Archives: Our Projects

Under the ECCD programme Plan India has set up crèches across Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore to provide children of construction site workers with pre-school early education, nourishment, immunisation and healthcare.

With the rapid rise of urbanisation in India, approximately 35 million men and women make a living as construction workers. They live with their children in poverty ridden temporary settlements near construction sites where they are exposed to hazardous construction materials. Left unattended while their parents are busy working, these children are prone to accidents and abuse, putting their safety and well-being at severe risk.

In a survey conducted by Mobile Creches (a grassroots NGO), about 70% of these children suffer from malnutrition, compared to the national average of 21%. Early and timely interventions can positively affect the long term development of the child. Hence, Plan India designed the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) programme to take care of children living at construction sites.

Since the launch of the programme in 2015, Plan India has set up 71 crèches across Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore to provide over 2,000 children between the age group of 6 months – 12 years with pre-school early education, nourishment, immunisation and healthcare.

Programme Activities

• Identifying suitable areas and establishing ECCD centres at/around construction sites for young children
• Organising developmentally appropriate learning activities for children to provide them with quality learning in a stimulating environment
• Providing nutrition to the children to address the issue of malnourishment
• Regularly organising health check-ups and immunisation and growth monitoring camps
• Raising awareness amongst parents and community leaders at construction sites on healthy child care practices and low cost nutritious food for children
• Organising capacity building programmes for facilitators on early learning curriculum and development of low cost toys and learning materials

Programme Objectives

• To provide Early Childhood Care and Education services to 15,000 children in the age group of 2 – 6 years from deprived families whose parents work at construction/building sites and reside in urban slums
• To ensure enrolment and continuation of primary education to 15,000 children in the age group of 6 -14 years from deprived families parents work at construction/building sites and reside in urban slums

School on Wheels (SOW) is an integrated approach towards improving the quality of education for underprivileged children. It seeks to ensure pre-primary and primary education for all children up to the age of 14 leading to their overall development.

The project has been implemented in the South Mumbai slums by Plan India’s partner NGO Door Step School. The key component of the project is a bus designed as a mobile class room to provide alternate educational facilities to street children and pavement dwellers. Efforts are being made to enrol these children in formal schools at the beginning of the next financial year. Other key components of the project include a community based educational programme, school partnership programme and working with adolescent children from the community.

Since 2008, the project has so far directly benefitted more than 5,000 children between the age group of 3-18 years. Conducting four classes a day, School on Wheels has reaches out to more than 800 children a year. The parents have also started taking an interest, talking to the teachers about their child’s problems.

Apart from this, community based educational programmes were organised in seven slum communities with coverage of 524 children. 12 Balwadis reached 393 children (49% boys & 51% girls). 99% children associated with the project continued their formal schooling and did not drop out. 77% children were regular and had attendance of more than 50% with an average attendance of 20 children per class. Additionally, 756 children benefitted from attending computer classes and 726 children from Byculla Municipal School were supported through school partnership programmes. Approximately, 509 children from 1st – 4th standard were given reading lessons with 97% succeeding to reach the project target.

Missing Child Alert (MCA) is a cross border project which responds to the grave issue of child trafficking and its close link with intrinsic issue of ‘missing and trafficked children’ in South Asia. The project is led by Plan India, Plan International Bangladesh and Plan International Nepal in coordination with South Asia Initiative to End Violence against Children (SAIEVAC). MCA Phase-I was carried out from Jul’ 12 to Mar’ 17 to prevent and respond to child trafficking within and between Bangladesh, India and Nepal. The project aimed to improve cooperation between families, communities, law enforcement, governments and service providers to strengthen the national and regional system that helps to reduce the number of missing and trafficking cases and improve the effectiveness and quality of the action of all state and non-state actors. SAIEVAC, an apex body of SAARC, responsible for development in South Asia, has been an important regional partner during Phase-I and the bridge year (2017-18). On the other side, Dnet, a social enterprise based in Bangladesh, closely worked with Plan International in developing the Repatriation Information Management System (RIMS), the cross border technology alert mechanism.

