Delhi-based civil society organisation Sshrishti, a finalist of the NGO Awards 2014, has been working for the city’s slum children for over a decade. Its founder and CEO Sanghamitra Bose expounds on the challenges ahead

Years of lop-sided development has made urban migration a common phenomenon in India and its glaring effect can be seen in the National Capital. The Census has put Delhi second on the list after Maharashtra. A direct impact of this massive migration from rural areas is the creation of slums. With no basic facilities available in such clusters, its residents, particularly the children, are some of the worst-served people.

Delhi-based civil society organisation Sshrishti has been working with 2000 such children for over 10 years now. Sshrishti also works with over 4000 children across Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Uttarakhand. Its endeavour to help deprived children join mainstream education through bridging programmes put it among the finalists of this year’s NGO Awards given by Resource Alliance along with Rockefeller Foundation and the Edelgive Foundation. Sanghamitra Bose, founder and CEO of Sshrishti, says the children it works with in Delhi are from the impoverished villages of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal, also Nepal. Excerpts from an email interview:

What is the biggest hurdle in achieving delivery of quality education to migrant children?

Sshrishti’s focus has been to bring quality education for early years to children of migrant workers living in our city’s slums and mainstream them after creating a solid foundation with value education and life-skill trainings. The problem faced is caused by the migratory lifestyle of the families. They keep shuttling between their native village and the city. The children miss schooling for protracted periods or study in village schools for a few months, which have abysmal standard. A huge gap slowly appears in their learning which in turn makes them drop out of the schooling system.

The issue is directly linked to massive urban migration. Do you feel the link is not stated as strongly in public, government or media discourse as it should be?

The ever-expanding slums in our metros are a testimony to massive migration in search of livelihood that is taking place from the impoverished villages to the cities. In the slums, migrant workers live without any civic amenities. The public and governmental apathy is evident. Most slum dwellers are given ration cards and nurtured as vote banks but the concern ends there. There is a very little public discourse on either taking steps to reverse the trend or giving them access to basic civic amenities and quality education for their children. More government and media focus is needed if the future of 7.6 million children living in our urban slums is to be secured.

Sshrishti has focused on computer education by setting up training centres for children. What is the aim behind this?

The aim behind focusing on computer education in villages and urban slums is to bridge the digital divide that exists between the underprivileged children and their more affluent peers. The marginalised children have no access to computers and for many, it is no more than a picture in their textbooks. They are excluded from the digital revolution that is sweeping the world. Sshrishti’s computer centres bring the digital experience to these children and teach them basics of computer operations. The students are made familiar with the functions of Microsoft Office and the internet.

How has the experience of working in rural areas been?

Unlike the children in slums, children in rural areas are rooted in their social and cultural landscape. Growing up in their extended families, they are more emotionally secure and have better value system. Rural children are eager to learn, to stretch their horizon and make the most of the resources offered to them. In urban slums, the children live a precarious life coping with their harsh surroundings, parental neglect and indifference of society at large to their plight. Therefore, they have to be handled with greater sensitivity and getting them used to the discipline of the schooling system is often a task. However, once they have gained confidence and get due attention, they are as eager learners as their rural peers.

What lies in the future?

Sshrishti is spreading its activities in rural and urban slums of Delhi and rural villages in Uttarakhand. There are plans to enlarge the scope of work to empower marginalised women, improve livelihood of the villages and, through better educational facilities and digital literacy, make them a part of modern progressive India.

NGO Awards 2014

Delhi Finalists

Sshrishti (New Delhi)

Deepalaya (Delhi)

Delhi Winners

Safe Life Foundation (New Delhi)

SOS Children’s Villages of India (New Delhi)