Annual Project Report(English)

1st April 2014 to 31st March 2015

Date

29-May-2015

Author

Dr V Rukmini Rao and K Sumalatha with support from

Gramya staff team Ramu, Lalitha, Student/Teacher
Volunteers, Shanti, A Renuka, A Saritha, N Jyothi.

Project/
Programmatic
Cooperation

Children at Risk Programme

Organization

Gramya Resource Centre for Women

Country of
implementation

India

Project Nr.

71-02-03-033

Period covered

1st April 2014 to 31st March 2015

Progress Monitoring Protocol

Please provide monitoring data according to the Monitoring Protocol on both

output and outcome level, on milestones (if any were defined), and other
issues that were agreed upon in the contract (e.g. finance, PMEL,
governance).
Briefly comment on these data regarding progress and noticeable issues.

This year is the beginning of a significant turning point in Gramyas efforts to

promote girl child rights/child rights and start preparing the community to play
an active part in demanding services to improve school education and protect
child rights. Special efforts are made to orient the community, women and men
to shed their gender bias and support girl child survival, development,
protection and participation. We are making special efforts to inform and involve
district education officials as well as other district officials to take forward the
agenda of child rights. We have met with several successes but continue to face
challenges due to poverty conditions in which the Lambadi community,
backward caste and dalit community continue to live in. Another challenge is to
orient government officials so that they do not see us as enemies when we
point out the ground situation of non functioning schools or absent teachers.
The media is supportive of the work done by Gramya and reports our local
activities. On the other hand, the general anti-NGO sentiment generated in the
country is bound to impact our work. We maintain friendly relationship with the
media and demand accountability and accurate reporting of our work.
A major change in the environment is the formation of Telangana state on June
1st 2014. This led to disturbance in government functioning with the distribution
of staff to the two states. The movement for separate Telangana created hard
feelings among people from the two regions including government staff. The
after effects continue to be felt even now since the cadre division is underway.
With officials unsure of their postings, little work is being done. Though the
teaching community is mainly local, the overall disturbance due to bunds and
closures of government offices for several months affected all of us. However
the situation is improving now.
This report will outline our achievements to date in relation to the monitoring
indicators and will further discuss the process followed by Gramya to achieve
our results.
Milestones
Indicator 1:
March 31st 2015
87 primary, upper primary, high schools and residential hostels will be
monitored to prevent child dropouts turning into child labor.

We have achieved our target of monitoring the 87 schools in the area.

We have monitored the 8 high schools and 7 residential hostels in the
Chandampet mandal. We have interacted with the schools and the children to
discuss child rights and be available in case they wanted to report problems. In
each of the schools we have provided our staff telephone numbers in case girls
are being coerced into marriage. In addition, we have monitored 31 primary
schools as a result of which we could identify dropout children. 72 children have
been re-enrolled in schools and prevented from child labor. In total, 87 schools
are monitored to date.
Due to drought conditions in the region, migration to other districts has
increased. People who did not migrate earlier were forced to leave their farms
due to lack of rainfall. Many of the families took their children in school along
with them. Unfortunately, since the school administration did not want to
acknowledge that children on their roles had migrated, we could not gather
information. The children returned to school and have written their exams.
Gramya is continuously working with the Child Protection Committees and
urging them to ensure that all out of school children are enrolled in school. Our
workshop details were reported in the local newspaper. In the current year, we
will make special efforts to address the issue and take up discussions with
school principals and the Mandal Education Officers. It may be noted that this is
an ongoing process.

Chandampet mandal due to its location suffers neglect. Our ongoing efforts to
alert the community to demand services and our interactions with the media
have highlighted the problems in the area. Regular Newspaper reports are
highlighting the problem of teacher absenteeism and other problems related to
school functioning. The following media report is an example.

