ASED
Continuity of schooling for slum children after primary school
Location
Gurgaon, about twenty kilometers southwest of Delhi
Context
A satellite city of Delhi, Gurgaon is home to hundreds of shantytowns inhabited by migrants from other states or isolated rural dwellers who have come to try their luck in this fast-growing city. They work as peddlers, cheap labor in construction and industry, or as cleaners in the city’s hotels, offices and shopping malls. 30% of Gurgaon’s 2 million inhabitants live in urban poverty, deprived of basic services such as housing, sanitation and healthcare. Children in these slums have no access to quality education.
Where they exist, public schools offer free education, but conditions are deplorable. Staff are inadequate and poorly trained. Due to lack of resources, slum dwellers are unable to send their children to ordinary private schools. Although the government requires these schools to apply quotas to accommodate children in precarious situations, in practice this rarely happens – not least for reasons of image.
ASED works with local partners to provide schooling for these children, who are particularly hard hit by poverty.
Project
While there are many obstacles to getting children from shantytowns into school, the solutions that can unblock the situation can be simple and concrete. Clean, safe and accessible transport is crucial to enable these children, far from the centers, to continue their schooling after primary school in dedicated establishments. This is especially important for girls, as parents are very reluctant to let them go out on their own from adolescence onwards, for cultural, economic and social reasons. Beyond its essential transport function, the school bus for secondary school pupils on the Dhunela campus is also the first step towards their independence.
The project involves providing a 53-seat school bus, equipped with safety devices appropriate to the children’s environment. In addition, specialized attendants are hired to ensure the safety of the pupils’ journeys.
Impact
From 50 to 100 students and teachers (depending on frequency and itinerary).
Between 300 and 600 indirect beneficiaries.
Partnership
Since 2011, Lotus Petal Foundation (LPF) has been providing Gurgaon’s migrant children with access to quality education, a prerequisite for escaping poverty and integrating into society. LPF also ensures that the children’s nutritional needs are met and that they have access to healthcare.
Since its inception, the campus, located in the Silokhra district of Gurgaon, has had an impact on over 8,000 people.
With the support of ASED, LPF has set up a new campus in the suburb of Dhunela (Gurgaon). A first building was completed in 2021, and the first 630 students began studying in the state-of-the-art facilities in the 2022-23 academic year.
LPF’s overall objectives are:
1. Provide more children with access to quality education and vocational training by increasing the number of annual beneficiaries from 2,800 (1,200 – direct, 1,600 – indirect) to 17,000 (3,000 – direct, 14,000 – indirect) by the year 2027-28.
2. Ensure that at least 90% of students in the various programs achieve the learning outcomes and that 75% of students have access to health care.
3. Ensure that 95% of students who complete qualifying training find a job.
4. Extend the school’s activities to 100 public schools over the next 5 to 7 years.