Interesting and cud be ur destiny... pls read this fully.... pls do not neglect as usual.. coz I did the same for the first time..
The Redemption.
The words ‘Orphan’ and ‘Orphanage’ have been used far too often by the society in a wide plethora of contexts. The question now rises; to what good and to whose good? All the socially neglected, parentless, homeless and impoverished children of India will ask us the same question tomorrow if we remain indifferent today. And if the 12 crore odd underprivileged children of today challenge us tomorrow, would we have an answer? Is there a permanent solution in place that can challenge the obstacles of the present day and mould the children of today with education, social responsibility, righteousness and last but not the least, patriotism? What could be the permanent solution to provide upliftment, self-confidence, economic and social equality to these children? Do we not want our children to atleast become responsible humans, if not leaders of the future? Where is the redemption?
The solution is right in front of us and all we need to do is stop being oblivious to its presence and take a step in the right direction. All of the following, we believe, are a definitive step towards that end.
We hereby put forth our humble selves before all the State Governments and the Centre in order to make our proposal as below;
A ban on setting up of any new orphanages.
The governments should impose ban on establishment of any new ‘orphanages’ or destitute homes. The whole system of ‘providing shelter to destitute children’ has created or could create an opportunity of money making outside the interests on child welfare itself. It needs to be ensured that the money granted to these children is utilized to the fullest extent to the cause.
Convert existing Orphanages into schools with residential facilities.
The managements that run homes for destitute children should take the responsibility of rehabilitating such destitute children by providing proper education in recognized schools, if necessary, by opening schools under their own management.
The managements of destitute children homes which are not able to provide education in their own schools should transfer the maintenance and care of the destitute children, to the schools which come forward to give residential accommodation and proper education.
A School based upbringing
Each affluent school should give residential life for atleast 25-30 abandoned and destitute children, with their existing level of facilities or by constructing new residential facilities. These children should be given the same kind of education as the other children in the school. These schools must make provisions for the homeless children to study along with the other children during school hours and reside in the same place after school hours. This must be made as a pre-condition before granting permission for establishment of new schools.
Parents/Guardians who deny basic education to their children should be counseled and instructed on child education. Any non-compliance to the system should be treated as an offence against law and due penalty awarded.
Humanitarian studies should be made compulsory in the curriculum from primary to University education.
Every school or every few schools should have a dedicated medic/nurse, a child psychiatrist and a sociologist, who would serve in the above mentioned functions for the entire school and also as caretakers for the residential children. Girl children have to be taken care of women caretakers only. Also a committee of five should be setup at the school level comprising of socially responsible parents of the children studying in the school. The committee would act as a supervisory body at the local level and interact with the residential children on a frequent basis and support the caretakers in the process.
Mandatory provision should be made to insist that those applying for opening new schools should set apart 5% of the admission strength, to give free education with residential facility to rehabilitate destitute children.
Single-Window system for Funds Channeling.
A single-Window system should be introduced to distribute the child welfare funds to schools directly and thus replace the existing system of disbursements through multiple channels.
Social Responsibility for all people below poverty line.
A very disturbing fact is that over 90% of the Children in destitute homes have either or both parents and have been abandoned by them owing to a lot of factors. This especially is not uncommon with people living below the poverty line. So where lies the problem? The lack of social responsibility.
Any parent deliberately trying to abandon a child in an ‘Orphanage’ or a destitute home should be punishable by law. Government should enact laws to follow up on guardian less single mothers in order to ensure the proper upbringing of the child. This could, in a good way prove to increase the social responsibility among the poor masses.
Reservations for NGOs.
In order to ensure the highest possible efficiency of the scheme Non Governmental Organizations with over 10 years of experience in Humanitarian work should be granted representation in the State legislative assembly and the Parliament. Selected NGOs will have atleast 1% representation in the parliamentary committee by means of their responsibilities as Members of Legislative Assembly and the Parliament. The MPs/MLAs will represent the children under the scheme and voice their considerations on behalf of the children. They will ensure the right disbursements and expenditure of funds, proposing demands for more funds in needed sectors, curbing of any unlawful or untoward handling of funds or the scheme itself and outlining measures for further streamlining of the existing system.
Ref: Response letter from The Government of India, Ministry of Women and Child Development, CW Section; F.No. 2-17/2006-CW dated 7th June 2006.