Eenadu Newspaper Friday 31st October 2014

The District Education Officer Mr Chandra Sekhar visited Chandampet Mandal
and the Newspapers highlighted the problem of absent teachers

Namaste Telangana 20th October 2014

Campaign to prevent child labor conducted by Gramya School age children
should be back in school

Indicator 2
With this funding, what percentage of qualified teachers teaching in schools
where the partner intervenes. Target -10 in 2017
Due to the implementation of Right to Education (RTE) Act, the state
government has withdrawn all teachers without qualification and only trained
teachers are teaching in the schools. This has also had an unfortunate effect
that some schools are short of teachers. Gramya has provided nine additional
teachers with support from Aide-et-Action in 9 schools in this area. The teachers
are provided training by Gramya and the services of Ms Mangala, a trained
teacher from the International School in Hyderabad has been providing the
inputs. The government of Telangana is planning to undertake an exercise of
rationalizing schools in the state. There is a plan to shut down schools with less
than 19 children. In Chandampet mandal, 49 such schools have been identified.
If this strategy is implemented, the poorer and smaller villages/Thandas will
suffer the consequence. Civil Society Organizations are discussing how to tackle
the emerging problem. Gramya plans to take up the issue with the local MLA.
Milestones 2015
Indicator 2:
100 adolescent girls enabled through education and skill development
Gramya made special efforts to reach out to all adolescent girls in schools and
residential hostels in the Chandampet mandal. This was done in view of
informal reports from the community that adolescent girls suffered health
problems due to lack of menstrual hygiene. Through our outreach programme,
we provided information on health, menstrual hygiene and child rights. We
oriented the adolescent girls to report sexual harassment at school or within the
family. We distributed booklets on the subject to all the schools. Our outreach
has been extensive and we were able to reach out to 1852 girls. While this has
been the first effort we will continue to keep in touch. Six girls residing at the
bridge school are learning tailoring skills.
It is a challenge to help the girls to develop useful skills which will enable them
to earn an income. We have provided life skills so that they can negotiate safe
spaces at home as well as at school.
Case study:
Name: Nenavath Revathi
Caste: ST Lambada
Village: Kattakommu Thanda, Devarkonda Mandal
Revathi was enrolled in Gramya bridge school when her little sister was rescued by us. Her
parents Suvvi and Balram had sold the baby. Revathis mother Suvvi was financially supported by

Gramya as well as the District Administration. Suvvi has five daughters and one son who are all in
school now. Revathi moved on from the bridge school to Chandampet residential hostel and
completed class X. Her parents got her married secretly during the summer holidays. This was a
child marriage since Revathi was only 15 years old. This matter was registered with the Police
and by counselling the parents, husband and the in-laws it was agreed that Revathi would be
allowed to study further. She is now continuing her studies and is completing Intermediate second
year. Revathis husband and in-laws have agreed to educate her further. This case study
highlights the difficulties, girls face in the region. The Child Marriage Act terms the marriage as
illegal but does not make it null and void. This is supposed to protect the girls from abandonment.
However the girls are placed in a very difficult situation. Due to Gramya intervention, we were
able to bring Revathi back to College. It may be noted that Suvvi was supported by Gramya and
all her children studied in the bridge school and are now continuing their education in the
Government hostels. In spite of regular interaction with all of us, she was still under pressure to
get her eldest daughter married early, since she has five daughters.
Update: Revathi is now enrolled in a vocational training programme to quality as an Office
Assistant

Adolescent girls in the area face several problems. Due to poverty, they are not
able to continue their higher education. Parents usually support boys to go to
university while the girls are expected to work at home or are married off as
soon as they complete high school. At college, there are many cases where girls
are trapped with declarations of love and face pregnancy and social censure.
Gramya has been discussing this issue in colleges regularly. To bring about long
term change, we have started working with MKR Government College with the
women empowerment cell. This year we have already conducted two
programmes on human rights and women and law.
Women's Rights are Human Rights at MKR College, Devarkonda

