- Rizwan (Community & Operations)
As part of our work, we went
around Kodathi looking for children - from migrant families, who were not going
to school. Since we had covered most ‘out-of-school’ children in Kodathi, where
we had started our first project, and had brought them back to school; we went
beyond Kodathi- to cover adjacent areas. We were quite pleased with ourselves
on not to finding many children around. This meant that there were no ‘out-of-school’
children in the area.
Suddenly, one day my
bubble burst! I was compelled to take my fellow Gubbis (colleagues), to a place
near-by. All were shocked and asked me, “how did you find so many?” I invited
the Cluster Resource Person (CRP) of the area to come, he immediately called up
the Block Resource Coordinator (BRC). To our surprise, the BRC turned up the
very next day. She too was shocked and asked the same question, “how did you
find them?”
So here goes the story… ...
As we (our community
facilitator and I) survey the area around Kodathi, we literally go into nooks
and corners looking for children. One such day, as we drove through Carmelaram Railway
Station Road, we met an old acquaintance. As we stood speaking to him, we saw a
lady walking by with an 8 or 9 year old girl. By their looks, we guessed they were
from the North Karnataka region, hence ran and stopped the lady to enquire
about the girl. Our acquaintance got a little worried about what we were doing.
With our experience of the
last two years, we have learnt how to start a conversation safely with a
migrant family. We confidently
approached the lady, enquired about them and asked why the girl had not gone to
school. We were right in guessing, as they confirmed, that they were from
Raichur district and were here as construction workers in a brick factory nearby.
She mentioned that the girl did not go to school, and they were going to the hospital
as the girl was not keeping well. Then, she gave us the rough location of
the construction site when we asked to confirm, if there were more ‘out-of
school’ children on-site.
We immediately decided to
visit the site, which was difficult to find, at first, as the brick factory was
inside a large compound. After driving around for a while, we spotted a big
cement mixer and taking a chance, we headed towards the gate; only to be
stopped by the security person. He was initially reluctant, but when we
explained that we were from a school nearby and wanted the children to get
education, he responded. He called his supervisor on the phone, and asked us to
speak to him. On conveying our intentions, he was ordered to let us in.
It was a huge place with a
lot of commercial activity, but no visibility of a labour settlement. In front,
was the huge cement concrete mixer, then the lorry garage, followed by a welding
workshop, brick kiln; and then, finally, we could see the labour settlement. As
we started to walk towards it we were shocked to see 30-40 children playing
around…and not going to any school!
And so, from this one
settlement, we found Gouri, Parshu, Raj, Vijay, … … and all the other 40+ children; and
have brought them back to the school.
Footnote: As they find and discover themselves; our search for more
little gubbis (sparrows) continues;
and the list goes on ...
(* names changed)
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