Despite the hope these suggestions provide, one needs to admit that these are not without a downside; the primary downside being the problems with implementation. The major implementation problems are twofold, one being administrative and the other monetary. However, having foreseen the problems the following solutions have been drafted to address the issues.
Administrative system:
The major hurdle is that the schools could face tremendous difficulties in terms of selecting the helpless children in order to integrate with its own. It is not an easy task to identify and allocate each and every child into various grades.
All ‘homeless’ children currently studying in various schools and taking shelter in various ‘orphanages’ can without problem just be transferred to a residential facility of the school. However the major issue arises only with parentless children who have not had any education or impoverished children who have had to discontinue their education owing to family situations.
A separate committee needs to be set up in order to identify these children and counsel them in order to determine the level of competence required to enter each grade. Children found satisfactory of entering any particular grade should be granted admissions into that grade and should continue to be educated from there on. This committee will determine the overall intelligence level of the child and its suitability to enter any given grade based on the recommendations of each and every school. This is done in order to avoid too much of age difference among children of the same grade.
For children from 6-14 years of age who have not had any kind of education the situation is addressed in an entirely different methodology. All children that are recovered from various child labours and children who have not had any kind of education should all be brought under a different educational system. A separate curriculum should be drafted for all children under this category who fall under the age group 6-14. This special curriculum drafted specifically for the needs of these children would comprise of a concise and easy to understand version of all syllabi from Grade One through Ten. This would include all compulsory subjects like English, Regional languages, Hindi, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and Humanity Studies, apart from Moral Instructions and General Awareness. Participation in NSS or NCC should be made compulsory for these children. In addition to these, the children should be given vocational training that could enable them to be self-sustaining once they have finished their basic compulsory education scheme. Compulsory participation in sports and training could one day make them great sportspersons too. This educational system will function as a separate entity under the supervision of a committee empowered by the State Governments.
Advantages of this System:
Increases employment opportunities for youth. The positions for a number of teachers, counseling consultants, administrative posts, vigilance teams etc could offer great opportunities for employment with the State Government.
The basic compulsory way of education and the kind of subjects included pave way for a righteous life for the children. Under the guidance of the schools or committee the children can grow into responsible citizens of the future with a mindset for serving the country and the humanity.
The residential way of life and humanity studies inculcates a sense of discipline in the lives of the children.
The problem of child labour would have a definitive solution.
Disadvantages of the System:
Implementation on a large scale requires a lot of time, labour and money.
Monetary System:
Since the project would be resource intensive, channeling and maintaining funds would be another major obstacle. The following proposals address the issues to that end.
A single Window System needs to be implemented for this cause. All funds pertaining to child welfare like funds from UNICEF, World Bank, Foreign and Local Corporates, Private Donations and Government funding etc should all be channeled through a single body responsible for the entire administration of this residential schooling system. The National body would have its branches in every state and Union Territory of India and be the topmost administrative center in this regard. This body will also oversee the funds disbursement for comprehensive education system that functions as a separate entity.
A separate ‘Children Welfare Investment Fund’ could be initiated, that could attract capital from the general public. For example, a one time payment such as Rs. 50,000 could be accepted from service minded public and can be invested in stocks of all Large Capitalization government and Private Organizations and also Blue chip companies. The resulting returns could be split in half between the investor and the Child Education Body. This amount could be used for infrastructure maintenance, tuition fees and health expenses of the children. Each school or set of schools should have a financial officer responsible for the monetary well being of the scheme and would be a member of the body.
All educational trusts and Corporates should contribute atleast 1% of their profits towards this good. Any educational trust that is forthcoming in providing residential facilities and education to the destitute and impoverished children should be exempted from the contribution. Also all such cooperating schools should be rewarded on an annual basis depending on the quality of their process.
Advantages of this System:
Fast and efficient channeling of funds to the required places.
Reduces slippage of money that could happen through a multi channel system.
Pooling in people’s/ corporate money reduces the burden on the government.
Makes the investors themselves take special interest in the well being of the functioning of the system.
Disadvantages of this system:
Initial investment on infrastructure could be high which could cause a higher budget allocation for education at the centre.
People’s investment amount may be locked for a period of 3 years only after which it would be returned back to them.
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