While adolescent girls continue to struggle for identity and justice within their
families and society, they face an uphill task to assert their rights since they
have no means to support themselves.
On 27th January 2015, Gramya provided training to girls enrolled in Anand
Bharathi School, Secunderabad for children of domestic workers. Dr Suhasini,
Board Member Gramya and Dr Rukmini Rao interacted with 14 adolescent girls
in the school. Dr Suhasini provided inputs on health and hygiene and the need

for consuming nutritious food. Rukmini Rao shared her life story and
experiences of many rural girls who were struggling for education and a better
life. The young students shared their life stories. They are planning to visit the
Gramya Bridge School for an exchange programme.
Rukmini gave a lecture at the Vignan Jyothi Institute of Management, Hyderabad
on 19th and 20th December 2014 on Promoting an entrepreneurial ecosystem in
India. The lecture was to motivate students to take up activities in the social
sector. More than 200 girls and boys attended the lecture.
On February 9th, 2015, Rukmini reached out to 1500 young women at Keys
College, Secunderabad. While she was the Chief Guest, she used the
opportunity to promote One Billion Rising Campaign to prevent violence against
women. She also stressed the need to reach out to deprived community in our
society.

Indicator 3:
Target 10 schools to improve their functioning together with their SMCs and
teachers
By regular contact with School Management Committees (SMCs) in the area, we
have set up a SMC forum in Chandampet Mandal. In Bugga Thanda, Gramya
volunteer who earlier worked in the school has taken over as the President of
the SMC. He was able to organize improvement of infrastructure by building a
compound wall for the school as well as toilets. This is a notable achievement.
In other schools we found that SMC members voice was not heard by the school
Principal. The school Principals often claimed that SMC members were not
interested in supporting the school. The forum was organized since we found
that SMC members could not take very effective action at the village level. The
forum in collaboration with SMC members will survey the status of schools once
again to take up issues with the district administration in June-July 2015.
Formation of SMC Forum for Chandampet Mandal on November 30 th 2014

A SMC forum has also been set up in Devarkonda Mandal in 2014-15. Gramya
proposes to work with the forum in the coming year.
To improve the quality of reading and writing in school, Gramya has promoted
reading clubs in 6 residential hostels and 7 upper primary schools 7 high
schools. (List of schools available with Gramya). 1600 girls and boys are
participating in the programme. Teacher from the respective schools identified
that children were not referring to books on science subjects. They felt this was
a hindrance to further learning. To begin with, Gramya staff are organizing the
clubs and ensuring that children spend some time reading the books available
in the school library. 80 clubs are formed.
Indicator 5
Number of child labor identified and rescued and back in school. Target 285
This year we have already mainstreamed 98 girls who were rescued in the
previous year. In addition, 72 children who were identified through the
government survey are now back in school. This year Gramya decided not to
enrol younger children (unless in very difficult circumstances) in the bridge
school. 52 most vulnerable girls identified by us are now in the school. 13 young
women who were earlier child labor are continuing in colleges. Two girls
studying teacher training have requested enrolment at the bridge school and
they will continue college education at the HRD college. Total children back in
school by December: 237.
At the end of January, we found that there were several families from Bihar who
were questioned by the Police in Devarkonda. These families had migrated to
Devarthpalli village to work on a poultry farm. We discovered 11 boys and 6
girls who were out of school. These children could not be enrolled in regular
school because they spoke only Hindi. As a stop gap arrangement, Gramya has
provided a teacher to continue their education at their homes (informal school).
A total of 17 children are receiving education bringing the number of children in
school to 254.

In addition, one boy is studying with us. Sachins family had migrated to a brickkiln in Chandampet from Mehaboob Nagar district. While the parents were
working making bricks, Sachin was sent to work in the agriculture fields picking
cotton earning Rs 75 a day. He was identified by Gramya staff and is enrolled
with us. Since he came to us in the middle of the school year, we will coach him
and enrol him in a government hostel at the beginning of the school year in June
2015.
I love my school
My name is Sachin, and I am 12 yrs old. I lived in Thimmapur village and I am studying in the
4th class. I was brought to the bridge school since I was just playing around. I love my school, as
it has a good playground and also many colourful story books to read in the library. I am learning
poems,
songs
and
arithmetic
in
my
school.
Sachin and Jyothi in the Bridge School

Sachins elder sister, aged 17 yrs goes to work along with her parents. Sachin and his younger
sister, Jyothi both are now enrolled in the bridge school. Sachin is in 4th class and Jyothi in 1st
class. Last month, Sachins father Mr Mariyanna, visited the school and said, my children are
happily studying in the school and are looking very healthy.

