Eliminate Child Labor in the Carpet Industry in Agra

With the financial support of the India Children’s Fund Oberschwaben Teppichdorf Agra and Gebhard Müller School Biberach, our Indian partner organization Vikas Sansthan carries out the project “Elimination of child labor in the carpet industry in Agra”.

Goal of the project

Child labor in Surajmal Ka Pura & Kakar in the Agra district is to be eliminated through education and the creation of alternative sources of income.

Specific Objective 1: To free carpet weaving child labour <14 years to provide them with pre-primary education and to transfer them to formal schools to ensure their permanent education

Activities

  • Open community meetings on the dangers, negative effects and impact of child labor
  • Liberation of child laborers <14 years of dangerous carpet weaving
  • Providing bridge education for the Liberated Child Laborers
  • Health Camps and Counseling on Psychosocial Issues of Liberated Children
  • Involving children in formal schools to ensure the sustainability of their education

Specific Objective 2: Eliminate the poverty of mothers

Activities

  • Strengthening the self-help groups of mothers of child laborers
  • Self-Help Group Management Meeting to Strengthen and Build Sustainability
  • Institutional links between self-help group members for saving and loan availability
  • Promotion of alternative sources of income for members of the self-help group

Specific Objective 3: Effective project-management and -control to better impact beneficiaries

Activities

  • Selection and orientation of the project staff for a better understanding and implementation with a results-oriented approach
  • Develop a reporting mechanism for a smooth flow of project information and documentation / reporting
  • Training of Bridge School Teachers in Teaching Methodology and “Learning to Learn”
  • Meetings of project staff for better project management
  • Compliance with reporting rules: programmatic and financial, including certified statement

Background

The CLAP project is being implemented in a child labor zone known as Surajmal Ka Pura & Kakar villages in the Shamshabad block of the Agra district. This area is densely populated and is dominated by “backward” communities whose children are in carpet weaving from generation to generation and are deprived of their rights.

Life situations, socio-economic and demographic details of Surajmal Ka Pura

This village is dominated by the people of the Nishad caste and is located on the riverbank. Most people are farmers in the village whose occupation is agriculture and who live with their animals. The people in this village have difficulties with water scarcity, which is the main obstacle to agriculture. As a rule, they are in debt to cover their family expenses. Human debt is carried from generation to generation, leaving them in the vicious circle of poverty.

The entire population of the village is illiterate and due to illiteracy no one is responsible for the “organizational development of the village”. Parents who are illiterate do not train their children, and this has become a chain in the village. The small children of the village are mainly occupied with working at the brick kiln, while children between the ages of 6 and 14 are busy weaving carpets for ten to twelve hours a day, destroying their future by not being educated.

35 years ago, a contractor founded a carpet weaving machine in this village to employ people in the village. Gradually, 6-14 years old children of the village began to weave the carpet for 10 to 12 hours a day, and everyone in the village began weaving the rug. Meanwhile, around 50 looms are installed in the village and children are busy with carpet weaving. By working for 10 to 12 hours in the carpet looms, the children are deprived of their education. There are still 50 child laborers employed in the village, which mainly houses girls.

Life situations in the village Kakar

The main occupation of the villagers is agricultural work, rope making and carpet weaving. The majority of the population are illiterate. Children are engaged in child labor and 50% of children are engaged in carpet work. Parents have deprived the children of their right to education, destroying their future because parents do not understand the importance of education.

The carpet weaving mill has been operating in the village of Kakar for 35 years. 6-14 years old are children who are engaged in carpet weaving; they are socioeconomically backward. Today, 25-30 children work on the carpet looms in this village.

Projectpartner

Vikas Sansthan is an NGO dedicated to helping disadvantaged children, child laborers and the poorest people, who have been denied human rights and justice. The focus is mainly on child laborers and their parents in the districts of Firozabad and Agra.

Vikas Sansthan works tirelessly to eliminate child labor found in the glass, bangle, and carpet industries in 41 villages in the Agra and Firozabad districts and in the slums of the city of Firozabad. Vikas Sansthan is committed to the liberation, rescue, reintegration and rehabilitation of child laborers.

Donour Group: Indienkinderhilfe Oberschwaben Carpet Village Agra and Gebhard Müller School Biberach