IPER Open Learning Schools---- “Schools that Go to Where the Children Are”

IPER Open Learning Schools are run under the scheme of “Experimental and Innovative Education” of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. They were first set up in 1989 for providing educational services to out-of- school children. The objectives of the project are to provide the children with three major essential amenities of childhood, namely facilities for education, nutritional support and health care. The fundamental principle underlying the Open Learning School is “to take the school to where the children are”. These schools are located in areas with large concentration of children deprived of education. Classes are held on the open streets, under sheds in parks and in local clubs. At present there are 22 centres attended by nearly 1000 children.

The process of teaching is based on the Open Learning Mode, a modified version of Distance Education, adapted to the needs of the children. The Open Learning Mode used combines: Print materials used in distance education and Face-to-face teaching.

A major focus of this programme is to mainstream these children into formal schools as soon as they are capable.

Majority of these children have not got any immunisation against common illnesses such as polio, measles, and diptheria. Skin diseases, stomach ailments and respiratory infections are quite common among them as they live in unhealthy environments. Doctors make regular visits to the centres to carry out routine medical check-ups and treat sick children. Children are also provided with dry food packets which include, among others, bananas, cake and sweets. Once a month children are taken for some cultural and recreational events.

IPER Drop-In Centre ---- Shishu Patha Nilay : A Resting Resort for Street Children

Many children in the metroes are found to work as ragpickers, hawkers or helpers in motor garages or in small roadside eateries. When not working they loiter in the streets where they fall into the clutches of unscrupulous gangs who exploit them and make them do anti-social activities. To provide these children with a safe place for resting and engaging their free time in creative activities, IPER set up a drop-in centre in 1993 in a two-room accommodation near Ballygunge Railway Station. The centre was named “Shishu Patha Nilay” meaning a resting resort for children. It functions from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily where approximately 200 children attend. The Centre has a multi-faceted programme to serve the varying needs of the children. Classes are held in batches on basic literacy, numeracy and other subjects followed at the primary level of education and pre-vocational skill training in some crafts such as sewing and embroidery. Children also play indoor games. The children are given food packs during the day. A paediatrician visits the centre once a week for medical check-up and treatment.

Integrated Programme For Street Children

fter careful survey in several pockets of south Kolkata the social workers and teachers of IPER identified a number of children without home and proper family ties. Not only their dwelling place was on the pavement but they also did not have any basic facilities like two square meals a day, proper clothing, medical care, formal schooling and physical security and were exposed to abuse and exploitation. The programme under the Government of India being run since 1993 is presently covering 500+ children distributed through sixteen community centres. These centres are spread over southern parts of the city of Kolkata. 

Qualified teachers and a few experienced social workers are actively rendering following services with an aim to preventing destitution amongst these children and facilitating their placement in the social mainstream for their full and wholesome development. To implement the project the following services have been planned:

Academic classes are held five days a week for 4 hours a day under the guidance of an able teacher. Teaching is mainly carried out through ‘individualised lessons’ developed by IPER which can be worked out independently by the child with some assistance from the teachers. The lessons where needed are supplemented by text books. In this system children can make progress according to their individual capacity and pace of learning. Individual Record File for each child is maintained. Home visit to absentees and family contacts are essential parts of the intervention programme. Emphasis is given on literacy, numeracy, life skills and health education.

Every child is provided with a food pack five days a week at the school. The pack usually contains bread and cooked curry and one sweet ball. If a child is found malnourished a specially prepared diet is prescribed for him.

Qualified doctors visit the children twice a week. Medical check-up of each child is carried out with the provision of medicines for the ailing ones and where needed with all diagnostic facilities.

A good and hygienic condition for the child and the family at the place where the child lives is ensured by the teachers and social workers and necessary materials are supplied for the purpose.

National Child Labour Project

It was in 1994 that the government planned to hold programmes for the rehabilitation of children working in hazardous occupations. IPER since 1996 is one of the partners of this National Child Labour Project (NCLP) run by the South 24 Parganas District Administration. IPER runs 6 centres under the programme three under Jadavpur and three under Kasba Police stations catering to more than 300 children. IPER is also running a center under the Kolkata National Child Labour Project.

The children selected for the project are either working or on the verge of joining the labour market. They are first withdrawn from the work that they are doing and brought under the fold of the Special Schools that are run under the Project. These special schools operate for 5 hours a day for six days a week. Classes are held in local clubs specially taken on rent for the purpose. Children who attend the classes regularly get a stipend of Rs.100/- a month. Every day a midday meal is served to the child in the class. After attending these classes for two or three years a good number of these children are admitted to formal schools. 

This programme was taken up by IPER due to its firm belief that child labour in whatever form it exits is injurious to the child as it interferes with the normal developmental needs of the child. Children who are working either in the domestic or in the commercial sectors are compelled to go without the basic requirements of childhood like education, recreation, social and cultural opportunities. IPER through these special schools tries to provide these facilities as far as possible.

CHILDLINE – A Toll-free Phone Service for Children-in-Crisis

CHILDLINE is a 24 hours toll-free phone service for emergency out-reach throughout the country for children in need of care and protection. It is a project under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, in partnership with NGOs, UNICEF and the corporate sector.

IPER has become an active participant in the 1098 Calcutta CHILDLINE programme as a support oragnisation for the southern part of Calcutta since 1998. Any child or a concerned adult can call 1098 and help will be ensured through the support organisation. IPER’s area of operation is entire south Kolkata extending till Baruipur. Besides rendering required services to the children IPER also lays emphasis on creating awareness about 1098 amongst the most marginalised group of children through extensive outreach on railway stations, bus stops, pavements and slums.

Till date more than 200 children have been given assistance mainly medical in nature by IPER through CHILDLINE. During this period outstanding development was noticed in the sphere of awareness generation and attending calls from children in crisis. 

IPER Anti-Drug Centre – A counseling and awareness building centre

Managed by a team of trained social workers, counsellors, psychiatrists and psychologists, IPER Anti-Drug Centre was set up in 1988 with aid from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India. The programme covers a wide range of people in two areas of the city under 28 police stations.

IPER Anti-Drug programme now covers areas Ballygunje, Entally, Manicktola, Beliaghata, Tiljala, Cossipur, Behala, Thakurpukur, Kasba, Jadavpur, Bhowanipur, Ekbalpur. Mahamayatala, Garia, as well as stretches of Sonarpur, Baruipur, Bhangar and Bishnupur. IPER is presently working as a Counselling Center and coordinating its activities with DUVA, an indoor detoxification center where treatment for addiction is done.

The major thrust of the programme is counselling along with rehabilitation services. Counselling is imparted to:

The programme concentrates on four main types of activities, namely identification of addicts, motivational counselling, support services and follow-up. When an addict is brought to the Centre for treatment he or she is put through a medical, psychological and social assessment. This is followed by pre-detoxification counselling which has been found to be quite effective and necessary in most cases. Initially some medicines are prescribed by the doctor at the Centre which are given free of cost. Subsequently patients who are deemed to be fit for detoxification are admitted to the indoor facility of DUVA. A regular monitoring and counseling is done for each and every client and once a patient is free of addiction counselling is continued to enable him to remain clean.

For an effective support system in the family and the community, an extensive out-reach programme is taken up as a follow-up measure and the community workers and counsellors regularly visit the patients and their families. A support group meeting is held once a week at IPER Anti-Drug Centre.

In 1995 an Out-Patient Department for drug dependents was set up at IPER Development Centre with aid from the European Commission. During the same time some skill training programme were conducted for the recovered patients to help them to become self-reliant.

The Centre has an extensive awareness generation programme on the evil effects of and detrimental consequences of drug abuse. Motivation Building Programmes are organised all the centres of IPER in convenient places in the community as also regular street corner meetings are held where besides specialists and experts in drug addiction, the local people, community leaders and recovering addicts take part. Regular exhibitions are organised during Calcutta Book Fairs and other public events. Every year 26 June is observed as “International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking” through various programmes like mime shows, inter-school debates, video shows, workshops and so on.

Drug Education Camps are also organised in undergraduate colleges, universities, nursing schools and other departments. Keen interest has been observed among the participants who are naturally curious and eager to know all about drug addiction.

Opportunities to the patients are provided for rest, relaxation and recreation. In these units television, radio, newspapers, magazines and indoor games are provided. IPER from time to time holds camps for the clients to help working people avail these services. This has proved to be a very effective way of helping the community.

Project on ‘Access To Education–A Right For All Children’

This Project supported by Reach_India is basically designed to ensure that all vulnerable children in the project area become primary graduates completing four years of primary education with desired levels of learning with special focus on girls.
To ensure that all vulnerable children in target areas are enrolled and are attending schools in community- run or government schools, the work plan would have a three-pronged strategy:
Prevention(OOSC) : Access through 20 Community Learning Centres
Protection : Retention through 40 Government Primary Schools & 8 Community Resource Centres
Promotion: Learning achievement through 6 Primary Schools from 40 Government Primary Schools.

Thus started in the month of January 2005 in seven wards of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation the project is working on:

The vision of the project is the total coverage of all vulnerable children remaining out of school and withdrawing them from child labour activities. The out of school children in the age group 5-14 years living with their families in the slums will be reached out through the community based learning centres and would be mainstreamed into the formal primary education system.

Mother-Child Programme

It is a well known fact that there can be no development of children unless their families are also helped especially the mothers. Realising this IPER has been running a multi-dimensional developmental programme for the mothers and their children since 1995. Under the programme the following services are rendered to the children:

Progressive Empowerment Programme for Young Women in Difficulties

The year 2005 saw another major programmatic expansion for IPER especially with the women community. Focus of the project is on bringing about an improvement in the lives of women who have, for decades, been deprived of a life of dignity. It is proposed to do so by empowering the women through capacity building, legal awareness and literacy, income generation skills, training sessions on marketing skills, ways to form self-help groups and so on. NIWANO Peace Foundation of Japan supports the project.

It is expected that the income generation skills will help the women who have been working in very low-paid and low-esteem jobs in having an alternative means of earning and one that is associated with self-worth and esteem. Besides the skill-development programme, functional literacy, legal awareness and training in social and life skills constitute important components of the project.

The project is unique in that it does not separate the women from their families and community, and given the services, the empowerment of women is expected to improve the family especially the child, as no child can develop fully unless the condition of the women in the family is changed for the better. The project takes up a rights-based approach in improving the life of the women and young girls living in a very impoverished condition.

Project on “Combating Child Abuse & Trafficking Through Protection”

Children are generally seen as weak and powerless. They are not encouraged to participate in decision making matters that concern them. In India a child is seen as the ‘property’ of the parent to do what they like. It is such a notion that makes children vulnerable to abuse of all kinds from adults. They are not seen as entities of their own, more so in Indian culture which has always placed a higher value on the needs of the aged more than those of the young.

Thus there is a need to challenge the value perception that children are the exclusive property of their parents. Widespread awareness generation programmes with regard to the needs and rights of children must be promoted. The principle of children’s rights as enshrined in the UNCRC must guide the policies and welfare schemes for children.

The Project on “Combating Child Abuse & Trafficking Through Protection” supported by GOAL India started in July 2005 and is working with 100 children and their families from urban slums in wards 93, 94 and 95 of KMC. The main goal of the project is to make available to the child his/her basic right to protection from abuse and exploitation and to help develop well adjusted, normal and productive future citizens.

From the long experience of working with high-risk children IPER has come to the conclusion that the abused children need very specific and focused support. Of these four steps can be identified as ~

Models of Intervention are:
1. Parent Enhancement Service Model

2. Child Empowerment Service Model

3. Intervention with the community and the society

‘Crises Prevention Centre (CPC)’
Along with the different interventions one important measure that needs to be taken is having a ‘Crises Prevention Centre (CPC)’ which will remain open daily from 9.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. with provision for a Short-Stay Home for girls between 3 years and 18 years.

Psychological, Somatic and Social Interventions for the High-Risk Children of Kolkata

IPER is running a programme for health intervention for more than 900 children with a special focus on the physical and mental health. Financially supported by NFICH an international agency of Netherlands also has a research component where the health aspects of the children who are given medical support is compared with children who come from similar socio-economic strata abut are not given the medical support directly by IPER. They mostly avail the public facility of the state.
The project aims at

ACTIVITIES THAT CROSS-CUT ALL THE PROGRAMMES ARE

One of the major focuses of IPER in all these programmes is to restore these children to the mainstream society with extensive follow-up service. Of the different approaches taken up for the purpose one is admit to the children to formal schools, reintegrate them with children in the family, counsel them for a better and healthier life style. Since its inception more than 10000 children have been rehabilitated through these services. Good progress has been achieved in the field. Specific programmes taken up for this are:

One of the major objectives of the different programmes that IPER organises for the deprived children is to restore them into the mainstream of the society. The principal measure taken for the purpose is to put these children to the regular formal schools. But as most of these children are first generation learners it is very difficult for them to cope with the demands of the schools. As a result there is a high tendency of these children dropping out of school.

To meet this exigency Supportive Classes are organised where these school-going children are assisted in their learning. Presently four such supportive classes are held. IPER is also providing these children with tuition fees, books, pencils, slates and exercise books throughout the academic year.

Talent development classes are held to develop the special aptitude of those children who are found to possess them but have no scope of nurturing them due to lack of resources or some other obstacle. Also the among the child workers girl children are at a greater disadvantage and suffer exploitation more than the boys. But they are no less talented than any of the girls coming from protected families. As such a skill development initiatives have been taken for these girls.

