4B Foundation Report (2014 – 2018)
Problems…this is the word which always has contributed its share in everyone’s life. No matter who that person is, everyone has faced one problem or the other in their life. Its believed to be the general human tendency that we consider our problems to be bigger and more troublesome than others. But there is actually more to it. Some people around the world are suffering from more severe problems than us, but since we are not aware of their problems or usually ignore it, we consider our problems to be big. However, there could be many people who can’t even afford a one time meal in a day while we are lucky enough to have it three times a day. There are many people who don’t even have a roof over their heads while we might just keep complaining about the luxury lives the rich people are living and we don’t have it. But its always good to consider the problems of other as well and their struggles rather than ignoring them. They inspire us immensely with their strength and their struggles to bring a change. 4B Foundation is such organization who took the onus of solving the problems of as many people as they can, who are tremendously suffering from various major problems in their life and don’t even know the way to get out of it. They did a lot of work for the development of Dalit community. This paper presents the entire report of the work done by them with the aim to improve the conditions in which the Dalit community is living in the slum area which was under our consideration in these years. This report states the initiatives taken by the 4B foundation during the course of four years beginning from 2014 to 2018.
Following are the points that states the initiatives made by the 4B Foundation:
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Education can play the major role in creating a wonderful career of a person and hence, a wonderful life because it helps us gain the knowledge as well as awareness about the problems as well as the methods to solve them. When someone is kept away from education, it ultimately turns out to make the life miserable because of lack of awareness until someone could help them out with it. Especially children shouldn’t be kept away from education because it is only when they acquire education that the basis of their life gains much strength to face all the problems that they have to face in their life in an efficient manner.
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4B Foundation began its operations in the year 2014 at the ‘Kusumpur Pahari' with the education of children from the Dalit community. It started with just 20 students in a small hovel without any external support. To make the learning even more innovative than just studying the books, they were taught by the experienced people through the medium of different co-curricular activities like plays, theatre, games and stories to give them the best learning experience. We also took the initiative of reaching out to the parents of those children to make them aware about the importance of the education in their children’s life so that they could manage to make time out of their work and pay some attention to their child’s study because it is equally important. This was done by us so that we could bring at least some improvement in the inferior and chaotic system of managing education by the administrative authorities as well the parents which was prevailing there at that point of time because this is one of the major factor because of which children dropout from schools, leave education and starts to work at a very early age or either sit idle at home which make them inclined towards harmful activities like drugs, altercation etc. thus, spoiling their lives. This is majorly due to the very unfortunate fact that even the authorities don’t want them, who are already belonging to the backward community of Dalits, to come forward and demand their rights.
Because of the above stated facts, it shows us the clear picture that both intelligence and the authorities who will do well to them are difficult for those people to access. Thus, 4B Foundation reached there and we started working with them. We did the survey of the slum which had 5 blocks. This area constituted about 50000 people in total from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madras, Rajasthan and Haryana who all belonged to the Dalit community. The primary occupation of people here involves being a laborer, sweeper or working at other people’s houses to earn their living. It’s quite often that children generally leave the education and starts working in order to contribute to the family’s earning.
Apart from the above stated major problem, there are many other major problems in ‘Kusumpur Pahari' which requires the equal attention to be curbed soon. Some of these problems includes unavailable or inaccessibility of water, domestic violence, gender inequality, violation of ‘Right of Children to free and compulsory education Act 2009’ which is increasing illiteracy here and many more. These reasons serve as cause of children making the decision of dropping out from schools.
Keeping the above problems in mind, we went ahead with providing the education to the children of the Dalit community who are living there in vulnerable conditions. We started teaching the children there to get them admitted in the schools so that they could pursue their further education and also motivated parents to pay attention to the education of their children.
During this course of time, in May 2014, Mr. Karnadeep from Centre for Social Equity and Inclusion (CSEI) served as the link between us and Ms.Annie Namala. Then we had a short meeting with her in which she understood the way in which the 4B Foundation works and also discussed the condition of the slum area in which we were working. She wanted to work towards empowering the youth and children of the Dalit community and wanted them to taste the flavor of freedom to exercise their rights. Then with the help CSEI, we got one centre arranged for their children. We started getting assistance from Education resource centre for children and Youth tech hub provided the assistance to the youth of the Dalit community. With the help of CSEI, we taught them about why the Dalit community is lacking behind in society and also taught them about Baba Sahib and his ideals. Many opportunities were provided to the youth.
In November 2014, the youth and the founder of the 4B Foundation got the opportunity to be a part of P SAARC Conference in which 8 countries had participated. And there at the conference, we had the realization that the situation in the other countries is also similar to that of ours. Through the means of drama, documentary film and songs, we got the chance to learn a lot about the Dalit Community.
