Child welfare NGOs in India struggle a lot more than what initially meets the eye. It is so because besides the gender based discrimination which is still widely prevalent in the Indian society, there are a number of other factors that put child welfare in India to great risk.
What makes it harder for the Child welfare NGOs in India to function in a smooth manner?
The Child welfare NGOs in Indiaare required to work at various platforms. Most of the time, a Child welfare NGO active in India has a hard time convincing the people why child welfare is important.
The social attitude plays a great role than what appears to be in the beginning whenever government policies are formed for the welfare of the children. None of the benefits extended by the government for the sake of the children can be put to use in an effective manner unless and until all the government policies are implemented sincerely.
For example, even after a malpractice like child labour is banned in India, the social attitude towards the child labour has not changed as much as it should have.
Though child labour stands banned in India, there is no dearth of little children that can be spotted as working at the Dhabas, tea-stalls, rag pickers etc. Besides, even the so-called educated and financially well to do families do not have any moral scruples while taking the services of poor little children as domestic helps.
And that is what that explains the existence of the Child welfare NGOs in India as well as various obstacles encountered by a Child welfare NGO.
How Vikash Deep Foundation (VDF) overcomes the problems towards the road to the Child Welfare?
As already stated above, it is not easy for a Child Welfare NGO to function easily and smoothly for various reasons.
At VDF,we have been making various efforts to go across various obstacles in order to ensure the child welfare in India as described below:
- Bringing education within the reach of the poor children: VDF fully appreciates that education is not only the birthright of every child, but also a great tool that every child must be equipped with. Besides, childhood is the best of the time in the entire life to receive education.
In case, a poor child is deprived of education, the probability of his going astray increases by leaps and bounds. Besides, an unguided, uneducated and not properly cared for child is more likely to fall a prey to evil practices including drug addiction etc.
Thus VDF has been making sincere efforts to bring education within the reach of every child. It has been doing so at various levels as described below:
- Changing the mindset of the children as well as their parents: VDF directly approaches the family who have children of school going age, but cannot afford to educate them in a school because of various reasons.
VDF is always at its convincing best not only to change the mindset of the little child, but also the parents of the poor child. When the parents stand convinced that it is essential for them to send their child to school in order to ensure a good future for him, they are more likely to see to it for themselves to motivate the child to go to school.
- Trying to enable the poor parents to earn more so that they allow their children to go to school rather than help them supplement the family income: TheVDF team leaves no stone unturned to find various ways so that the poor parents can supplement their family income and allow the children to go to school rather than slogging as child labour and help their parents earn the daily bread and butter.
The team members and volunteers at VDF openly and willingly volunteer their services to impart the earning skills to the poor parents. VDF conducts classes for teaching them various skills such as basket weaving, brick making, knitting, stitching, advanced culinary skills and various courses so that they can work and earn as electricians, technicians, carpenters etc.
- Convincing the school drop outs to get back to schools: VDF team makes sincere efforts to help a child continue with his education. In case, there are any school dropouts (which cannot be ruled out given the circumstances in a poor child’s life), we do our best to counsel the child and also his parents so that the child is motivated by his parents also to go back to school.
- Providing healthcare to the children: At VDF, we fully appreciate that a healthy mind lives in a healthy body. Needless to say, good health is the birthright of all children. A sick, ailing child can never make use of all of his potentials.
Thus VDF frequently conducts healthcare camps in slums, poor rural areas and also the localities that are usually inhabited by the people who suffer from abject poverty.
Our teams and various healthcare professionals volunteer their services at the healthcare camps. Besides, we make it sure that the poor and the needy children get the medicines and the immunization as and when required.
- Safeguard the children against the hostile environments specifically domestic violence: Apart from education and healthcare, children need a peaceful environment at home to bloom into healthy, happy individuals. However, not every child is fortunate enough to get the same.
Most of the times, children are compelled to witness scenes of domestic violence at home. It leaves a highly negative impact on the child psyche.
If, even after counseling the parents of the suffering child, the environment at home fails to improve, VDF does its best to provide a peaceful environment for the children as is the case in quite a few children villages.
- Organising various functions and cultural programs for the children: VDF does not want education for the kids to be a boring activity. Thus we organize various functions and cultural programs for the children so that getting educated becomes an interesting experience for them and they look forward to come to school every morning.
- Trying to put an end to discrimination among children:
Though the constitution of India grants equality to all and discrimination on any grounds is prohibited, the social ideology that favors the male child in rather an imbalanced way, making the girl children vulnerable to discrimination cannot be rooted out overnight.
India being a patriarchal society, even the so called modern and educated Indian families are usually deeply inclined towards the continuity of their families and hence want at least one male child. As a result, the girl child is usually discriminated against by her own parents and family elders in the favour of her male siblings.
At VDF, we encourage the girl children to learn and receive education at par with their male classmates without any discrimination. It cannot be taken for granted that the parents in India usually lay great focus on the upbringing of their sons as compared with their daughters.
Thus VDF team often visits the parents of the girl children at their homes to counsel them to provide proper educational and all kind of care to both their sons as well as their daughters without any kind of discrimination.
- Providing legal aid for the sake of the welfare of the girl children and the vulnerable: As stated above, a girl child is usually treated as an unwelcome addition to the family even by the educated parents. Though testing the gender of the unborn child is legally banned in India, various newspaper and media reports have reported female feticide and also female infanticide.
Moreover, in states like Bihar, West Bengal, and Rajastahan, child marriage is still prevalent. No wonder, when girl children are not even allowed to be born, the ratio of men to women does stand disturbed alarmingly in the states where female feticide and infanticide is still in practice. VDF does its best to provide legal help for the safety of the girl children, apart from the welfare of the male children also, in case if life circumstances make them vulnerable.
However, the point to be noted is that any organization feels greatly motivated to work for the upliftment of society when it receives both the financial funds as well as support of all kinds that is willingly volunteered from all corners of society.
VDF welcomes all the kind souls of the society to donate for the noble cause of the child welfare in India. Apart from the financial funds, we appreciate the services volunteered by all.
We appreciated the services willingly volunteered by professionals from various walks of life. We welcome teachers, doctors, engineers, nurses, writers, journalists, and all who feel a kind concern for the fellow humans to come forward to donate for the noble cause of the child welfare in cash or kind.
All the professionals donating their services for the upliftment of the poor and underprivileged children would be doing a great service to the humanity. Even if you do not happen to be a professional, you can still volunteer your services in various ways. There is always a VDF center near you and you can always contact us to find how you can help us help the poor child towards the road to welfare.