Scalable, Sustainable, Replicable Solution to address literacy among the marginalized sections of society
Issue
The 2017 Economic Survey of India, estimates that close to 9 million people migrate every single year from rural to urban areas. Out of this, 6 million are estimated to be school going children who migrate with their parents to seek a better future.
The nature of migration is such that, these children more than often miss out on their fundamental right to education. The migrant population keeps moving from one worksite to another denying the children continued access to schools and other educational opportunities.
These barriers are further augmented by the risks of living in temporary homes (often tents at construction sites) and the economic uncertainties faced by their parents. Girl children often have the additional responsibility of managing household chores as well.
Various government agencies and non-profits have realized the magnitude of this program and have been working on addressing this at different levels. But the scale of the problem combined with the local dynamics of each area further complicates the problem.
Solution
We strongly believe that the need of the hour is a sustainable and replicable solution which has the local government and the employers (mostly builders) of the migrant labor force as the key stakeholders. Local governments have resources and frameworks that can scale, while the local employers often have more visibility into the migrant workforce demographics.
Vibha’s involvement
Vibha has been working on supporting solutions in this space since 2006 in 4 different Indian States. More than $100,000 is invested every year in this space and close to a million dollars has been deployed to date.
In early 2017, Vibha commissioned a State of the Union Study to explore opportunities in building a unified model for the education of children of migrant workers. We are now exploring operational strategies with already identified high-potential, high-capacity grassroots level implementation partners like the Door Step School in Maharashtra to realize and ‘templatize’ further efficiencies in existing implementations.
Door Step Schools
The Door Step School program addresses three major problems: non-enrolment, wastage, and stagnation. It provides education and support to the often-forgotten children of pavement dwellers, slum dwellers, construction site families and many other underprivileged families. The program brings education to the ‘door step’ of these underprivileged children.
Established in Mumbai in 1988 and later expanded to Pune in 1993, Door Step School has impacted the lives of over 50,000 children since.
Future Plans
Vibha’s objective is to pioneer a scalable, sustainable and replicable model for
education of children of migrant workers that will:
