NGO : PRAYAS

NGO PROJECT REPORT

NGO : PRAYAS JUVENILE AID CENTRE

PRAYAS RAILWAY CHILDR S PROJECT CHILDREN

Submitted by: Akshay Gupta ( (3A) | Piyush Gupta (29C) | Sakshi Garg (40C) )

MBA (IB) 2011-2013 Indian Institute of Foreign Trade Delhi Trade,

Prayas Railway Childrens Project

INDEX

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CONTENTS

PAGE NO.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

About Prayas Project under Study: Prayas Railway Childrens Project Objectives Project Work undertaken Observations Recommendations Conclusion Annexures

3-4 5 6 6-7 8 9 9 10

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ABOUT PRAYAS
Prayas is one of India's largest non-profit organizations. Its goal is to protect the rights of marginalized children, women and young people. It has projects in seven states across India serving an estimated 100,000 people. The organization is based in Delhi.
"Prayas" is a Hindi word, derived from Sanskrit, meaning "endeavor". Prayas was founded in 1988 by Delhi police chief Amod Kanth after a fire ravaged the North Delhi slum of Jahangirpuri. The organization initially focused on providing shelter and education to children affected by the disaster. Since then it has expanded into many other areas. It now provides alternative education, shelter homes, health and nutrition and other services to marginalized children across India. Disadvantaged women and teenagers also avail of services offered by Prayas, in particular vocational education. In response to crises, such as the 2001 Gujarat earthquake and the 2004 tsunami, Prayas has expanded its services outside of Delhi in recent years.

Geographical Outreach
Beginning from a small intervention with a contact centre catering to 25 marginalized children in the slums of Jahangirpuri in the year 1988, Prayas today has expanded its outreach with programmes in seven state of the country including Delhi. While some of these initiatives in the different states were planned the others were outcome of local intiatives or emergency needs. 90% of the activities of Prayas are in Delhi.

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VISION: Meeting the fundamental needs of care, protection, shelter, food, clothing, health, shelter, recreation and above all alternative education for holistic development of the destitute children Major Activities
Prayas protects and promotes child rights and provides a means with which men, women and children can become economically self-sufficient. The following are the areas in which Prayas works:

Caters to 50000 street, neglected & working children Education centers regarded as models of best practice by Indian Govt & US Dept. of Labour

Provides shelter, education, health care, counseling & vocational training Cater to children who have been orphaned, abandoned, sold into labour or subjected to physical or sexual abuse

Operates many 24 hour primary health care clinics in slums of Delhi A major AIDS/HIV awareness programme began in 2005 in association with government schools across Delhi

Non-formal Education

Shelter and Observation homes

Health and Nutrition

Operates Vocational training programmes for over 10,000 women and young people Supports self help schemes providing microcredit & training to help women start their own businesses

Prayas Child Line (1098) initiative is a 24 hour free phone service for children in difficulty Serves as first point of contact for children suffering as a result of abuse, homelessness, trafficking, child labour Child Line

One of India's leading advocacy groups for the rights of children Made contributions to the formulation of Govt. policy, including the Juvenile Justice Act and the Offences Against Children Act

Economic Empowerment

Advocacy

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Prayas Railway Childrens Project

PROJECT UNDER STUDY:

PRAYAS RAILWAY CHILDRENS PROJECT
Purpose: To help rescue and rehabilitate young children who are found living and working at the railway stations. Areas covered: New Delhi, Old Delhi, Nizamuddin and Anand Vihar Railway Stations Sponsored by: Saga Charitable Trust UK Centres: At Lahori Gate, Nabi Karim, Sitarawali Gali, Motia Khan, Delhi Gate Facilities: Shelter/Bedding, Food (4 meals a day), Clothing, Informal Education/ Recreation

Prayas Railway Childrens project is working to help rescue and rehabilitate young children who are found living and working at the railway stations. Prayas initially established a drop-in shelter at Lahori Gate within the grounds of New Delhi station, creating somewhere that children could receive food, clothing and emotional support in a place of safety. The Prayas team is on hand 24 hours a day here, offering healthcare, counseling, informal education and vocational training. This has been made easier by the fact that the centre has now been registered as a shelter home, meaning the children can stay longer than 24 hours. A second shelter called Nabi Karim has also been set up. The project has been so successful that it has been extended to include Old Delhi, Nizamuddin and Anand Vihar Railway Stations, thereby covering the main arrival points of the city. At each location there are child assistance booths manned by outreach workers from Prayas, which provide an unthreatening place for children to seek help. Prayas also encourages the station porters, staff and members of the Railway Protection Force to look out for vulnerable youngsters and guide them to the booths. Till date, the project has given more than 4,000 children the hope of a brighter future.

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OBJECTIVES
There are an estimated half a million street children in the capital, many of whom live in desperate, dangerous conditions along the railway lines. The current Prayas Railway Childrens Project is aimed at rehabilitating/ repatriating them. Our project involved understanding the Railway Prayas project including the process carried out to enroll a child in their centre and his/her final rehabilitation/repatriation. It also involved recommending the future course of action to improve the functioning of this project and to scale it further. Also we were required to recommend solutions for the funding paucity faced by the project.

PROJECT WORK UNDERTAKEN

Visit to Various Centres of Railway Prayas Project: Lahori Gate Centre: This is the regular centre for Railway Prayas where children stay after the CWCs order till the time they are shifted to their homes or regular Child centres in case their parents do not turn up or they do not want to go back to their homes. There is arrangement of a Teacher at this centre and mostly informal education is imparted to these children.

Sitara Wali Gali Centre: This centre is a recent addition to the project. This basically acts as a night shelter for the kids working at railways station and nearby places in Delhi. Railway Prayas volunteers counsel these kids but at most of the times they are not ready to listen and understand the benefits of leaving railway stations and going back to their families. They can work as they wish at the railway stations and can comfortably stay at these shelters.

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Nabi Karim Centre: This is residential centre of Prayas wherein students stay and work/study at various places. They are provided free food and stay at the centre. Also, children who are working are provided education and guidance for better future. During our association with Prayas, we visited above mentioned centres and observed the working of the NGO. We also visited New Delhi Railway station and interacted with few children working as rag-pickers at the railway stations. We tried to counsel them and understand their psychology behind working there. We also observed the network that Prayas volunteers use to get details of such children e.g. local shop owners, railway police, railway workers etc. Lack of support from Railway administration has led to the establishment of a network of rag-pickers which is posing difficulties to the volunteers to guide these children. Through this network, these children are able to earn some quick cash and most of them are addicted to drugs too. Now, volunteers just target to notice any new child coming to the station and try that they do not come in contact with this established network. Prayas volunteers counsel these children on a regular basis till they agree to visit one of the Prayas centres and leave this life. It requires a lot of patience and perseverance on the part of Volunteers to convert even a single child. We spent most of the time at Lahori Gate Centre of Prayas. The centre is about 2kms from New Delhi railway station. We realized that there is a lot of scope in improvement of infrastructure of the centre as well as basic facilities provided to them. Funding pattern is also not regular and need a lot of support from government and society. Lack of awareness of such projects among corporates as well as general public hinders the NGOs effort to accumulate funds for the functioning of the centre. We tried to work with the NGO and tried capture the work done by them which they can use to market their project.

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Prayas Railway Childrens Project

OBSERVATIONS
The Rail Prayas children project works to help rescue and rehabilitate/repatriate children who are found working, living at the railway station and also those who have been separated from their guardians while at the station. The project works at the New Delhi, Nizammudin and Old Delhi Railway stations located in Delhi. The activities of the Railway Prayas team can be broadly categorized into three heads: Night Shelter Facilities Available at Sitarawali Gali, Ajmeri Gate, Nabhikarim and Motiakhan Rehabilitation facilities At Lahori Gate and Nabhikarim center. Repatriation Service- Through the Lahori Gate center (This is a legal center, registered with the CWC) Most of the centers are located in areas around the station, which house families in the lower class segment of society with low levels of literacy. These people are either averse or indifferent to the setting of Prayas centers in their neighborhood. Most families are not supportive and feel that the children dwelling in Prayas shelters may in turn have an impact on their children and families. Most children who work at the railway station stay in a group under the aegis of some senior males and they work as a nexus. These senior individuals are mostly part time employees of the Railways who clean the trains in odd shifts; these people had come to the station as children and had worked as rag pickers till the age of 18 years and post that started working as cleaners. They are the ones who find children at the station and lure them into the rag picking work by either making them habitual to drugs or by assuring a decent income. The railway Prayas team is finding it difficult to deal with these individuals, as they are the ones who are preventing other children from going along with the Prayas team. Though it is the endeavor of the Railway Prayas team to provide healthy and nutritious food to the children at the center and they do provide 4 meals a day, but what has been observed is that due to paucity of funds most meals constitute the same ingredients which might not be too healthy for some of the children as at some centers there are children as young as 6years old.

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RECOMMENDATIONS
After visiting all the centers under the Rail Prayas project we found out at that there are some areas which if looked upon might help better the services being provided and to achieve the objective of the mission. The entire Prayas Rail project has been funded by the Saga Trust, UK and it was observed that the trust had not released funds since the month of Nov, 2011. Under such a situation the Prayas team was finding it difficult to provide even the basic services to the children. To overcome such problems we suggest that all major expenses should be put under different heads like food, accommodation, clothing, and stationary. And rather than being dependent on a single sponsor, the pitching team can ask for funding from different sponsors for each of these heads. As most of the neighborhoods where Prayas centers are located, the residents are either indifferent or unaware about the benefits this program will make to the lives of these children. It may be useful if the Prayas team regularly carries out small community awareness drives where in it tries to inform the community about the work that is being carried out under the aegis of the Prayas Rail project. The project can be scaled further to cover other railway stations so that all arrival points in the city are covered. Furthermore it can be extended to other states as well where Prayas is active. Strengthening of approach to protect railway children through training programmes for Railway Protection Force, police personnel and organizing various seminars, networking meetings, discussions with Railway Authorities and other stakeholders.

CONCLUSION
During our association with the NGO, we observed the various efforts taken by the Prayas team to make ends meet for the Railway Prayas project. Despite funding constraints for this current project, the enthusiasm and the willingness of the team to work for the community is unparallel. The project faces several constraints and offers a lot of scope for improvement in many areas as per our recommendations. Most importantly the project requires a stable and sufficient funding source from the corporate/ UNICEF. But the efforts of the Prayas team to rehabilitate/repatriate an estimated half a million street children in the capital, many of whom live in desperate, dangerous conditions along the railway lines is undoubtedly commendable.

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ANNEXURES
Forms for admitting a child found on railway lines/station in the centres: 1. Order of Short term Placement pending- Before producing the child in front of CWC 2. Found Child form- Filled at the railway station by the Railway Prayas volunteers manning the booth at the railway stations Deck prepared on the Prayas Railway Childrens project to pitch for sponsorship for the project

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