Church centres help child workers
Hyderabad (AsiaNews/ UCAN) Like many other eighth graders Baddeti Appanna hopes to be a doctor one day, but unlike many other 14-year-old his vocational quest started in a stone quarry. Till eight years ago, he worked 10 hours a day in a quarry in Andhra Pradesh, a southern Indian state. He smashed stones into pebbles and for his labour his family got an extra 15 rupees (then US$ 0.50) a day.
The oldest of five children, Baddeti started working when he was 4. But after an injury sidelined him, volunteers from the Village Reconstruction Organisation (VRO), a project to rehabilitate child labourers, found him idling away his time around the quarry and persuaded him to join their centre. His parents, who also worked at the quarry at twice the child's wage rate, reluctantly let him go. At the centre, Baddeti was quite the student and programme staff recommended him for formal schooling beginning at the second-grade level.
Baddetti is not the only child rescued from child labour. The VRO rehabilitation programme, which started in Rajahmundry 15 years ago, has rescued more than 2,000 children like Baddeti from quarries and other workplaces. Rajahmundry is in East Godavari district, 1,800 kilometers south-east of New Delhi. Currently, it is helping 387 former child workers from 61 villages who attend various schools while staying at three centres VRO manages in the district.
The program enables boys and girls aged 6-14 to receive education up to the seventh grade. Food and accommodation at the centres is free. However, like Baddeti, most of the children had to be persuaded to leave their workplace.
Twelve-year-old Naka Ramana is now in fourth grade. School was the last place he wanted to go. After his father died at work when a rock fell on him, Naka began working full time at the quarry to help his mother feed her family of four. VRO staff learnt of Naka's situation two years later. At their request, his mother, also reluctantly, allowed him to join the centre. While pursuing his school studies, Naka is learning carpentry. He says he wants to become a carpenter to support his family.
In addition to regular school subjects, the centres offer training in carpentry, tailoring and woodcarving. These trades have given some youth a better chance in life. Many former students have in fact done well, this according to L. Appala Naidu, superintendent of one of the centres. Fifteen youths who studied at his centre now work as carpenters and earn around 200 rupees (US$ 4.45) per day. Another five who studied tailoring have also found regular jobs.
The VRO was born in 1971 in Andhra Pradesh's Guntur district. It is the brainchild of Belgian Jesuit Father Michael A. Windey. Since then it has branched out to Delhi, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu as well as Pondicherry. VRO has separate departments for agriculture, education, industries, health, research and training.
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09/06/2006
