Education is one of the key instruments for social change and empowerment of marginalised communities.
Despite the Right To Education Act, 2009, which is meant to ensure free and accessible education to all all children in India, there are many children who still remain out of school.
According to estimates from UNICEF (2014), 17.8 million children in India remain out of school.
In order to enroll these out-of-school children for the new academic year, the Telangana Government holds a programme called ‘Badi Bata‘ (Back To School) every year. The objective is to identify children in the age group of six to 14 years who had dropped out of schools and enrol them in schools. Children are encouraged to participate in the programme to invite their peers and highlight the features of the State-run schools — free education, mid-day meals, books, and uniforms, etc. Parents of children below six are encouraged to enroll them in anganwadis for pre-primary education.
Back To School Programme 2017
Team Divya Disha played an active part in motivating children to participate in this programme to encourage their peers to enroll into schools/ anganwadis. Divya Disha’s Child Leaders, drawn from the 60 urban slums, took to the lead to involve 1000 children to hold Badi Bata rallies. Our team in other districts of Telangana too organized similar rallies to encourage out-of-school children to rejoin the mainstream.
To create awareness and encourage the parents of smaller children to avail the services provided by the Anganwadis, tiny tots in the slums took out rallies with support from the Anganwadi teachers, mothers and kids group members. They raised slogans on the child rights and the services of Anganwadi.
We couldn’t resist sharing this picture from last year’s Badi Bata programme!