A regular clinic is run at IPER Development Centre with two doctors and two para staff for immunization as well as medical examination services. An intensive as well as extensive medical care programme are provided through the Centre. Besides emergency cases are also dealt with as and when need arises. Children’s Out-patient Clinic is run for four days a week along with a programme for mothers and children. The Out-patient Clinic remains open for the women and children for four days a week.

Special cases like asthma, tuberculosis, severe forms of mal-nourishment are also taken care of by long term treatment plan. Cases of burn, accidents and other emergencies are treated at the clinic as well as referred to hospitals when necessary. Pathological investigations and other types of investigations are also taken care of free of charges. Cases of severe forms malnourishment too are treated and when required referred to special clinics and hospitals.

PER has been running a unit for imparting basic literacy to adult women. Thirty women are given academic lessons for three days a week for two hours a day. Instructions are given individually according to their pace of progress in respect of literacy and numeracy. Moreover contents are chosen informally from family life situation. These mothers along with other women of the locality also join the vocational training classes held everyday.

Other Studies

IPER also conducted several research studies on children like ‘Psycho-social Impact of their Occupation on the Ragpickers’, ‘Psychological Degeneration of Girl Children Smuggled Across the Border’, ‘Impact of Family Violence on Children’. Another study known as ‘Humanising Child Labour’ published by IPER in the form of a book. In 1996 IPER in collaboration with Childhope Asia (Philippines) brought out a study on street children known as ‘Learning from the Families on the Edge’.

Psychometric Assessment, Guidance & Counselling

While implementing different programmes on child development it was found that there was a great need for guidance and psychometric assessment for both children and adults. For this purpose IPER developed and standardised a number of psychological tests on intelligence, interest, personality, reasoning and allied items in regional languages. These tests are suitable for scientific assessment of different attributes of both adults and children. Presently a Psychometric section is run at IPER where beside psychological assessment counseling and guidance services too are offered.

Documentation Centre and Children’s Data Bank

IPER has a well-equipped Documentation Centre with a computer network wherein extensive data on child workers and street children are being maintained. This

centre which started functioning in 1993 has also done extensive documentation work on the underprivileged and handicapped children of the state. A specialized library too is functioning in the IPER complex.

Advocacy, Capacity Building and other Activities

IPER also carries out regular and planned programmes on advocacy and awareness building through exhibitions, camps and meetings. IPER holds exhibitions regularly at the Calcutta Book Fair and on other occasions organised every year in Kolkata with pictures, posters and hand-outs on different social issues like drug abuse, child labour and street children. Holding camps in the schools and colleges on Drug Education is also a regular features of its programme.

Several trainings as well as workshops are held regularly for both in-house as well as outside personnel. IPER has organised training programmes for social workers and street educators, drug-counsellors and those working for street and working children programmes. To mention a few Training on Child Participation, Interactive Training of Parents, Teachers and Care-givers on dealing with Traumatised Children, Management of Developmental Programme, have been organized of late.

Resource Centre for Training

IPER also functions as a Resource Centre for the trainees and students of Social Work, Journalism, Sociology and Applied Psychology for their exposure, practical training and dissertation work. Besides students from Indian Universities quite a number of trainees from UK, Finland, the Netherlands, France, USA and other countries attend the different programmes of IPER every year. Each of the visiting trainees participate in the different programmes of IPER and attend classes held on issues related to children, their families as well as drug-addicts. They also undertake micro-level studies under the auspices of IPER.

Workshops, Seminars and Conferences

IPER regularly hold seminars and workshops at the national and international levels. Besides the several programmes taken up earlier a one-day workshop commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the Convention of the Rights of the Child was held on 1st December 1999 at IPER Development Centre. It was attended by 45 children from 10 schools as well as from non-formal centres run for children. This was the final follow-up meeting of the Children Borough Council that had several meetings last year. The Mayor of Kolkata was present to interact with the children. The children drew up their agenda for the work they planned to do in their own locality. They also outlined the work of others in the field.

First & Fourth in Kolkata
IPER was pioneer in initiating and holding the First Asian Conference on Child Exploitation and Neglect in 1990. In 1996 the Fourth Asian Conference on Child Exploitation and Abuse was held in Kolkata by IPER with assistance from UNICEF and Government of India and the State of West Bengal. The central theme of the Fourth Asian Conference was “Asserting the Rights of the Child --- A challenge for the Adult Society”.