Google form created for Area Scan details

Google Form is created for filling the information about the Area Scans.
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Area Scan - Konkani Pada

Location:	Konkani Pada, Near Tikujini Wadi, Ghodbandar Road, Thane
Dwellers:	Almost all of them are localites staying there for more than 25 years
Volunteers:	Ratna, Ashutosh
Date:	4/18/2010
Time:	10:30 AM to 11:30 AM
Approximate area of the locality:	less than 1 KM
Approximate population of the locality:	2000
Ruling entity:	TMC
Concerned Government Official:	Mr. Phadtare - Corporator - Shiv Sena
Source of water	Common tap
Time of water supply:	10:30 AM - 12 Noon
Frequency of water supply:	3 times a day
Anganwadi:	Yes
Balwadi:	No
Health Care Center:	No
Private Clinic	Yes
Public Toilets:	No
NO. for Ladies:	0
NO. for Gents:	0
Industries:	Farming
Employment Options:	Labour, Painters, Drivers, Farmers,
Child Labour:	Yes
NO. of Child Labours:	10 to 15
Type of work children seen doing:	Mostly girls go out for domestic Labour - household work
Possible reasons for school dropouts:	School is upto 7th std early marriages irregularity in water supply - girls/boys have to walk down the hill for more than 3-4 KM to get water girls are required to stay home for household work and for taking care of younger siblings
Problems observed:	The biggest problem here is, this falls under Forest area. Forest department wants the dwellers to move out. People are fighting against this under the leadership of local politicians. Other problems were early marriage, emergency medical care, transport etc
Known schemes/policies of government related to the issues observed:	Mid-Day meal, SSA, NREGA, The scheme under which every girl student is entitled to get 1 Rs for every attended day
Level of the awareness in the community about various government initiatives:	People were aware about Mid-Day meal and SSA. But not about NREGA and the scheme under which every girl student is entitled to get 1 Rs for every attended day.
Comments:	The municipal school is only upto 7th Std with single teacher for one standard who teaches all the subjects. School has 2 computers for 7th Std students. Teachers come all the way from Kopari - Thane (East). The principal - Dattatray Vithoba Mhatre stays at Airoli. There were cases where children were sent to the private Convent school from families financially sound. But in the contrary, some children need to work as a domestic labour outside the settlement who cannot attend school at all - though these cases were less in number (around 10-15). The good thing observed is since the school is in the settlement itself - families are not reluctent to send thier children to school. But the school is up to 7th std, so after completing the education there, they need to go till Majiwada Circle, which is almost 5-6 KM far, at another municipal school. Since the settlement is on the hill and away from the main road, public transport is hardly available. TMT buses frequency is very less. There are 2-3 bore-wells in the settlement but as that has hard-water, its not drinkable. So if municipal water is not sufficient-people have to go down the hill to fetch the water. No government/private clinic is available, people have to rush to the Majiwada Circle for any asssistance. A person who sees them in emergency and treats them with tablets/injections but doesnot hold any formal degree of medicine.

मिटा दॅ इस अंधेरे को...

रचयिता - दिव्या

ये बंजर ज़मीन, ये खाली बर्तन,

सुखी आँखें और आधे ढके तन,

मंहगाई की ये भारी मार,

भूखे सोने को हम है लाचार,

यहाँ सुबह होती है रोज़ रोज़,

फिर निकल पड़े करने खाने की खोज,

कभी नींबू मिर्ची, कभी फूल,कभी बेची कितबे स्कूल के पास,

देखा सबको पढ़ते हुए, जागी मन मे एक आस,

क्यूँ है ये लाचारी, क्यूँ हैं हम बेबस,

हालत क्यू नही सुधरते क्यूँ चलता
नहीं बस,

तकलीफ़ों के समंदर मे डूबते हुए हम,

बढ़ती मुश्किलें ना हो रही कम,

जाने कब वो दिन आएगा,जब होगी हमारे घर भी रोशनी,

हम भी खाएँगे पेट भर खाना,

हमारे घर भी बन सकेगी चाशनी,

लोग कहते हैं एक दिन ऐसा आएगा,

कभी सोचा है इसे कौन लाएगा?

उठना होगा हमें हाथों मे ले के हाथ,

चलना होगा कदमो को मिलकर एक साथ,

तोड़नी होगी बेड़ियाँ अपने पैरो से,

निकलकर देखना होगा हमें अपने घरों से,

पहुचाना होगा हर बच्चे को अब स्कूल,

बना सकेंगे हम परिस्थितियों को तभी अनुकूल,

बन सकेगा तभी नया शिक्षित समाज,

बदल सकेगा हर लाचार अपना आज,

चलो चलें, मिटा दे इस अंधेरे को,

फ़ैलाएँ जागरूकता और शाक्षरता का ज्ञान|

***

Area scan.

Friday 16th april 2010,
Area: Lokmanya tilak nagar, Indira nagar.
Time: 10:30 am.
we (Divya & Ratna) started our day from Thane station. we reached Indira nagar which i s very close to Waghle estate, for the area scan. As it was an area scan so the first thing i noticed was the shops on the sides of the road. I could see the people working there on carpenter shops. There were children too. Moving along the road side i saw a big garbage bin which was almost empty & all the garbage (kachra) lying outside. There were few children peeping inside the bin just to find out some toys. I took some pictures & didnot speak to the children regarding their task they were doing there. Our goal was to find out the primary schools nearby in the area so we started to ask people around. We came to know that there are 4 schools in the vicinity & one aganwadi as well.In the four schools three were private & one municipal school. We decided to visit the municipal school first.The municipal school itself had two segments, one English medium till 4th standard & other Marathi medium which has two sections primary section was till 7th standard & secondary section was 8th to 10th standard. we met a teacher named, Samiksha kadam. she was very eager to help us & she took out her attendence register & gave us some names of the students who are studying as well as working. We decided to visit the places of the students so the first name was Ganesh who stays in Rupa Devi Tekdi as Ratna has mentioned in her mail. When we visited the family of this boy they all were against the child labour. At same time Ratna was discussing with another boy standing outside, I started querrying about the family status of the Ganesh. What i came to know was he had four sisters & was the single brother. i was speaking to his eldest sister named Geeta. Geeta left her School after 6th due to some family problems & now she is getting married in the next month. Because she was the eldest child of the family she compromised with the situation & problem & stopped going to the school.But other four are going to the school so she was satisfied with her sacrifise .When i told her that there is no age bar & she can continue her education now as well, her mother stopped me & said "Ab Kya Karegi Padkar ab to Shadi ho he rahi hai". I asked about her age so her mother repled "shadi ki umar ho gaye hai" then i asked what exactly the age is? She suddenly said 18 years. I had no words to speak as they were already aware of the ages of marriage of a girl. My next question was on their marriage. Her would-be husband was present there so i spoke to him as well & asked about their family planning as well but he said," abhi malum nahi, dekhenge!". i told him dont only see, plan first ,otherwise you will also give some child labours to the country. Geeta on the other hand was quite firm and interrupted in between and said, "jo mere sath hua mai apne bachhe ke sath nahi hone dungi".
After all the conversation, i made with this family, i moved towards Ratna & she told me about Anil as she has mentioned in her mail. Anil left his education because of the death of his mother. He wants to continue his studies but he had no knowledge how to start the further education?
We tried to find out the other locations as well but because of the sunny hot day we couldnot move further, 7 finally we decided to move.
There were two things which came in my mind was both of them the girl & the boy wanted to study but Geeta was forced towards marriage & Anil who was eager to go to the school for the completion of his 10th & 12th, had no idea where to go & how to get admission in the school.
Pictures i'll display very soon.