School Centre at Daneshwar

The main objective of the project is to enable the children of the expatriate to get to school. Because of the need and the hard life in the quarry, the parents have other worries than to look after the education of their offspring. Especially since most adults did not attend school. They are not aware of the importance of education. For this reason, mothers and fathers must first be sensitized. They must recognize that their children have rights – rights to protection and care, to health care, to schooling, which ultimately benefits the family.

Actions and objectives of the project:
• the children of the migrant workers are offered a school offer in the immediate vicinity of the stone quarry settlement;
• around 500 families are sensitized to recognize the rights of their children, to support them and to enable them to attend school;
• the quarries included in the project become “child-free zones”;
• the children of migrant workers visit a school for the first time or are reintegrated;
• quarry workers will be informed of their rights and learn to demand them;
• the establishment of trade union structures is designed to permanently improve working and living conditions in quarries.

Background

In Rajasthan, a poor state south of Delhi, people live in many regions of the natural stone. One of these regions is the Bundi district, about 200 kilometers south of the state capital Jaipur. Here, many migrant workers have settled with their families and children, mostly Dalits, untouchables. Their children are not welcome in the schools of the neighboring villages. In many cases the authorities deny these children with flimsy arguments the school visit. Despite the prohibition more than 60 years ago, the caste society continues to exist. The result: There is a serious dropout problem and many children who do not attend the school, but work with the parents in the quarries.
At this point it is necessary to add some information to the ailing Indian school system. It is not uncommon that the lack of children in the school is by no means pursued by the state. School management and teachers are under no pressure to perform. Often, teachers appear too late or not at all, and the only criterion by which a teacher is assessed is whether or not their students reach the class goal. Since the job is at stake, not all children should be transferred, the transfer of students is not dependent on their performance, but is granted under all circumstances.

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