VIKAS SANSTHAN

Puja is a 14 years old girl. Her father’s name is Umesh Kumar. She lives in Satyanagar Colony. She belongs to Jatav caste. Due to the poor economic status of families, all members of the families were engaged in bangle work. Puja has two brothers and five sisters. Puja started working on bangles when she was 10 years old.

Puja dropped out of the school when she was in class 2 owing to work. She said that due to irregularity in the school she was not able to read simple Hindi. Puja’s parents were not aware of the importance of education and they also had a feeling of gender discrimination. She used to start work since early morning and work till 12.00 p.m. without food. Her health deteriorated due to bangle work: She became anaemic and started leading a lazy life.

In this background and context, Vikas Sansthan workers invited Puja for attending the adolescents groups meeting. Puja’s parent not allowed her to attend the meeting. Then Vikas Sansthan workers met her parents and explained them in detail about the adolescent group, need of education and health and hygiene measures. Somehow her parents allowed her to attend the adolescent group meeting. She also joined non-formal education for two hours since August 2018.

At the time of writing this case study, Puja has learnt reading Hindi and English and counting.  Her soft skills have also enhanced. Seeing the progress in the life of Puja, her parents allowed her for regular schooling. She took admission in a government school in April 2019 in class VI. Now she would like to continue with her education.