BACKGROUND

In India, millions of children are forced into unpaid or paid work that deprives them of an education, a happy childhood and a prosperous future. According to the International Labour Organization (I.L.O.), there are around 12.9 million Indian children engaged in work between the ages of 7 to 17 years old. When children are employed or doing unpaid work, they are less likely to attend school or attend only intermittingly, trapping them in the cycle of poverty. Millions of Indian girls and boys are going to work every day in quarries and factories. But child labour in India can start even earlier with an estimated 10.1 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 years-old engaged in work.

Most of the families residing in rural areas and urban slums are living below the poverty line and are facing many problems, viz., lack of food, shelter, health care, education and un-employment and thus the people are living in utter poverty.

Poverty has always been recognized as the major cause of child labour. The parents of the child labour are very poor, illiterate and ignorant they do not understand the need for wholesome proper physical cognitive and emotional development of their child. They are themselves uneducated and exposed, so they don’t realize the importance of education for their children. Parents are forced to send their little children into hazardous jobs for reasons of survival, even when they know it is wrong. Monetary constraints and the need for food, shelter and clothing drives their children in the trap of premature labour.

The poverty situations in Indian context, reflects in the State of Andhra Pradesh. The families in slums and rural areas are normally large and often face the problems and the earning members of the family unable to cope up with the situations. Sometimes they may not get work to earn. Eventually they migrate to other places in search of livelihood or starve to meet death or disease. The families that are living in slum areas of Guntur are daily wages labourers. They are living in utter poverty toiling hard to fetch their square meal a day.

NEED OF REHABILITATION CENTER

Keeping the magnitude of the child labour problem in the Guntur District in mind, we have conceptualized “Rehabilitation Center” to safeguard children from the vulnerabilities they might face in their families, so that they can make the best use of their potential without distractions to prevent them falling into that again. This Center will provide residential and other required assistance to mainstream children who do not have an opportunity to attend a good school due to various reasons.

Though intelligent, due to lack of opportunities, economic backwardness, poverty and lack of communication, these children have not made much headway in the field of education. The children will stay in a proper environment, in peaceful, clean and healthy quarters and be able to study. This will encourage mainstream of the children in education and bring awareness among the people about the need of educating the child labourers.

TARGET GROUP OF THE PROJECT

The organization focuses on Children 5-15 years of age who are disadvantaged children emphasizing children abandoned by one or both parents, child labour, quarry workers children and children who have been abused and belong to poor socio-economic conditions.

PROJECT LOCATION

To achieve this goal S.A.V.E. Trust acquired a suitable land in Damarapalli Village, Tadikonda Mandal, Guntur District is a conductive site for the proposed project. It is located 10 Kilometers away from Inner Ring Road (Near R.T.O. Office), Guntur and can also be reached via Lam Village travelling on Amaravathi Road, Guntur.

IMPACT

S.A.V.E. Trust worked on many child related projects since its inception, which were proved result oriented and successful in many aspects. S.A.V.E. Trust had experience in running special schools for child labour since 2009 under the National Child Labour Project (N.C.L.P.), Ministry of Labour & Employment. The experiences propelled us to take up this project for holistic development of child. And S.A.V.E. Trust is one of the members of task force and rescue team that conducts special drive with the Government to rescue and rehabilitation of child labour, street children, mining workers children, children engaged in vulnerable conditions.

OUR APPROACH

S.A.V.E. Trust is working to catalyse systemic change by creating meaningful interventions, enabling our children and youth to bloom into confident, self reliant individuals, while fostering in them the spirit of giving back to the society.

By joining the movement, together we can continue to empower them with the security, education and skills they need to light up the lives of countless underserved children and youth.

This problem before us is a mammoth one, but one that can be solved within our lifetimes.

All it needs is for each one of us to come together and do everything in our power to contribute to a sustainable solution. We count on the generosity of people like you to be able to create real change for poor and needy children!