By Suchitra Rao

The second wave of COVID brought about such a strain on the health infrastructure of the country, that it was up to the community and individuals to search and find life-saving medical resources. In this time of need, the entire Team of ILPians, including staff, Trustees and Volunteers collaborated with several organisations and forums to ensure that the demand and supply of critical care were streamlined. This gave an avenue to patients or their relatives to obtain scarce resources like oxygen, medicines, hospital beds, and home care for children/elderly etc. without having to navigate through a sea of unverified and standalone sources.

In collaboration with Surge Impact, 10 team members from India Literacy Project have been working round the clock to arrange medical assistance for COVID patients. They have worked on 100s of cases across Delhi, Telangana & Andhra Pradesh, putting in over 670 hours of work. The dedicated effort from our team helped resolve 70% of the cases but obstacles such as high prices & unavailability continued to impede this effort. It was a grueling few months and some of the stories were grim, some heartening but these times highlighted the fact that we’re all in this together!

A case from Ground Zero:  Reaching out to the distressed living abroad at peak Covid second wave. 

We received a panic call from a lady living in the USA, asking for help for her elderly parents in Hyderabad. Her father had been unwell for about two days and she felt utterly helpless and anxious being so far away from them. From teleconsultation with a doctor in Telugu which was hard to come by at a very busy time, to getting them tested for Covid, the team jumped into action to ensure that the couple got immediate medical support. Both tested positive, and an oxygen concentrator was quickly arranged for the father. Despite this, his condition deteriorated, so an ambulance was arranged and the Father was shifted to a railway hospital (he had retired as a doctor from this hospital a few years ago).  Arrangements were also made for a care provider to stay with the Mother at home as she had a milder infection and for a nurse at the hospital to stay with him for a week, until his daughter landed in Hyderabad. 

The elderly gentleman fortunately recovered, though was still dependent on the concentrator for some time, while his wife  was able to recover at home. 

With the help of ILP’s support  for over two weeks of coordination of all resources and the required emotional support, the family is well on their way to total recovery.

Our ILP team members have been resolute and driven in their efforts during an unprecedented time, and have received certificates of appreciation! 

Screenshot of a message received from the caretaker:

Born to a mother who is a homemaker and father who works as a plumber, Chandana is the younger of two siblings. She studied in a government school in Khairtabad mandal and came in contact with ILP when she was in the 9th std. 

ILP had just started the library classes and career counseling sessions with the support of Aqriti* in her mandal when Chandana realized she wanted to pursue engineering in the future. ILP’s career counseling sessions for classes 9th and 10th made her aware about the subjects she needed to choose in 11th std., the entrance exams to be taken and the preparation required to clear the exams. 

She scored 9.7 GPA in class 10th and then went on to choose MPC for 11th std. ILP provided her scholarship to cover the expenses of her studies in class 11, 12 and coaching required for the entrance tests. Due to her dedication, immense hard work and ILP’s support, she scored 96% in 12th class and secured a seat in IIT Madras.      

* Aqriti is a Qualcomm CSR project and  Chandana was granted a scholarship by ILP under the Aqriti project. 

Badagola village lies about 80 kms north-west of the city of Cuttack, Odisha. It’s a small community of just over 200 people, most of whom are daily wagelabourers.  There is a single Anganwadi in the village to cater to 13 children of preschool going age. The school has seen dedicated service by Ms Sukanti Sethi who has taught at the school for 18 years!  The present version of the school building lacked a boundary walland was adjacent to an electric transformer. The school is located near cashew nut forests making it prone tofrequent unwanted visits by the local wildlife.

Furthermore, it is also amidst the way of all the loading vehicles which go through the village. All these make the conditions of the building hazardous and unfit for fostering an educational environment.

This issue was first noticed by Ms Saumyashree Sahu, a community mobilizer of Madhabpur Gram Panchayat. ILP works with, funds and guides workers like her through their outreach programs.

( Figure 2: Anganwadi  premises) 

She raised this issue with other Anganwadi members and with the help of Ms Kainta Khatua, another teacher, arranged a meeting with all the members of Matru and Janch committee mid April of 2020. Aside, in Odisha these committees are responsible for successful implementation and delivery of various schemes and programmes associated with the region’s Anganwadi [1].