Indicator 3
With this funding how many cases of joint actions to support Education for All.
Target 23 in 2017
Gramya continues its efforts to work with different sections of society to ensure
education for all. In 12 cases, individual SMC members have identified out of
school children and helped us to enrol them back in school. In 50 villages, we
have collaborated closely with Self Help Groups (SHGs), Panchayat Ward
Members, SMCs and Child Protection Committee (CPC) members. We will
continue to work with individual schools and up to date we have worked with 46
schools.
In February 2015, Gramya staff attended a workshop conducted by ICCO/MVF.
This gave orientation to staff and allowed them to compare strategies used by
Gramya and MVF.
2

What went well and what didnt

Write a reflective analysis of one or two examples of cases that went very
well

Gramya has successfully set up Child Protection Committees in 25 villages of

Chandampet mandal and 25 villages of Devarkonda Mandal. This has been
possible due to the close relationship with SHG groups and by motivating
Anganwadi workers to join the committees. The village Sarpanchs in many
cases as well as ward members have joined the committees. After Gramya
initiated this process in 2013, we started consolidating the work in 2014. The
district has appointed a Child Protection Officer as per the new legislation.
Gramya has established a good rapport with the Child Protection Officer who
joined us to celebrate Child Rights Day on October 27 2014.
Celebrating Child Rights Day

Right to Left: Child Protection Officer, Assistant Project Director, ICDS, Executive Director, Pilupu
Organization and Mandal Education Officer
Success stories from Child Protection Committees
The Child Protection Committees in Kattakommu Thanda and Mosanagadda Thanda have internalized the
notion of Child Rights. The members of the committee have been alert and brought information to Gramya
of the sale of girl babies in the two villages. Gramya was able to intervene immediately and demand return
of the babies. Police help was sought. Both the babies were returned to the families. While Nenavath
Sunitha and her husband refused to take responsibility for the child and handed it over to the government
crche, Kousalya and Swamy from Mosangadda Thanda decided to take care of their daughter. We feel that
this is a significant development. The community has internalized the notion of being child protectors.

Celebrating International Womens Day

Working with District NGOs to promote child rights

And a reflective analysis of a case that turned out to be less successful or

even a failure
We had identified 7 working girls from Building Thanda, Chinta Chettu
Thanda, Mallepally and Gowrikunta Thanda. The girls were from the ST
Lambadi community and were working as agriculture labor picking cotton.
While the parents agreed to send their children due to our persuasion, the
children aged between 10 and 11 years could not adjust to be in the bridge
school. They were with us for 2 weeks and were extremely distressed. For
the moment we have sent them back home and are in the process of
persuading them to come back again. Four out of seven children were taken
back by their parents because they felt enormous loss of income. We will
track these children and bring them back to school as early as possible.
A major planned activity Seasonal Hostels could not be carried out. This
was to identify children in school who are migrating along with their families
for two to six months in a year to neighbouring districts. In the past, several
attempts were made in the state of AP to identify migrating children and
keep them in seasonal hostels. Two years ago, NGOs across the state had
worked together but due to several problems the state government has not
paid the NGOs for the work done. Now the government refuses to
acknowledge that children from school are migrating for long periods. At the
local level, we had identified such children and sent them into government
hostels in Polyanaik Thanda as reported earlier. However, this year the
district administration as well as School Principals are refusing to
acknowledge the problem. We could not convince the schools or community
members to keep their children back. One of the reasons for this is also short
staffing in Gramya. In spite of our best efforts, we could not find appropriate
local staff this year. However, we plan to take up this interventions
(preventing migration of children) next year with adequate planning. We are

