We visited Dharamveer Nagar as part of our survey of Gandhinagar area. Most of the residents of the area have migrated from Nanded and are staying at Dharamveer Nagar for about 6 years now. The huts are made of plastic and cloth scraps and supported by wooden sticks. The state of the area is pathetic. There is no electricity or proper water supply. Most of the residents are employed at the construction sites and are daily wage earners. As the migrants are illegally residing in the area, the municipality comes once in every three months or so and evacuates them but as people have no other place to go, they settle down there again.
At the first glance of community, one can come to know that the problems hovering are many and all interlinked. According to me , Dharamveer is the most distressed region of Gandhinagar area. There is active child labour, child marriage and cases of early pregnancies. Girls as young as 13 or 14 are married and at 18 are bearing babies.
Dharamveer Nagar is the only region ( noted among Gandhi Nagar area) where parents are sceptical about sending their children to school. There are cases where kids are attending school but majority of children have not even seen one. We interacted with a lady and she had a firm conviction about schooling being useless and not having any add on benefit on the child’s future. She would prefer, her daughter sitting at home learning household chores or working somewhere earning some extra cash rather than attending classes. Unstable life and mobile homes were also part of reasons given by parents for not sending children to school. But I find those reasons invalid because many migrants have been staying in the region for now 6 years or so. And if they move also, they won’t go that far. Maybe it is out of lack of will, they are not sending kids to school.
The girls of the region are the most affected identity. They take care of the household, work at construction sites and then are married off at young age .
Sangeeta, 11 year old, cooks, cleans, looks after her sister’s kids and also works on construction sites. When we asked her if she would like to attend school, reply came “Ask my mother, she decides everything.” And when we asked her mother she said “ Ab to yeh badi hogai hai, school jake kya karegi!”
Problems faced by the region are very complex and have to be handled in a different manner .
In such unbearable beaten down conditions, children bore a ray of hope in their eyes because of some people visiting them and giving them a possibility of attending school and returning their childhood back. Let’s not let them down. This might be out of our sphere of action but we can give it a try. We should make this neglected area visible to the authorities and urge them to take some actions.
Good to read this Ekta! In your opinion, if we have to share with the authorities, any one or two major issues in this area which are the core reasons for children being out of school, what should we focus on? Also, whats your feeling about what needs to be done in the area to improve the condition of children? I havent been to this area, so reckoned its best to ask you so that we can doc that and be prepared whenever we start small advocacy action with local governments.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks!
Ekta,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you about the situation there. We can surely do something for the children who are out of the school either by talking to them or with the parents or both along with teachers. I would say teachers can play a very vital role in this. We have requested the information regarding the same to TMC SSA. Let's hope for the best.
Thank you so much for bringing some vital points out. Well done!! Keep up the good work!! :)