Key Activities (2017-18)

• Awareness on prevention and protection on missing and anti-human trafficking
• Identify 100 vulnerable Panchayats from 4 cross border districts in India connected to Bangladesh and Nepal
• Formation and strengthening the Community Vigilance Group (CVG) as preventing and protection mechanism
• Closely working with selected Anti-Human Trafficking Units
• Capacity building of police personnel at local police stations
• Lobby and advocacy with law enforcement agencies/Community Welfare Committees and other government stakeholders at state and national level
• Rescue and repatriate cross border victims from India to Bangladesh and Nepal through RIMS by contacting identified shelter homes

80,000 households in Mangolpuri, Madanpur Khadar and Gautampuri in Delhi are witnesses to efforts to make the city safe for young women and give wings to their ambition. Young women here are building promising futures, reclaiming public spaces for themselves and shattering boundaries that routinely make their lives ‘safer’. Here, public school teachers advocate girls’ safety and sanitation needs so that they can continue higher education. In these communities, girls aspire to a career in sports and thrive through technical as well as vocational training. All this is the result of Plan India’s long-term gender transformation programme Safer Cities which focuses on the gap in programming and research pertaining to how adolescent girls experience public spaces differently than men.

Safer Cities has put adolescent girls at the centre and challenges the perception of safety and fear of violence that define girls’ negotiation. It supports girls and boys in becoming active citizens by building capacities and creating opportunities for participation in city life. The programme is also being implemented in two wards of Jaipur.

Safer Cities Key Outcomes

1. Increased adolescent girls’ safety and access to public spaces
2. Increased girls’ active and meaningful participation in urban development and governance
3. Increased autonomous mobility in the city for adolescent girls

While Safer Cities works to empower girls, it also engages boys and men in the communities as allies. Strengthening local youth clubs is pivotal in effectively gathering evidence and data for Plan’s advocacy work. Programme activities help the children and youth visualise alternatives where safe spaces exist for them to counter the ever-present fear of violence. The integrated community-based approach uses innovative engagement modalities and gender transformative approaches. It also employs unique feedback and participatory research tools such as training curriculums, community scorecards and Information Education Communication (IEC) materials to involve parents and community leaders. Intergenerational dialogues help elders acknowledge the disparities and challenge the conventional understanding of safety. Dialogues were initiated within the community for addressing gender power relations and to challenge stereotypical social norms that perpetuate insecurity and exclusion of girls in cities.

Making Safer Cities community-led puts the onus of assessing public spaces from a gender lens and ensuring the safety of girls back on the neighbourhood. Plan India forged strategic partnerships with the Department of Women and Child Development, Delhi Police, transport service providers, Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the National Institute of Urban Affairs. Through Plan’s advocacy, public transport in Delhi was studied to understand the needs of adolescent girls and to recommend specific changes. A consultation was also held on public budgets from the lens of women and girls and the resultant policy brief ‘Gender and Governance at the Grassroots: A Study of South Delhi Municipal Corporation’s 2018 Budgets’ was published. Safer Cities takes pride in girl-led negotiations with local representatives for gender-sensitive budgeting for the programme area.

Safer Cities represents a collaboration between Plan International, Women in Cities International and UN-HABITAT, thus benefitting from the distinct and impressive track record each organisation boasts from previous work done to address violence against women and girls.

Banking on Change, a partnership between Barclays, Plan International and CARE was established in July 2010. Originally it set out to deliver a savings-led micro-finance programme to improve the financial inclusion of people in 11 countries across Africa, Asia and South America.

Plan India implements this project in Delhi in partnership with Dr. A. V. Baliga Memorial. The project was launched in July 2010 in the areas of Mangolpuri and Sultanpuri and its adjacent resettlement colonies of North-West district of Delhi. The goal of the project is ‘to improve the economic security and quality of life of disadvantaged children’ by providing young women access to financial services through financial linkages and micro-enterprise development activities.Plan India’s Banking on Change programme seeks to promote economic and social empowerment through financial inclusion of women from urban poor families. Supported by Barclay’s Bank, the programme was initiated in 2011 and reaches out to more than 10,000 women. Further, Banking on Change provides women members of Self Help Groups (SHGs) with knowledge and capacity on entrepreneurial skills so they can utilise their savings for income generation activities.

