Dropout Sahariya Balika Education Centre, Shahabad, Baran

Project brief

Shahabad is situated at Madhya Pradesh - Rajasthan border, known for its production of soya bean and pulses. It is surrounded by hills and forest. Earlier, dense forests were present here and the tribal communities were fully dependent on Minor Forest Produces (MFP), but after the initiation of Forest Act they were excluded from the benefits and are currently engaged in labor work and agriculture. Sahariya, the only primitive tribe of Rajasthan, lives in adverse conditions in this area. Sahariyas are not mainstreamed with education, health and other developments. Currently, they are in transitional phase where they have to struggle for livelihood security as well as for protecting their traditional knowledge and culture. They are not equipped with better education facilities and lack awareness. The situation becomes more adverse when it comes to the education of girls. Most of the girls remain illiterate and are engaged as laborers at farms and construction sites. Reasons behind this backdrop are unavailability of services, lack of awareness and poorly functioning systems. Government has established residential school for Sahariya girls but if they get failed in exams, they have to leave the school. In this case, most of the girls are forced to remain at home and are not able to continue their education. Poor educational facility is mainly responsible for their failure in secondary examination.

In 2004, CECOEDECON started Shivamba program in the block, targeting out of school and drop out girls with the support of CCD plan of 12th Finance Commission. 100 girls successfully passed class 5th and 8th examinations from this school.

After the success of residential education program, CECOEDECON continued the program with the support of different agencies. Currently, the program is being run with the support of Tribal Area Development plan. CECOEDECON has initiated residential school for 10th fail or drop out girls so that they can continue their higher education. Girls targeted in this program are under the age group of 10 – 18. Some of the girls have never been in the school and some left education after failing in 9th or 10th standards, while some were forced to leave by the families, due to unavailability of school, ignorance or safety reasons. Many of the girls are married in this age group.

Through this program, 388 girls have already been given pre-primary and primary education and mainstreamed into higher education at regular government institutions. 600 girls have graduated the Secondary School Examination. 165 girls are now employed in government departments such as ICDS, Forest, Police, Health and sanitation departments etc.