After this in the year 2015 4B foundation made a strong group of twenty five youths individuals who were themselves the college and school going students. They are not just good in their own studies but also paid attention to the studies of the community and its children. These students along with the CSEI supported the community of EWS/D.A category students by arranging a camp for them to make them aware about how to fill the forms related to education and studies. This resulted in 43 children of EWS/D.Acategory to fill the forms and out of these 43 students 22 students got admission in private schools like Chinmaya Vidhalaya, Modern School, DAV Surajbhan, DPS Vasant Vihar and R.K.Puram. They also supported the students studying in ERC by helping them in studies so that they can get admission in best schools. With the support of CSEI, the community organizes big awareness conference in which was present. The topics of discussion were the development of slum areas, development of individual as youth and the necessity of basic facility in slum area. One of the important topics discussed was the unavailability and inaccessibility of water because of which students usually missed their schools and ultimately dropout the school.
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Its majorly the Women who had been the victims of ill activities like purdah system, sati pratha, domestic violence etc. in the past. Though the conditions have improved for the better in the present times as compared to the past. However, these practice have not been completely eliminated. Crimes against women have always been common and it continues even till today. These includes rape, sexual harassment, acid attacks, domestic violence etc. The Dalit Community of which we took the responsibility was not at all exception to these crimes.
We also work to provide support to those women who are being victims of domestic violence. We make them aware about the protection of women from domestic violence act 2005 and let them know regarding the laws stated in the act. We tell them what comes under sexual domestic violence, altercations of domestic violence, property rights under death cases during domestic violence which usually affects individual physically, mentally as well as financially. The people who are mostly affected by the domestic violence usually include children, women and old people. We also aware them about what measures they can take if they have been the victim of domestic violence, about the person to contact to seek help, about the helpdesk for women in the police stations where they can get help. We have made at least 300 -400 women aware that safety is to be provided for free and go and seek whenever they need it. 4B Foundation has till date has been successful in solving 45 cases of domestic violence.
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Child Labor was yet another major issue which we tried to tackle in the Dalit community. Its obviously the backwardness of the families of this Community which forced the children to leave education and instead start working in order to provide the financial support to the family, thus, ruining the childhood of these children.
4B Foundation, at the slum level, had worked together with the youth to eliminate child labor from area by reporting it to the police stations. We also arrange conferences with the experienced people of the community in which we discussed about those children who assist their parents at work places, shops, food stalls, and lacked education. To eliminate every kind of child labor from the area and see that they avail benefits of education and security. We started pasting the posters and carrying out awareness campaign so that every child has access to education along with security in life. With this campaign of hours the official authorities and the police authorities also agreed to the initiative and supported us with a promise that they will keep a check in nearby areas to see that no child is indulge in any sort of child labor activity.
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As most of the part of the lives of the people of this community have been gone by under the burden of inequalities and responsibilities that they have been completely unaware about the new and interesting co-curricular activities to learn in order to enhance their skills and bring up their hidden talents.
4B Foundation with the help of youth organised a sports or co curricular activities related event in which anyone could participate, no matter what their age is. Everyone have to follow certain rules like, everyone will have to participate, everyone will ensure safety of other person, everyone will enjoy the activities and everyone will give their best performance. They can be anyone from parents, teachers children to any social worker. We also acquired the training of the puppet show so that they can teach the ERC children how to make a puppet. One more initiative was to indulging slum children in presenting shows on the different problem of slum areas so that awareness could be increased. These shoes lead to discussion among the people, so that they can also make the unaware people aware about these crucial issues.
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Education has, without a doubt, an important role to play is one’s life. But the process of getting admission in schools could be really troublesome for those who are themselves illiterate and have no idea about how to fill the forms and go ahead with the process.
As education has been an important issues in these areas people of the community along with CSEI support, started the admission process in the community under the education law of 12.1.c children got admission because of the community awareness. Till the date, forms of 200 children have been filed and 85 children got into private schools. If any student have faced any problem in schools, their complaint had been considered under the section 32 so as to sort out their problems. Till now 150 online complaints have been received from the government or private institutes, out of which 55 students have the complaints that there income certificate has been declared fake and thus they have been terminated from the school. The schools which were covered under the complaints registered were the Chinmaya Vidhalaya, DPS. However, with the actions of the authorities the schools have to give readmission to these students who were earlier removed.
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Awareness is one of the key factors because of which the people of this community have been lacking behind since the past. And apart from educational subjects and social issues, to make them aware about the environmental issues is equally important.
