Fonde Ka Pura is a small village located in the Dholpur district, at a distance of 13 km from the block. This village has a history of 200 years. Currently, 45 families are residing in this village covering a population of 465 people. In the early days, gambling and alcohol consumption were prevalent in the village. Community development works were stalled for long. The road to the village was unpaved and full of potholes. Consequently, everyone had to pass through a lot of filth because there were no drainage systems. The main occupation of people in the village was working in stone mines and others migrated to nearby cities and districts in search of livelihood. Since stone mines were close to the village, most of the children used to work there with their parents. The community was not conscious of the value of children and their education. Due to the economic instability, they have engaged their children in social evils like child labor and child marriage. The bad effects of these social evils affected the lives of the children and their development.
During this situation, Prayatn Sanstha initiated an effort to develop the mindset of the community by creating awareness within the community. While engaging with community n issues like women empowerment and child rights, the organization felt need of focusing upon issue of child protection. As such, with the support of Karl Kübel Stiftung (KKS) a project ‘Dusk to Dawn’ was initiated in the village after 5 years. Within that time, three community-based organizations were formed at the village level, such as Child Protection Committee (CPC), Bal Manch (BM), and Self Help Group (SHG).
In the early stages of the intervention, it was so hard for the organization to gain the confidence of the villagers while building a rapport with the community to convey the message of change. But gradually, they succeeded. The community advanced in its approaches toward the development of the village. The committee became mature enough to discuss the developmental issues of their children, women, and the entire community and focused on it until they succeeded. They developed systems and mechanisms for the proper functioning of the community; subsequently banned the conservative traditions that were going on in the village.
In 2020, Prayatn further engaged with the same community under the banner of the project “Moving Ahead, supported by Karl Kübel Stiftung (KKS) and BMZ. Within 4 years the community became so capable to address issues like child labor, child marriage, health issues, discrimination, abuse, dropouts, etc. They have even raised their voice for their rights before the officials in panchayath, block, and even the district officials. They maintained the systems and mechanisms developed for the smooth functioning of the community. Committees were empowered through trainings and workshops organized by the organization at the right intervals. They have actively participated in all the project-level activities, like Government Community Interface, Teachers Community Interface, Campaigns, Night meetings, orientations, and trainings etc.
CPC have resolved issues related to the education of their children such as enrollment, new aadhar card, construction of school toilets, school gates, school boundary walls, kharanja (Country road made up of boulders), drainage systems, potable water systems, new Anganwadi center, etc. The economic development project has introduced support through SHGs in the village. Gradually, they started organizing consistent meetings and regulating savings and transactions.
They have made a system of collecting contribution from every family for developing a village corpus. Though all the families in the community are recorded below the poverty line, they give away a small amount for the village fund. Now, a child-friendly village board is also installed at the entrance of the village utilizing the village fund. All the community is so happy to install it and they follow all that is written on the board. There are certain informations projected on the notice board for the public, which have been unanimously declared by the community, highlighting a warning of social exclusion or excommunication from all association with the community and further legal movements, against those who violate the projected rules within the board.
At present, all the children of the age group of 6 to 14 years are enrolled in the school and are attaining quality education. No child is beaten up or corporally punished. There is no discrimination between boys and girls and considers all are equal. No cases of child marriages or child labor are reported. The developed system and mechanisms are being implemented properly. The child protection committee is vigilantly monitoring the school and Anganwadi. Accordingly, there are no child workers and dropout children in the village. The committee is actively striving to completely ban alcohol consumption and gambling. CPC and the community are taking up several initiatives and responsibilities from time to time to resolve all the issues. Overall, the effort of the Child Protection Committee and Bal Manch transformed this village into a Child-Friendly Village.
