Working Children's Project

The Working Children’s Project was initiated in 1987 to reach out to children working in the unorganised sector. These children were engaged in poorly paid and hazardous jobs, usually alongside their parents. They were vulnerable to various diseases and malnutrition, and often lived and worked in unhygienic conditions. The Working Children’s Project provided them with nutritious food, education, vocational training, health facilities, recreational activities, and keeps them off the streets. The programme ran out of only one of our centres and typically had between 80 to 100 children enrolled annually.

Wherever possible our attempt was to guide them and their parents into getting them enrolled into mainstream schools. Over the years we met with good success in this endeavour, and children have been regularly getting enrolled in schools. These children were allowed to continue being enrolled for assistance with their schoolwork to encourage them not to drop out of school. In 2022 this project was closed as it stood, and folded into our Supervised Homework Scheme.

Case study : Vishal

Vishal lives with his family of four in New Seemapuri. His father is a cleaner with a private company and his mother cleans private homes. The family’s monthly income is about Rs 9,000. Vishal contributes to the family income by packing toys at home for a daily wage. His earning of Rs. 20-30 every day is valuable for meeting monthly needs.

Vishal joined our centre in 2015. When he arrived he was disinterested in his studies both at school and at the centre. He stubbornly refused to participate in any activities. Sustained counselling and efforts by the staff slowly drew him out and he slowly started taking interest. Gradually his defiant attitude softened as he seemed to enjoy the activities. He also started taking interest in his studies, besides sports, art and craft activities.

During parent-teacher meetings his mother shared that she observed a positive change in him. He had started studying at home and had become obedient. His scores started improving, not just at the centre but at school too. His family and we were equally delighted. Vishal is a very intelligent and creative child. He loves new challenges and digs his heels in to meet them. Nowadays he is stepping in to help the instructor develop training material for other students!