Bari naik, the chief of the Matru committee and a local ward member was handed the responsibility of bringing the attention of Gram Panchayat to this matter.

The committees organized another meeting on 6th June 2020 which involved all the local stakeholders and the village’s Sarpanch. The meeting involved the village Duari Panda, chief of the Janch committee Niranjan Senapati, Ghanti Parida Prasanta Sethi and Ms Saumyashree Sahu. A sum of Rs 100, 000 was sanctioned for this project.

The work for the wall began around July 2020 and was completed timely by September 2020 under the supervision of Mr Dinesh Singh, contractor of the Illirisinga village.

( Figure 3: School premises post erection of boundary wall)

This is a great real world example of how seemingly trivial projects can be massively impactful for children in remote rural areas. Besides dedication to the cause of education and learning, it highlights the need for nurturing of the younger generation by lifelong teachers. Finally, we shed light on the fact that problem solving at the grass roots level is driven by teachers and community organizers with grit, empathy, determination and resilience and are essential to ensuring that the solution sees the light of the day. This story also emphasizes the fact that ILP’s interventions for the forward progress of learning is myriad in nature and effective.

References 

1. http://wcdodisha.gov.in/content/31/20

In remote rural villages, children have few real/role models to look up to. By providing scholarships for higher education to deserving students, ILP is creating role models who inspire the younger generation to pursue their aspirations.

Praislin, a young girl from Thirunindravur, Tamil Nadu, was forced to drop her educational aspirations as her father, the sole provider in the family, battled health issues. Praislin was passionate about the English language, and wanted to pursue her dream of becoming an English professor without burdening her father. She reached out to ILP and was provided with a 2 year scholarship for her college education. Praislin is currently pursuing a Masters in English, while working as a trainee at Tata Consulting Services, to pay for her younger sister’s studies.

Senthil, a young man in Tamil Nadu, was forced to drop his ambition to become an engineer and work in a brick kiln alongside his father. ILP recognized the talent and determination that Senthil showed and gave him a 4 year scholarship to pursue his degree at Madras Institute of Technology. ILP mentored him during this time, and helped him to get an internship. Senthil graduated this year and is now working in a leading software company.

Divya, a young girl from Tamil Nadu, was visually challenged, and could not pursue her goal of getting a Masters Degree in History. Her father had passed away, and her brother struggled with debt, leaving her unable to pay for her tuition. ILP gave her a 2 year scholarship to complete her Masters degree. She is now pursuing her degree in philosophy to achieve her goal of becoming a professor.

Educating migrant children of brick kiln workers in Tamil Nadu

These young migrant children wandered around the brick kilns, and were being exposed to serious safety hazards. Slowly, yet surely they were also being forced into child labor in the brick kilns.

Tamil Nadu is a land of 3,000 brick kilns where 90% of the 300,000 workers are seasonal migrants from within and outside the state. In early 2012, an ILP survey in Tiruvallur district found that 99% of the young migrant children were not going to pre-schools; the situation was equally abysmal for children of school-going age.

ILP partnered with IRCDS, a passionate and experienced local NGO to begin transforming the brick kiln areas in
Tiruvallur. ILP & IRCDS made a deliberate and conscious decision to involve all the stakeholders in bringing about this change. Parents, brick kiln owners and all relevant government departments at the local/district/state levels were roped in.

This enabled ILP to expand its efforts from covering just 21 villages in 2012 to 282 villages in 2016.

Achievements In the ILP Covered Brick Kilns

• 67% of 3-6 year old children of migrant families are attending pre-schools
• 85% of 6-14 year old children of migrant families are attending to schools
• 98% of the brick kiln owners have appointed child caretakers in the kilns
• 87% of children continue their education even after they go back to their hometowns

Achievements At District & State Level

• State Govt. stipulated that ILP model must be followed with children from migrant families
• Tiruvallur Govt. helped to move over 6,000 children back in school in the last 2 years
• Tiruvallur Govt. appointed 88 education volunteers in 2016 to cover the migrant children
• Govt. is supplying native-language learning materials for children migrating from other
  states

We are at the cusp of transforming the lives of the brick-kiln workers’ children forever. They can now continue their education without breaks even when their parents migrate for work.