We have long been concerned about the children of construction workers and young people working on construction sites.
Construction workers are usually migrants, very mobile - moving in search of employment from one site to another or even from one town/city to another. or because of drought. Therefore, their children do not go to school, and live at the construction sites. They help their parents in the construction work - mixing, water curing, centering, plastering. Often they are used to run errands, bring cigarettes, beedies, paan, ghutka, liquor etc. The girls play 'little mothers; – taking care of siblings. While the parents are at work, some children do the household tasks like cooking, cleaning, washing, etc.
Since the parents have not been to school, they often do not understand the importance of sending their children to school. However, even if they are interested, either there are no schools nearby or their constant movement prevents them from getting admission.
Our concern for these children and young people led us to do a sample study in the Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts. We found:
a. Children involved in the construction site are in the age group of 0-5 years, 5-14 years and 15-18 years of age.
b. The majority of the children are in the age group of 6-9 years ( comprising approximately 44% of the total children)/
c. Most of the children hail from the following places, Mahaboobnagar, Ongole, Srikakulam, Nalgonda, Guntur, Medak, Ranga Reddy district, Adilabad Karimnagar and Nizambad.
In order to intervene in a sensitive manner there was a need to interact with the builders, parents, masons, children, apartment owners, etc so that we could mobilize these children and motivate them to attend the Door Step schools we set up.
We now have 50 Door Step schools in four mandals of the Rangareddy District - Hayathnagar; Ghatkesar; Keesara and Uppal catering to approximately 1500 children.
Watch this video to see how our intervention lit up many young lives!