reviewing our strategies to strengthen our interventions within the

community.
3

Lessons learned

Please reflect on the most important lessons learned in the reporting period.
Staff members meet once a month to discuss the work they have carried out
and how to improve effectiveness as well as outreach. We find that community
members become active only when the staff develop very close relationships
and understanding of the situation. This is a slow process. This year staff
members have undergone several trainings on issues related to Right to work,
Right to Education and Right to Information. They need further support to learn
mobilization skills, ability to interact with community leaders, talk to the press
and deal with government officials with confidence.
The lack of educated youth in the villages to act as volunteers or staff, hinders
the development of the programme. Most educated youth are leaving villages
to migrate to Hyderabad city.
While Gramya has been working in the area for a long time, our visibility has
increased considerably this year due to conscious efforts to report problems in
the area and all the ongoing work implemented through our programmes. This
has created goodwill among the community and press which widely reports our
activities. The other side of the coin is that local government officials feel that
we are strong critiques and are reluctant to acknowledge ground problems.
As mentioned earlier, the new State Government has plans to close down
schools which have less than 19 children. This is likely to impact the most
disadvantaged Lambadi Thandas in remote locations negatively. This is being
done under the banner of rationalization. It is reported that 219 schools are due
for closure in Nalgonda District. We hope the SMCs will be able to struggle to
ensure that this does not take place. We feel strongly the need for a state level
forum.
Staff Review Meeting

.
The need for good education is felt widely in the community. The poor
functioning of government schools has led to a demand for private school.
Seventeen private schools are running in Chandampet and Devarkonda
mandals. Many of the schools are backed by government teachers and staff
from education department. This has led to a new problem. Parents send
their sons to private schools and daughters to under resourced government
schools. In addition, when they cannot afford to pay the fee the children
suffer because they are punished. This once again results in dropouts. The
RTE providing 25% free seats in class I is not being followed. We feel local
research studies may help to understand the situation better.
Adolescent working girls continue to be the most vulnerable since they have
few avenues to learn skills. We are continuing our discussions with the
community to find ways to empower girls. These girls who are 14+ are likely
to be another generation of women at risk. We need to find ways to make
them literate through short courses since RTE Law does not apply to them.
The year ended on a good note with our work recognized by The Week
magazine. Rukmini was recognized as Woman of the Year. A second
recognition followed L'Oreal, Paris Femina Women Awards 2015 for Social
Impact.

OD Process
The first step in the OD process was taken with the staff members reflecting on the
values promoted by Gramya. The exercise was facilitated by two consultants Mohan
Krishna and Surendra Nath from Wassan. They volunteered their services. As per
the agreement, additional case studies are provided. The report of the process is
provided below:

An Organizational Development journey with Gramya

Report by Mohan Krishna and Surendra Nath
Gramya comprises of a group of 7 women development activists who along with women community leaders receive support from a network of
activists and organizations to promote women's rights, child rights and farmer rights in Telangana state focus on Nalgonda and Khammam
Districts.Gramya has an office at Hyderabad and a field centre in Nalgonda District at Devarakonda.
Nalgondaarea is semi-arid with extremely under-developed resources. Gramya largely works for community living in lambada tribal hamlets of
Chandampet and Devarkondamandals of Nalgonda district. The farmers here risk growing cotton (cash crop) get into in a debt trap and are
forced to migrate for half the year putting at risk their children's education and health, this despite the National Rural Employment Guarantee
Scheme that guarantees 100 days of employment per family.
The Gramyateam at Nalgondaworks onsecuring the rights of women and girls, especially to confront violence at the household and community
levelwhile addressing female infanticide and the sale of girl babies. In addition, Gramya seeks to improvethe livelihoods of women and their
families through access to credit through self-help initiatives.
At a larger level Gramya works on strengthening healthcare systems to ensure women's reproductive rights and engage with the state for
proper enforcement of various programs, schemes, policies and legislations
Introduction
Mr. Mohan Krishna of WASSAN was requested by Dr. RukminiRao of Gramyato understand and identify key internal change interventions that
would help Gramya. To begin with a visit was made to the Gramya Field Centre at Deverakonda bya team of Mohan Krishna, RukminiGaru,
Sumalatha and Surendra of WASSAN to interact with key staff of Gramya working with the Devarakonda Centre on 7 th February 2015.
The meeting was for a full day with the Gramya Team comprising of 13 staff members. This is a report of the proceedings of the one day
meeting along with recommendations and suggested further steps.
Step I: Introductions
The participants were given the following guiding questions to introduce themselves:
1. Name / No. of years in Gramya
2. 1 thing unique about Gramya
3. What do we want to happen at the end of the day?
The questions were to introduce themselves, share their own perceptionabout GRAMYA as an organization and expectations they have from
the meeting.
Out of the 13 members from Gramya who
participated in the meeting 8 are less than 1 year
experience in Gramya, 3 are more than 1 and less
than 5 years, 2 are more than 5 and below 10 years.
The diversity therefore in terms of experience is
more. There were 2 men among the group.
Predominantly the participants answered that the
role and the uniqueness of Gramya is to protect the
Girl Child and provide them support to grow. The
collective expectation of the participants was to learn new perspectives and develop better understanding of their own work.
Step II: UNDERSTANDING GRAMYA: Who is where in GRAMYA
Using the Metaphor of the Human Body to understand Gramya
The participants were divided into 2 groups.
Both groups were given the exercise with the following instructions:
1. Draw the shape of a Human Body
2. Divide it into 3 sections
a. Head to Neck (Section 1)
b. Neck to Navel

