Back to School Program

for Brick Kiln Children

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ROTARY India LITERACY mission

 Table of Contents

Series Topic Page

Number

1 Introduction 3

2 Background of Brick Kiln Children 3

3 Objectives 4

4 Intervention Made by RILM in collaboration KSWS 5

4.1 Baseline Survey 5
4.2 Recruitment and training of teachers 6
4.3 Supplemental teaching 6
4.4 Conduct Health camp 7
4.5 Conduct special activity class 9
4.6 Advocacy with Brick Field Authority 9
4.7 Parents Meeting 9
4.8 Internal Learning Assessment 10

5 Impact created 11

6 Approaches/Methods applied 12

7 Faced Challenges 12

8 Learning’s from RILM Brick Kiln Project 12

9 Sustainability approaches and its Plan 13

10 Children Corner 13

11 Recommendations 14

12 Appendix – Child Profile 15

Child Development - RILM 2

1. Introduction

Rotary India Literacy Mission (RILM) is the United initiative of all Rotarian of
India to eradicate illiteracy from India. The main objective of RILM is Total
Literacy of India and Quality Education for all. Rotary India Literacy Mission
wishes to achieve the literacy goals through its five adjoining projects like T
for Teacher Support, E for E-learning, A for Adult Literacy, C for Child
Development, H for Happy School and these are called in an abbreviation T-
E-A-C-H program.

Education for all, keeping in mind this view RILM extremely concentrates on
the children of Brick Kiln workers as most vulnerable children under its Child
Development project.

In the 2014 – 2015 Rotary Year RILM has given focus on 200 Brick Kiln
Children of Uluberia sub-division area of Howrah district, West Bengal under
its child development project.

2. Background of Brick Kiln Children

This is how a typical brick kiln could be visualize: a few stacks of bricks that
are being burned, surrounded by groups of men and women mixing in soil
and molding new bricks for the next round; a few others stacking bricks to
dry before burning, and kids all over the vicinity - playing, sleeping and
assisting parents in their work.

The laborers who work in these kilns are seasonal migrants from villages
within or outside the state. Each brick field generally employs 250 / 300
workers who work they generally migrate with their families and stay at the
kilns in temporary settlements provided by the owner of the kiln and among
them, there are 150 / 175 are children (below 18 years).

The labor contractors bring these workers, mostly agricultural laborers, from
villages in neighboring States of Bihar, Jharkhand, and Orissa where they
live. Some of the workers come to the same brick field every year and some
move from one brickfield to another. In many brickfields, the majority of the
people are from a group of 3 or 4 villages. The children come to the
brickfields with their parents and stay for 6 to 8 months in and around the
work site.

The brick making season starts in November / December and runs till May /
June. During this period, these children are left to look after the younger
siblings and assist the parents with their work although they ought to be in
school. Generally, there are no primary schools in the vicinity and the

Child Development - RILM 3

parents are unwilling to let the children go to any neighborhood schools for a
variety of reasons, including language difficulty. The needs of these children
include basic care for their health and hygiene, apart from education. In this
project, therefore, while the primary focus will be on education, attempts
have to be made to provide for some elements of health care and instruction
in personal hygiene. With these concerns in view, Rotary India Literacy
Mission has taken the initiative to start non-formal school into the brick field
for children in the age group (6-14) years.

3. Objectives

 Identify the Out of School / Dropout / Never been to school, Children

in the Brick Kiln through partnerships with community-based local
NGOs.

 Baseline data collection about the children through conduct survey.

 Set up Nonformal Learning center inside the Brick Kiln.

 Provide supplemental teaching through trained teachers.

 The periodical assessment about the progress of children.

 Conduct Health camp into the brickfields.

 Special activity class with the children for their personality

development.

 Final assessment of the children to evaluate their capacity actually

improved after completion of the teaching periods (5 months).

 Share the details of the children

with local govt. education
authorities through the
immediate local govt. a
mechanism for tracking the
children.

To obtain these objectives RILM gets

involved with Kamina Social Welfare
Society (KSWS), a grassroots level
NGO working in the intervention area.