One program was arranged with the students of government schools along with the youth of the community to present a street play on issues like global climate change, poverty, inequality. This was done to bring awareness among people and children so as to put an end to the consequences of above stated issues. 4B Foundation also arranged an conference for the same to discuss the changes of climate and how adversely it affects, especially the poor section of the society. We also carried out a candle march to send the message to the children that we should keep our rights safe and exercise them by being aware of all our rights and responsibilities so that no one can suppress us.
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Apart from acquiring the education, securing a job is equally important along with the further education in order to earn enough to ensure at least the basic standard of living.
There were 10 youth individuals from 4B Foundation who not only completed their graduation with the support of CSEI in Delhi but also went on to give interview in big companies in Delhi. They got the opportunities to do Internships in the companies like genpact in gurgaon and PWC. And it was after period of one year that the 5 individual out of ten got the jobs in the same companies. One person got the opportunity to go to China through the company he was doing Internship with, now he is staying there and doing the job.
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Deciding the subjects of study as per your interest and according to the goals you have set for your career and life is of utmost importance because it will serve as the basis of the career opportunities you will get in future.
4B Foundation arranged the camps for youth of community to help them in deciding the subjects, the colleges they were like to continue their further education. CSEI helped these youth a lot by guiding them with the good career opportunities and by connecting 85 of these youth people to the higher education through regular colleges or NSOL. The once who did their education from NSOL simultaneously continued their job as well in order to support their families financially.
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Children or youngsters going to schools and colleges won’t prove effective at all until and unless the quality education is being served at these places of learning along with other facilities required by the students in order to enhance their skills and bring their talents in forefront. And this could only be done by the efficient management by the authorities uncharged of the education at these places.
To make the education system more effective efficient and beneficial, 4B Foundation along with the help of CSEI wrote the letter to the honorable prime minister Mr. Narendra Modi in which we mentioned the name of the school, class and their own names so that the method of education in schools could be more improved along with more facilities provided by the schools so that children would enjoy the experience of learning and would readily go to schools.
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The best way to help a community would be to first get aware about what are the major problems faced by them and then working towards solving those problems. No one can tell us in better manner about the problems with which they suffering than they themselves. Thus, survey could be one of the best option to acquire complete awareness regarding problems faced by these people.
We with the help of CSEI conduct a survey of around 423 youth in which they determine the needs of these people. Since then the organization has been organizing many conference which are based on the different issues of the community like the problem of unemployment, ST SC act, issues faced by women, education, elections etc. People from outside are invited to these conference so that the attendees of these meetings could get the benefits and acknowledge them. There have been some improvements since the past like the slum area is now much cleaner than before and the problem of unavailability of water is also improved since the past. Also many young people, both male and female have started their job at different places thus improving the situations.
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The events and programs conducted for awareness and educational purposes usually tend to have more influential impact on people’s mind in a positive manner rather than a simple manner of teaching and making aware. The creativity along with learning has always served to be a better and beneficial combination that simple methods of learning.
4B Foundation had also organized around 4 – 5 big events during this course of time. Some of these events include the celebration of Annual day of 4 Foundation. We also organized a rally on the occasion of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Jayanti. There was on an event organized on the occasion Jyotiba Phule Jayanti as well. This was done along with the Aam Aadmi Party and Mr. Karnadeep and Mr. Trishpal of CSEI also graced the occasion with their presence. There were many cultural activities performed in order to make people aware that Jyotiba Phule was the first social work to encourage the importance of education and respect in society. On 1st may, the occasion of International Workers Day was celebrated and in this event youth were made aware about the career opportunities and the courses they can opt for in their studies. NFI, CSEI and ICIC Academy were among the Chief guests for this occasion.
4B Foundation also celebrated its yearly event in which oksfon, child line, MLA and the Chief of the community were invited as the Chief guests. There was play presented in the event which depicted the struggles of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar and also the water problem in the community. Then we made people aware about how our organization i.e. 4B Foundation works and also how the children can take help from the child line whenever needed. The MLA and the Chief of the community was very impressed by the event and thus, they gifted Rs. 1000 to children which henceforth motivated them a lot.
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Whatever we do good for others in life, its not done with the only aim of being appreciated. The main aim usually is to bring smiles on people’s faces and to contribute our bit for the betterment of the society. However, its always encouraging and motivating to do much better work after we get appreciated for the work we did.
Because of the effective work of the for the betterment of the society, Ms. Sunita Chauhan was selected to be awarded with the C. Subramaniam Award in the year 2017-2018.
Hence, the above stated points clearly states the initiatives taken by the 4B Foundation during the time duration of five years beginning from 2014 till 2018. However, our initiatives to do good for the society still continues and will continue till our last breath.