(Section 2)
Navel to Feet
(Section 3)
3. In each section name about 3 / 4 parts
4. Name the function of each of these parts in each section and who performs these functions in Gramya
The exercise was to understand from the perception of the participants Who is Where in the organization and Who performs or identifies with
which role in Gramya.
c.

The groups presented the results of the exercise given below with the remarks by the facilitator.
Section
Group 1
Group 2
Remarks by Facilitator
(Team of Junior
(Team of Senior Members)
Members)
Head to Neck
The two groups perceived their roles differently and in

Rukmini (Brain)

Rukmini (Brain)
some cases there are common points. Both are valuable

Ramu (Eyes)

Suma (Eyes)

PeddaPillalu-School

Kasamma and Madhavi to understand from a diversity

What is differently perceived:
Supervisors
(Ears)

Ramu, Chiiti and Anjali

Role of the supervisors and children in Gramya is

(Mouth)
articulated by the Junior team and not mentioned by
Neck to Navel

Suma (Heart)

Rukmini (heart)
the senior team

Sponsors

Government,

Rukmini and Suma are seen in the role of the Brain

Madhavi,
Campaigns,
and Heart resplyby the junior team while Rukmini is

Anjaneyulu

Other Organisations,
seen as both the Brain and heart by the senior team

Chitti
Ramu,

Suma
What is commonly perceived:
Navel to Feet

Lakshmamma,

Lakshmamma,

Rukmini is seen as the brain by both groups a

Keli

Keli
decision making and direction giving function in

ChinnaPillalu Gramya
School Children

Lakshmamma and Keli as the feet for support and

Village People
movement of Gramya

Group 1 Presentation

Group 2 Presentation

Step III: UNDERSTANDING GRAMYAValues

The participants were first given the task of identifying the core values of Gramya
through an exercise. In this exercise the participants were made into three groups.
Each group was asked to remember one incident over the past one year where
there was a major sense of achievement and one incident where there was a
conflict situation. The participants were asked to remember the experience and
discuss it in the group moderated by one person within the group. The groups
facilitated by the moderator were to share with up to 3 different values they could
identify that were either upheld by Gramya or not upheld by Gramya during the
course of these experiences.
The groups presented at the plenary and the complete list of values based on
experience is as follows:
1. Women and Men are equal
2. Maintaining equality
3. Team Work
4. Transparency
5. Democratic Right
6. Participation
As a continuation to this exercise the groups were asked to draw the metaphor of a tree and write down 4 core values of Gramya that are
minimum, common to all and non-negotiable in Gramya as the roots. Any word does not any meaning unless it is seen in practice for if values
are practiced then the values exist otherwise they do not and there must me a coherence between the word and the practice.
The groups were then asked to name for each value 3 / 4 things that is practiced in Gramya in connection with that value. For example,
punctuality would have a connection with accountability as a core value.
The groups worked on the Gramya Value Tree and presented it at the plenary.

The participants were later as homework asked to put it all together make one Common
Gramyatreefrom among the results of the three groups.
Step IV: Trust Walk Understanding Leadership building in Gramya
The exercise was carried out to understand the importance and significance of being a leader and to demonstrate leadership in order to sustain
the work of Gramya in the long-term.