Child Development - RILM 4

 4. Intervention Made by RILM in collaboration KSWS

Activities in graphical overview:-

Internal
Learning
Assesment
Baseline
Survey

Parents
Meeting Recruitment
and Training of
teacher
Advocacy with
Brick Field
authority
Supplemental
Teaching
Conduct
Special Activity
Class Health Camp at
Brick Field

4.1 Baseline Survey

Kamina Social Welfare Society (KSWS)

conducted baseline survey using RILM
Child development survey format; in 6
brickfields situated at Howrah district of
West Bengal and collected details
information about the children of these
brick field: given below:-

120
103
100

80
64
60 Total
50
39 Girls
40 30
21 2426 Boys
17
20 9 89
0
3-5 6-8 9-11 12-14
Years Years Years Years

Child Development - RILM 5

4.2 Recruitment and training of
teachers

KSWS is working with child labor,

migrant labor from last 5 years. And
from their experiences dealing with
brick kiln children, KSWS have
selected experienced community-
based teachers for these learning
centers into the brick field. For
smooth and efficient implementation
of the program, Rotary India
Literacy Mission and KSWS jointly
organized a training program for the
Teachers of Brick Field School. The Faculty person hired externally and who
has long experiences as a trainer for teachers of the brick field school. The
total training methodology included interactive sessions. The total number of
participants was 8, female 6 and male 2.

4.3 Supplemental teaching

Brick Field Children are

the first learner
generation and 98% of
them never go to school.
Before enrolled, in school
or mainstream, these
children needs to get
supplemental teaching for
their all-round progress,
especially personality
development. KSWS
provided supplemental
teaching to the children
as they can get enrolled
in mainstream school.

Child Development - RILM 6

The centers are named after the brickfields, the total no. of children in these
4 centers are 200, girls 117 and boys 83. The center wise breakup is given
below:-
35
35 32

30 26 27
23 23
25
18
20 16
15 Girls

10 Boys

0
Bishnu Brick H.B.W Brick Maya Brick United Brick
Field & Shidhar Field(B.F.S-II) Field(B.F.S-III) Field(B.F.S-IV)
Brick
Field(B.F.S-I)

4.4 Conduct Health camp

During interaction with

the children, it was found
that most of the
brickfield children living
with very unhygienic
conditions. Malnutrition,
worm disease, anemia,
skin diseases, toot pain,
diarrhea, etc are the
common problem among
Brickfield children. KSWS
and Rotary India Literacy
Mission jointly organized
8 (eight) health camps at
4 (four) brickfields. In
these 8 health camps we
have served 559
patients, the camp wise breakup of patients is given below:-

Child Development - RILM 7

90
80
70 25
19
15
60 14 25
18
6 17
8
50 5 2
12 Total Women
14 7 9
40 20 22 18 Total Men
22 18
7 20 18
30 Total Boys
10
20 Total Girls
30 30 31 28
10 25 20 22 22

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Healt Health Health Health Health Health Health Health
Camp - Camp- Camp- Camp- Camp- Camp- Camp- Camp-
I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Disease-wise patients covered: Gender wise breakup is given below:-

Sl. Name of Disease Patients

No. Girls Boys Women Men

1 Fever 8 6 2 0

2 Pain 0 0 14 17

3 Skin Infection 85 56 43 17

4 Gastritis 5 9 6 6

5 HT 0 0 57 4

6 Abdominal Pain 7 8 13 0

7 Weakness Anemia 95 64 0 6

8 Eye Infection 0 0 1

9 Diarrhea 3 3 0 0

10 Water Borne Disease 5 2 12 5

11 Any Other 0 0 0 0

Total 208 148 147 56

Child Development - RILM 8

4.5 Conduct special activity class

The teaching methodologies in 4 (four)

learning centers into brickfields included
special activity classes. And objectives of the
activity class were better social and motor
skill development Increased, school
readiness skills Increased, learning capacity
developing, healthier social, cognitive, and
emotional skills Building strength, self-confidence, concentration, and
coordination from an early age of the children.

4.6 Advocacy with Brick Field Authority

An advocate is someone who provides advocacy support when you need it.
An advocate might help you access information you need or go with you to
meetings or interviews, in a supportive role. Keeping in mind these views of
objectives KSWS and RILM jointly discussed the issues of brickfield children
and about their rights with brickfield authorities and local government.

