Ajit Balaji Joshi, then Additional Deputy Commissioner in Jhajjar Dist., Haryana, set up the first
bhatta shala (brick-kiln-school) in December, 2006. Since then 359 such bhatta shalas have been set up in Haryana.
The brick kiln workers in Jhajjar and Sonepat districts of Haryana come from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in December and stay for six months. So these seasonal schools-
set up so that the children of these workers do not miss out on an education- run for six months every year.
Initially, schools in several states refused to accept the certificates that the bhatta shalas issued. But they are now accepted by the home states of the children, and they continue their studies when they go back home for the rest of the year.
In 2008, Ajit Joshi received the Distinguished Service Award from former President APJ Abdul Kalam for his work on the bhatta shalas.
In a recent survey by the government of India, of all the states, UP was was found to have the lowest number of children who are fully immunised against diseases like polio, measles, etc.
So the UP state govt.
has drawn up a scheme to pay parents for getting their children immunised .
'Under the proposed scheme, the parents will be paid Rs 50 for each dose of BCG, DPT and OPV (oral polio vaccine) and measles their newborn gets. An additional Rs 50 will be paid on full immunisation of the child.'An estimated Rs. 27 crores will be spent annually on this initiative.
Perhaps an alternate initiative, of using this money to fund schemes to educate parents about the benefits of immunisation, would be more effective. Or perhaps not.
What do you think?
Asha Kiran Complex, is for the mentally challenged and is managed by Social Welfare Dept of the Delhi Govt.where 13 inmates have died in one month.
Human Rights team is said to have observed “an overcrowded cage with conditions worse than the national zoos”
The complex is meant for 350 but has about 720 inmates.
The Delhi commission for protection of child rights has issued a notice to social welfare deptt. It has submitted an inspection report stating 75 inmates have died between 2004-08.
One inspection report is said to have stated that children suffer from TB, and skin diseases. This was due to lack of hygiene, sanitary condition besides overcrowding.
Children with TB were not kept in isolation rooms either.
So much for Delhi Govt efforts to take care of India’s “FUTURE”
This govt has been voted in three times.
How insensitive, unresponsive and out-of-touch with the aam admi India's babudom is, is exemplified by the fact that meritorious school students have been getting a princely sum of Rs 10 as merit scholarship and Rs 20 as merit-cum-poverty scholarship from the govt of
Odisha for the last 20 years.
While politicians never miss an opportunity to vote more and more perks and privileges for themselves, and govt officials get their salaries and DA revised upwards regularly, for two decades no one has bothered to revise the scholarship amount. To cap it, only a few thousand such scholarships are given out every year in the entire state. The situation in other states must be similar; leopards retain their spots, no matter which jungle they are in.
Kapil Sibal needs to focus more on education for the masses. India's development hinges on that.
In 2004, two NGOs helped two dozen children in Chaturbhuj Sthan, a red-light area in Muzaffarpur, in Bihar, set up their own bank-the Bal Vikas Khajana.
The children holding accounts at this bank are rag-pickers, helpers at tea-stalls, or those who sell their ware at traffic intersections. They deposit anything between Rs. 5 and Rs. 50 to earn simple interest every three months. They can also get loans.
'Today, the bank has branches in two other districts—Sitamarhi and Bettiah—and these banks have over 1,200 accounts and over Rs 25 lakh in deposits.'
Mahila Vikas Kendra's Programme Manager, Abdul Rahim says- "The government may have laws to stop child labour, but in reality a lot of children have to work to support their families."
This bank encourages such children to save.