The participants were made into pairs. One partner from each pair was blindfolded and the person who is not blindfolded was supposed to
lead the person who is blindfolded for approx.5 mins. This was reversed and the other partner was blindfolded and made to do the same.
After the exercise the group was asked how they felt in two aspects when leading and when being led.
Some of the responses presented and the processing of it is shared below:

Fear to walk without knowing the path Therefore how much Vision is important for a leader and leadership

Fear in taking responsibilities on knowing paths along with them Therefore leadership is about taking responsibilities not just having
power

Over Confidence in support partner

Lack of trust in support partner - As a leader it is important to build trust in each other and in order to build trust it is important for a leader
to have and to inculcate 3 basic ingredients in Gramya Demonstrate concern for each other and for its stakeholders, Maintain integrity
and demonstrate results consistently in coherence with its values and objectives.

Constraints on obstacles in walk As a leader to be aware of the pitfalls that occur constantly in carrying out the vision

The OD exercise helped to

cement relationships among
the staff members and created a strong team spirit. This exercise will be taken
forward in the coming months with the Board Members.
Additional Case Studies
Chilkuri Namitha on the Way to School

Namitha is from Thimmapuram Village, Chandampet Mandal. Her parents

Lingamma and Lingaiah are from dalit community considered to be
untouchables in the village. They are extremely poor and do not own any
land or productive asset. They were living in a hut and are now in the
process of building a house with support from government funds. The
house is half built since they have to first invest the money in the house

which is reimbursed by the government. This is a long process. To increase

their income and find adequate work, the family migrates to Guntur
annually in search of work. Both Lingamma and Lingaiah work on cotton
and chilli farms picking cotton and chilli. They spend four to five months
every year in Guntur living in difficult conditions on the fields where they
work.
The parents discriminate between the son and daughter. The son is
enrolled in a private school where fee has to be paid. While they are
willing to do this, they were unwilling to give the same opportunity to
their daughter Namitha. Namitha was enrolled in the government day
school and was forced to accompany the parents when they migrated to
Guntur. She was out of school for several months in a year and due to this,
her learning was also limited. She was extremely hurt that her brother
went to school while she was out of school. Namitha is talented and
excellent at drawing.
Gramya volunteer, Kashamma identified Namitha as a drop out. She
persuaded the parents to bring Namitha and enrol her in the bridge
school. Namitha came to the bridge school in October 2014 and was
extremely shy. After coaching at the bridge school, she was enrolled in the
government day school at Devarkonda. In 2015 March, she completed
Class V. Gramya teachers provided additional coaching to Namitha and
helped her to write an entrance exam to join the Government Residential
Hostel.
Namitha has passed her exams and will now join class VI when the new
school year begins in June 2015. This will ensure that her education and
other living expenses will be taken care off till she completes class X. Her
life will not be disrupted if her parents migrate for work. She can look
forward to continuing her higher education in future. In her own words, I
am very happy that I came to the bridge school. Now that I have passed
my hostel entrance exams, I can continue to be in school just like my
brother. I want to become a teacher when I grow up. Namithas life is
transformed with this new opportunity.
Renuka, an athlete and potential protector of the Law

Renuka with her Trophies

Renuka comes from a dalit family. She is from Pasamvari Gudem village,
Gurrampodu mandal, Nalgonda district. She is the youngest in the family
and has three elder brothers and two sisters. The family of eight members
lived together as a joint family in one room with a tin roof. Though the
family had two acres of land these were sold away to marry off her two
sisters. Renuka was put out to work as a bonded labor taking care of
goats. When she was a little older, her two sisters and the family migrated
and took Renuka out of school. The family migrated to Aadhram to pick
cotton. Renuka was not sent to school by her parents due to gender
discrimination in the family and as a child she herself was not interested
in going to school. However when the family insisted that she should work
in a cotton mill, she refused. At this time, Prema Latha, studying in
Gramya Bridge School identified Renuka and brought her to the bridge
school 8 years ago.
Renuka was a quick learner when she applied her mind. Within two years,
she was able to complete her class VII syllabus and passed her exams.
Gramya helped her to get admission into the Kasturbha Residential
School, Narayanpur to continue high school. After completing high school,
she returned home and was not allowed to continue her studies. Her
mother sent her out to do daily wage work and she was earning Rs 50 a
day. The family discriminates against girls and they are continuing to
educate their sons.
When Renuka was at home, she was bitten by a Snake and became very
sick. Fortunately she recovered and was working as a daily wage earner.
However she was keen to continue her education and sought help from
Sumalatha, Coordinator, Gramya. Sumalatha visited her home and
counseled her mother and brothers and encouraged them to allow her to
study. She completed her Intermediate education with difficulty and failed
her English exams. Gramya arranged for her to have English coaching and
now she has completed her Intermediate and is now studying Commerce
(Bcom III Year).