4.7 Parents Meeting

It was found that

there were huge
information gaps
among the parents of
these children. They
were unaware of the
importance of
education, Hygienic
practices, child care
practices, adolescent
care, etc. KSWS &
RILM several times sat
with the parents and
discussed above-
mentioned issues. The
meeting
methodologies
included active participatory approaches. It was found mothers were more
participating in the discussion.

Child Development - RILM 9

4.8 Internal Learning Assessment

To measure the actual progress of the children

Rotary India Literacy Mission conducted an
examination of the children after its 5 months
completion of the learning process.

Child Development - RILM 10

The children were divided into 4 age groups:-

Group 1, 3 to 5 years

Grade Girls Boys Total

A 12 4 16
B 1 1 2
C 1 0 1

Group 2, 6 to 8 years

Grade Girls Boys Total

A 42 23 65
B 4 1 5
C 4 2 6

Group 3, 9 to 11 years

Grade Girls Boys Total

A 16 14 30
B 0 4 4
C 0 1 1

Group 4, 12 to 14 years

Grade Girls Boys Total

A 1 0 1
B 0 0 0
C 1 0 1

5. Impact created

 At the time of initiation of the project Kamina Social Welfare Society

found throughout their survey report that all 98% of the children of
age group (6-14) years in 4 brickfields were totally out of school
children and they never been in any school. Almost all the children
could not identify the letters and numbers. After completion of 5
months of completion of study children can easily write their name,

Child Development - RILM 11

 father’s name and full address, small sentences, Arabic numbers from
(1-100), minor addition subtractions, etc.

 It was found at the time of initiation that all the children came to
learning centers with many unlearned conditions. They don’t have any
ideas about personal hygiene. After continuation of one month in the
nonformal learning centers children were developed little bit hygienic
behavior practices among them. They have started regularly brushing
teeth, bathing, Hand washing after defecation and before taking meal,
etc.

 Increased awareness level about the value of education, Hygienic

practices and child care among parents, brickfield authorities.

 The plight of the brickfield children and also about their living
conditions shared with local govt. departments.

6. Approaches/Methods applied

 Participatory Learning and Action (PLA)

 Case Work
 Group Work
 Community Development

7. Faced Challenges

 At the time of initiation of the project unwillingness for the cooperation

of the brickfield, managers were the main barrier to start brick field
school.

 Continuous migration of the children was a very difficult situation to

measure the progress of the children.

 Uncertainty to get the children, who are studying in these nonformal

centers for next year.

8. Learning’s from RILM Brick Kiln Project

From core observations of RILM intervention with the brick kiln children
following are the learning’s to RILM through Kamina Social Welfare Society.

Child Development - RILM 12

  Brick kiln children are the most priority children for back to school
program of any social development organization.

 This is a high possibility for the children that they never come back to
the same brick field.

 As this is the 1st time they are getting an education and also first
generation learners. They prefer to use learning tools of such type,
which use in their daily life.

 It was realized that brick kiln children are the most vulnerable
category and there is no special government program on brick kiln
children.

9. Sustainability approaches and its Plan

As tracking of these types of children is most difficult due to their family

migration hence Rotary India Literacy Mission requested to Sarva Shiksha
Mission, W.B. for tracking of these children. RILM will provide details of the
children to SSM, W.B. and then SSM, W.B. will communicate with the
different state education authority where the children are permanently
staying. In this way, these children can be identified and enrolled in school
so that they can complete the academic year by studying in two different
places.

10. Children Corner

During the project implementation period from different interactions with

children and parents of the brick field, it was found that most of the learners
were 1st generation learners, they never attained school. The poor
socioeconomic conditions and lifestyle of these families adversely keep them
to reach education.

“I was very happy, I love the school” – Sanjana Soye

“Fun, games and lot of enjoyment in school” – Jhinta Lohara

Child Development - RILM 13

11. Recommendations

It was found that children who are staying

into the Brick Fields are most deprived of
enjoying their childhood. There are so many
problems like a nutritional problem, health
problem, survival problem, the problem of
security of child abuse, the problem of child
labor etc.

Therefore considering the mentioned factors

it can be recommended that government
authorities should adopt a comprehensive
program for brick kiln children. As a
community-based development player
NGOs should focus their intervention on
these types of vulnerable children.

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12. Appendix – Child Profile

Child Development - RILM 15

Child Development - RILM 16