In January 2020, Prayatn Sanstha, with financial support from Kindernothilfe, initiated the Sambal project to address the issues of child right violation in 50 villages of Cholapur block of Varanasi district in Uttar Pradesh. In most of the villages there were various issues of child right violation like Child Labour, Child Marriage, School dropout, gambling, consumption of alcohol, inadequate school infrastructure, poor quality of education was prevailing, poor roads etc. Shivdaspur is one among the fifty villages who changed its fate by its efforts with the guidance and support of Prayatn Sanstha.
Prayatn Sanstha responded these issues with a multi-faceted strategy involving community mobilization, capacity building of stakeholders, convergence with government institutions, research and documentation to deepen the understanding and need based direct support to the community. Key village-level organizations were formed, including the Child Protection Committee (CPC), Children’s collective and Self-Help Group (SHG). Institutions were facilitated to develop their Village Development Plans and Child centric action plans. Systems were developed to solve the issues of the community and issues identified by the children affecting them.
Training sessions were conducted for CPC on Child Right, Child Protection, Resource Mobilization, Issue based working, Vision Building and on developing Community based systems and mechanisms. Training sessions of Children’s collective members are also done on child rights, Child Protection, Negotiation, leadership and communication skills.
Innovative approaches like Government Community interface, teacher community interface and Falicitation of the government school teachers were also adopted to involve the service providers as well as community and children in addressing issues impacting their life. Additional efforts were done with the out of school children as well as with the academically legging children through remedial classes and onsite support to the government schools to increase the quality of education.
After a journey of 4 good years the project reached to a destination where they could address their issues independently and also could support the service providers (school anganwadi and panchayat) function better. It reached to a stage where no child is out of school, no child is working for economic gain, no child is being asked to bring tobacco, No child marriage is taking place, no child is being physically or mentally tortured, all the children are vaccinated with 100% institutional delivery, Following the UNCRC norms they dared to declare their village as a Child Friendly Village.
Shivdaspur’s transformation underscores the power of collaboration and community empowerment in driving sustainable social change, setting a powerful example of a brighter future for children.