Renuka is an excellent sports woman and has won many prizes in

athletics. She is training to be a boxer and her wish is to become a
Constable. From being an illiterate Coolie, Renuka is on her way to
becoming a citizen aware of her rights. She is supportive of anyone who
needs help.

Testimonial from Director

This year 1st April 2014 to 31st March 2015, Children at Risk Programme has seen many
successes and challenges. We are happy to report that we had planned for five panchayats
to become child labor free. We have achieved this in four panchayats. When the school year
begins in June, we will once again campaign to ensure that all children in the community go
back to school and we achieve our planned results this year.
To ensure implementation of Right to Education and recognizing the government as a duty
bearer, we have encouraged community members to send their children to government
schools. Though our bridge school has a capacity to house 100 children, we were successful
in limiting this number to 55 and enrolling most children in their village school. Children from
extremely vulnerable families came to us.
We had planned to work with 100 adolescent girls to give them life skills. We were able to
reach out to 1852 adolescent girls in 20 government schools in the area. They were provided
training on menstrual hygiene, child rights and how to seek help in case of sexual
harassment or push to child marriage. We successfully stopped a child marriage in Chitriyala
village. We could not reach out to all the out of school adolescent girls. These are girls in the
age group of 14 to 16 who already earn their livelihoods through wage labor. We are
exploring possibilities to provide basic literacy to such girls.
Gramya has successfully set up 25 Child Rights Committees of community members. The
committees comprise women leaders from Self Help Groups, elected men and women
panchayat leaders, traditional elders and youth groups. These groups support Gramya to
identify out of school children specially girls, girl babies at risk of sale or infanticide and
adolescents at risk of child marriage. We are happy to note that Gramyas role is
transforming. We are facilitating the community increasingly to understand child rights
issues and to treat children as citizens with Right to Life, Right to Development and Right to
Participate in decision-making regarding their lives.
School Management Committees set up by the government were mostly non functional.
Gramya is supporting the community by enabling the committees to act. We realized that at
the village level, it was extremely difficult to take on school administration and demand
accountability from teachers. This year we have set up mandal level school management
committees who plan to review the status of their schools (in line with Right to Education)
and take up the matter with District Administration.
While there has been significant progress at the community level, the overall work is under
threat. The state government of Telangana is planning to rationalize schools ie shut down
small schools. This will jeopardize education for the poorest since well off families send their
children to private schools where a bus will pick them up. The national government/cabinet
has decided to change the anti child labor laws by allowing family labor. Once this happens,
children will become vulnerable. They may be enrolled in school but actually at work.
Gramya as part of Civil Society has started campaigning against the negative changes at the
local and state level.
Gramya has started working with young men in several colleges in Devarkonda. We hope
youth involvement will bring about positive change for the area. We would like to thank
ICCO Cooperation and all the individual donors who have made our work possible.
Dr V Rukmini Rao

Photo Gallery

Children Enjoying in bridge school

Gayathri A Shirisha, Nandini Nursery 1st

Child Protect Committee member taking

pledge to protect girl child

MS Hymavathi, Gramya volunteer trains

Children play games in Polepally
Government School

Children building Number Grid

Children From Bridge School displaying

drawing in Child Rights Convention in
Hyderabad

Children Dancing in Government School

Identifying Child Labor in the village