In 2015, the Government of India launched Smart Cities Mission, an initiative to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life by enabling local development and harnessing technology. The mission also includes developing school infrastructure and improving classroom activities. Plan India, with USAID and Coca Cola India, launched the ‘Urban WASH – Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya’ (SBSV) project to support the Government of India’s Smart City Mission.

The three-year project which concluded in July 2019, has created a replicable model for developing need-based child-friendly WASH infrastructure in schools. It also advocated the effective use of this infrastructure and its eventual ownership by School Management Committees (SMCs). SBSV created age, gender and ability appropriate infrastructure in 20 schools each in three cities – Vishakhapatnam, Pune and Dehradun. All 3 of these will now scale the project across all government schools in their respective municipalities with support from Plan’s implementation partners.

The project aimed at helping duty bearers, teachers, SMCs, community members and children in realising their right to equitable and sustainable access to improved sanitation facilities and safe drinking water. It also worked to increase awareness on the impact of open defecation and hygiene on health. It prioritised developmental aspects to ensure better enrolment, retention and development of the children and building a conducive learning atmosphere to promote continued education.

SBSV empowered Child WASH Parliaments (Bal Swachhata Samitis) to take part in the close monitoring, proper use and maintenance of school WASH infrastructure. The project engaged municipal and education department personnel for delivering on their responsibilities towards ensuring quality WASH in identified schools. The emphasis was on the participation of girls and engagement around menstrual hygiene management helped address dropout rates.

Plan India developed knowledge products and presented them to the government to ensure sustained maintenance of WASH infrastructure and continued hygienic practices. School WASH forums were established under the aegis of government officials, CSOs, multilateral organisations and the private sector for sustained impact and scalability. Of special note is the development of the children as agents of change to lead the interventions themselves.

Highlights

• 40 million rupees mobilised by Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) for SBSV model due to Plan’s efforts
• 24,870 children (58.2% girls) provided access to potable water and safe sanitation
• 14% increase (13% for girls) in school enrolment

There are an estimated 50,000 street children in Delhi and around 7,500 children involved in begging. Dreams on Streets aims to give freedom to children from begging at street lights.

Plan India initiated the project for ending child begging at the traffic signals of New Delhi in November 2015. The overarching goal is to ensure freedom to children from begging and that they are gradually weaned away from traffic signals and mainstreamed in government schools where they can continue with their education. At another level, the project seeks to link the family/caregivers of these children with sustainable livelihoods so that household economic security is achieved.

Children aged between 3-18 years are given non-formal education in English, Hindi and Math and are also provided with art therapy. Apart from this, the children are given nutritious meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner), basic clothing facilities, psychological care and medical aid and life skill education. In some cases, children are helped in re-interaction and restoration with their families. Presently, the Dreams on Street project is designed as a pilot initiative and is supporting approx. 150 children who were forced into begging by their caregivers at two major locations – Munirka and Nizamuddin.

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Indian schools witness a sharp drop in the number of enrolments, especially for girls, after grade 8¹ as about 42% children enter the workforce soon after completing the minimum schooling mandated by the Right to Education Act (2009). Of the small percentage that remains, quality education is not affordable and is often reserved for the boys. Plan India has set about levelling the playing ground for girls through its Digital Learning Centres (DLCs). Based on the Communications for Development (C4D) approach, these networked centres utilise internet-based solutions to provide quality education to girls and young women in the age group of 12- 20 years and help them complete their education at least till grade 10. Recognising an important link between the limited mobility of girls and access to progressive learning opportunities, the project takes learning support right to their communities.

Digital Learning Centres work to:

1. Address challenges posed by unequal lives, education and employment opportunities
2. Support continued higher education through tutoring and career counselling
3. Impart leadership skills and personality development to strengthen their self-esteem

The project also makes use of policy-based advocacy a key method for creating real change. Parents who associate TVs with only entertainment are educated about blended learning and counselled through sustained home visits to change perceptions about girls’ potential. Involving fathers to connect digitally and inspire each other has resulted in their becoming advocates for gender equality. An extensive alumni group now acts as peer educators, help develop projects at the centres and champion the change from within communities.

