THEMATIC ISSUES

• Women Right and Child Right
• Health
• Education right
• Land rights and Livelihood (MNREGA)
• Legal issues (D.V act, RTI, land right etc).

Under the key issues on which the SKVS is focussing highly, education is one among those. The literacy rate in District Kushinagar is very low and worst if we talk about Musher community that’s why the number of Child labours is increasing rapidly day by day. Musahar community including dalits & some others of this area are totally illiterate. Since their previous many generations, the same condition is prevailing. Presently, the conditions of these communities are changing steadily. Recently, children had no connection with the mainstreamed education system but through rigorous efforts exerted by the organizations working for the betterment of these communities, they have started taking interest in matter affecting their development and becoming regular to attend the schools. The guardians and parents are also willing to provide good and quality education to their children for their better future opportunities.

Health condition of Dalit/ Musahara in District Kushinagar is also worst. Our organisation have currently implemented Rojgar Evam Swasthya Adhikar Pariyojna under the PACS programme in four blocks of two districts Kushinagar and Mahrajganj through which we are working in 206 villages covering 3725 households.

The below poverty line people are our target group therefore we are focusing for ensuring their right to livelihood. Under our projects, we are working on MNREGA with the community and we are enabling them to understand about the scheme and its various provisions.

Our organisation has organized trainings for capacity building on various issues like RTI, RTE, DV Act, MNREGA, PCPNDT Act & SC/ST Act at community level.

The organization has been implementing various activities for the purpose of capacity building & skill transfer to the Musahar/Dalit community since its inception. The target communities are living with very poor conditions of health, livelihood, education, discrimination, etc. Most of the people are unskilled & uneducated and lack assets to generate their living.

The women in the Musahar community do not have any right to the transfer of ownership of the land after the death of their parents of the husbands. The women are deprived of any Land holdings. The community is still following the tradition of Patriarchal system. The condition of the women in general in the partner community is poor due to patriarchal system where women have no control over any resources and decision making process. The women are not allowed to take any major decisions in the household and they have to follow the decisions of the male members. The women in the Musahar/Dalit community have no entitlements and are not permitted to have social interactions with their peers and relatives. Therefore they are not able to have access to education and are illiterate whereas the male members of the family have access to education and entitlements such as ownership of land, control of the family possessions. The women of these communities have very little information related to the community development schemes of the Govt and the schemes being implemented in the community such as JSY, MNREGA, SJSRY, SC/ST act.

Even though 80% of the women are involved in cultivation but they are not entitled to the rights of farmers. Usually women do all kind of agriculture work such as weeding, tilling, sowing, threshing and transplantation etc. They spend 6 to 7 hours for agriculture work. Besides this they are also responsible for household chores and other related responsibilities. The women engage in rest of time with their children’s care, cooking, cleaning of house and also look after their livestock. As the parents are landless labourers and are exposed to various kinds of discrimination they are not able to give proper attention to care of the children. The children are not allowed to have education as they are involved in the care of the siblings and helping their mothers in the daily chores of the living. Many of the parents have to go to labour in the fields or in the construction sites, the older children of the house are given the responsibility to care of the siblings. As the family income is less even they have to help the parents in their pursuit of livelihood. In the leisure time they are found playing in the streets. They even don’t have proper clothes to wear. The younger ones most of the do not have anything to cover themselves with and they walk with naked feet. The children in the community especially those in the adolescent stage are more exposed to physical and mental abuse by the peers and the older groups.

The place is infamous for traditional child marriage custom, children trafficking, and child labor. 70% of the total population falls below poverty line resulting large scale migration to cities for livelihood. Maximum cases of child trafficking are identified in this place, low income of family and poverty allows their daughter and children for child labour and working in the other place as a home servant. Many agents are keeping their eye on the poor families in the district to traffic the children in an organized way. Lack of awareness about child trafficked in the communities, whereas lot of children and adolescent girls buy and sell in the different big cities like Delhi, Mumbai & Calcutta.

This has given adverse effect on the education and development of the child as many children are forced to discontinue schooling. The situation has also lead to pushing children to work to support the family. Child marriage and trafficking are other outcomes. The situation of children is very pathetic; the physical abuse is inflicting physical injury upon children. This may include hitting, slapping, kicking, and beating or otherwise harming a child, physical abuse is very common in Indian families, schools, and work place and on the street. Boys and Girls both suffer from being physically abused. Physical abuse often becomes a part of sexual abuse and certainly leads to psychological and emotional adverse consequences for the child.

Organisation is constantly working with these oppressed children and women in this area.