Swadhar (Becoming self- reliant, whole human beings )

Swadhar is a unique five-year experimental program for children who have committed to giving up the street to become self-reliant. This is a full-time program, which emphasizes values, vocational skills and discovering and nurturing each individual’s talents. Along with their education, they are given a “ family ” environment and they also grow by contributing as VOICE staff members.

Swadhar - our “graduate program” towards self reliance started with its first batch of students in April 1999. This program was initiated for children out of school, in the age group 13-15 years to further elevate their literary levels, hone their vocational skills and consolidate their value system. The children are also expected to observe a fairly strict code of conduct. These children have expressed a desire to continue the work/mission of VOICE so that they too can make a difference in the lives of other children.

Since Swadhar was started in April 1999, not only has there been no attrition, but also the number of students has already almost tripled. Also, there were many school going children who also felt the need to participate in Swadhar. Today, we have 16 school going children who are a part of Swadhar along with 9 children who are out of school. These comprise 10 boys and 15 girls.

Swadhar will be a 5 year program for every participant, since we estimate that it will take this long for these children to make the break with their earlier street life complete and irreversible. The students are paid a monthly stipend, which is definitely, much less than what they could earn on the street.

For a street child of 13-14 to make a voluntary commitment to participate in a 5 year program, is serious business. Our interaction with these children over the years has confirmed our belief of their remarkable dedication to schooling and a qualitative improvement in their lives.

Efforts during the past year.

Initially, a group of 12 children participated in this project during the past year and additional 10 children joined the group during the course of the year.

These children were exposed to the following :

• Literary skills in Hindi, English and Mathematics
• General knowledge
• Value education
• Skill training: children participated in decorating 12,000 diyas for diwali, screen printing – wrapping paper, cards, letter heads and other stationery
items; making torans. We are working towards enabling children develop entrepreneurship on a cooperative basis, by the end of 5 years.

Last year, 11 Swadhar children who have never been to school appeared for their tenth std exam through the National Open School. They have cleared 3-4 out of 5 subjects.

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