The DLCs in Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad are networked DLCs and use the internet to provide quality education. These DLCs have trained 65.4% of the alumni and the plan is to replicate them across India. Another model being implemented in states like Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh is non-networked DLCs which are smart classrooms and cater to children from schools and government-run children’s homes. DLCs remain a powerful tool in fulfilling Plan’s broader mission-building girls’ agency to have greater control over decisions that affect them while strengthening their voice through knowledge, confidence and skills.

 Highlights

• 104 networked and non-networked DLCs and 4 hubs set up
• 100,000 families sensitised till date about the need for girls’ education
• 23,857 girls graduated after receiving support to complete high school

Achieving gender equality is a core objective for Plan India under its Country Strategic Plan (CSP) IV 2016-2020 as is Plan India’s CSP IV goal – “As the leading child rights organisation, we strive to advance children’s rights and equality for girls, thus creating lasting impact in the lives of the vulnerable and excluded children and their communities.”

Through various programmes and advocacy initiatives, the goal is to reach one million girls and young women through interventions in marginalised/excluded communities directly and reach ten million girls and young women through influencing government policy and practice indirectly.

Plan India Media Catalyst

Plan India acknowledges that achievement of the goals set above would require the participation and support of key stakeholders such as policy makers, government agencies, NGOs, and media among others. Among the motley of interest groups, media plays a critical role in ensuring that unheard voices are brought to the fore, stories are relayed and stakeholders are held accountable for their actions. Therefore, engagement and partnership with the media is immanent in the overall vision of Plan India.

The Plan India Media Catalyst is an attempt to strengthen the understanding of journalists about the child rights situation and gender issues in India, and Plan India’s model of child-centric community development and gender transformative approaches. The objective is also to collaborate on rights-based reporting to ensure that the rights of the children are not violated.

Approach and Process

Approach

To achieve the ambitious target of reaching out to 10 million girls, with the participation and support of key stakeholders such as policy makers, government agencies and NGOs, Plan India believes that media will also play a very critical role in ensuring that unheard voices are brought to the fore, stories are relayed and stakeholders are held accountable for their actions. Therefore, engagement and partnership with the media is immanent in the overall vision of Plan India.

Process

We reached out to around 300 journalists which included print newspapers, online editions and news based digital platforms from Delhi and NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and Bihar. Based on the submission of the nomination forms and their interest in writing and reporting on development issues, especially on issues related to child protection and gender, we selected 10 journalists from the above mentioned states.

Orientation Workshop – An interactive orientation workshop is being organised on 16th and 17th of November. On the first day, experts from Plan India and senior journalists during the orientation will impart and disseminate information pertaining on child rights within the context of protection issues and gender framework, laws and policies, showcase exemplary journalistic case studies on reporting among others.

In the course of the second day, a field visit to Plan India’s programme areas will be organised so that journalists can get first-hand experience of Plan India’s programme. The field visit will entail meeting with children and youth, interacting with community members and other stakeholders.

Exposure visit for the journalists in their respective State – Post the orientation and field visit in Delhi, in the month of January, the journalists will also be taken for an exposure visit to Plan programmes in their native states. During the exposure visit, they will get to see the grassroots’ level interventions and meet the beneficiaries to witness development at the village and community level.

Participation in the Plan for Every Child Conference (5th – 7th December) – The journalists who are part of the Media Catalyst programme will be attending the three day National Conference, starting from December 5 to December 7 in New Delhi.

To address the issue of Gender wage disparity and discrimination in the work environment, Plan India is implementing the European Union supported Project Samanta in the Ambedkar Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh.

Through the project, over 10,000 working women were identified and mobilised into women’s collectives (324 collectives). The focus of the project is on capacity building of Working Women Collective’s (WWC) on negotiation skills, human rights and workplace laws.

The WWC in turn has started discussing on grievances/violation cases for redressal. Women collectives have also been doing dialogues on negotiation with employers in achieving wage parity with men peer.