Education is a basic human right enshrined in a wide range of nationally and internationally recognized conventions and declarations. It plays a significant role in protection thereby ensuring our own rights and welfare as recognized without any discrimination are safeguarded in accordance with national and international standards. By providing quality educational opportunities to children, Sabuj Sangha’s pioneering work in this area have supported towards the evolvement of the key actors in the society who can protect their own rights. The knowledge, skills and experience acquired are keys to building resilience for all possible durable solutions in our civil society in each and every context.
In the mission towards ‘Empower a Girl, Empower the Nation’ since 2017 with flagship Programme – Nayantara Kishori Bikash we are persistent in our efforts for empowering Adolescent Girls in remote villages across 3 different blocks of riverine and coastal Sundarbans in South 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, India . The blocks are Mathurapur II, Patharpratima and Sagar.
To break intergenerational illiteracy cycle and patriarchal dictats of Girl Child Ignorance in remote Sundarbans we are trying to empower Adolescent Girls from financially and socially marginalized families with a Holistic Approach. Currently nearly 500 Girls are directly involved under the Nayantara Kishori Bikash programme across the three (3) blocks. They are now influencing more other 1000 across the region.
By extensive community engagements involving the families, PRIs and other institutions we are trying to mainstream the girls and breaking the paradigm of wasted girlhood.
Adolescent Girls from marginalized families are brought under formal education purview by enrolling them in Govt. Schools. They are supported with Learning Materials, regular Education Coaching, periodical evaluations and consistent follow up through our Coaching Centres spread across communities.
To ensure the girls with some hard skills we have art and craft sessions.
Girls are learning
To ensure groom the Girls’ Personality we have regular Life Skill sessions
To attune and make the body and mind powerful simultaneously we have regular Practice Sessions of Sports and Games. Yoga, Physical Exercises and Athletic Games like long and high jumps are played.
But, most popular among the Girls is Football.
As Football is a team game the Girls are learning different essential personal skills needed for future life, e.g. working in team, adaptability, unity, coordination, leadership, communication, peer support and presence of mind.
Girls’ don’t miss enjoying the Football Practice sessions. Some of the girls have the aspirations to become Footballer in future which we are trying to encourage foster.
Using the game of Football we are now planning to bring about a wider and sustained change in the girl child upbringing scenario in Sundarbans.
Along with education, these adolescent girls, empowered by their leadership qualities are driving social change by addressing issues like child marriage and domestic violence. They are fighting against the harmful social practices and advocating for reform, engaging with PRI members to ensure their voices are heard and acted upon. Their grassroots activism and involvement are key to challenging old norms and promoting gender equality.
With 31 students, the school operates from 5 days [Monday- Friday] a week. Following the routine all curriculum subjects are taught and various extracurricular activities like Sports, Computer Education, Drawing, Singing, Dancing etc. are done.
Even the grave situation of the pandemic followed by the super-cyclone Amphan, the school continued to be operational. The school sends a strong message that education is the best way to combat child labour and creating empowerment among the poor families and thus, contributing to local and national development.
‘Sabuj Sangha’ is running an education support coaching centre for Rehabilitation of Deprived Children through Education (RDCE) namely ‘Sabuj Kunri’, Taldi at Taldi Station Area, at Sealdah South Division en-route to Canning, one of the Administrative Blocks of South 24 Parganas district, West Bengal India. This initiative is aimed to provide two types of support to 40 deprived children from the railways squatter colonies–
These children are mostly first-generation learners, their parents being illiterate. They do not get ample support or guidance from their parents. Since the children are deprived of such facilities at home, they become reluctant towards studies easily.
During the pandemic, the teachers and staff reached out to the community to spread the messages of awareness about COVID-19, precautionary measures and extending support to children in their ongoing online learning classes. These centres have not only been effective in providing support for education to first generation learners, but also make regular follow up through home and school visits, meetings with mother core groups and centre development committee members to assess the progress of the child and involvement of parents periodically.
