Sewa Bharati

After completing their primary school education, the tribal boys and girls are required to go to the towns for their Middle & Secondary education. Due to lack of transport, lodging and boarding facilities in the cities and also economic constraints  the parents keep these children away from continuing their education.

In order to tackle this problem, Sewa Bharati has started hostels for tribal boys and girls separately in different places (cities or towns) of the states. As the literacy rate amongst tribal females is very low (about 6-7 per cent), special efforts are being made to establish more and more hostels for girls. Because of the conservative outlook towards girls education and parents hesitation to keep their ward away from their home, demands tactful approach and skill to convince them about the benefits of the education the family will derive in future.

These hostels provide free lodging, boarding and education facilities to the inmates. Every hostel has one Karyakarta to guide and control the students. Number of programmes are conducted from time to time for personality development and other such skills.

The selection of these boys & girls is based on their performance in the board examination and the entrance tests.

Hostel for Excellence : These hostels are established at Gwalior and Bhilai on the premise that inspite of reservation, only a small percentage of vacancies in the central and state governments are filled by the scheduled cast candidates.

To offset this obstacle, and prepare the deserving candidates for competitive examinations, the strategy of "catch them young" for admission into these "Hostels for Excellence" has been adopted. For this, entrance examinations are held at different centres in the two states. Students who secured first division in the 5th standard (Board Exam) only are eligible for this examination.

They are provided with boarding lodging & most modern educational facilities. They are admitted to the best possible institution. Special coaching classes, individual attention and motivational lectures are the inputs to ensure that they can cope with the pressure of competition.

Recurring Cost Rs. 11,000/- ($ 220) per annum/ per child

Building (5,000 Sq.ft.) Construction cost for a Hostel - Rs. 15,00,000 ($ 30,000)

These Vidyalayas are unique in the sense that these are centers for initiating children of tribal areas/villages into informal education and later into formal education. The teachers for these OTS are selected from among the educated local tribal youths.

They are given preliminary training in human behavior and human relation the art of story-telling & foremost the skill of controlling a group of children. The methodology adopted by these teachers is play way method and participate and learn method.

Acommittee is formed comprising three or more elderly persons from the village to run the school smoothly and to monitor the progress of the school.  In most of the cases the school is run in open under a tree or in some old hut.

Using this approach a large number of children from far-flung tribal villages have learnt for the first time to write, read & recite. In some schools the teachers were able to convince the elders about the importance of literacy and they have started the adult literacy classes in the evening.

Considering the difficulties experienced in finding school facility at different places, Sewa Bharati launched a project called "Residential School" where tribal boys are admitted.  As the name suggest this project provides facility of residence and schooling under one Roof. Schooling facility is being looked after by the Principal along with subject teachers and residential facility is being looked after by Warden with the supportive staff. Such 3 Residential Schools are:-    

With a view to involve local population in the self-development, a hub centre is established at suitable central location of a cluster of 4-5 villages.  Schooling facility is being provided for 30 Tribal girls with addition of 30 tribal girls every year limiting to 150 students by that time a batch of 30 students will complete their primary education and will pass out. A component of cash incentive to the parents of Tribal girls is also included in the project as their parents should not feel the pinch of loosing their earnings through these female wards.

The center also provides the facility for community gatherings, primary health centre and adult education centre.  Thus the optimum use of the centre is guaranteed.

These are established in the Sewa Bastis in small halls, specially constructed by assistance of local citizens or Community center and or in a hut or in open. The aim of establishing these kendras is to develop interest in schooling in the non-school going children, to inculcate in them (a) respect for elderly persons and parents, (b) awareness of cleanliness, (c) habits of sharing with others punctuality, obedience, truth and avoiding abusive language.  For school going children, teacher in Sanskar Kendra, gives additional coaching to improve their knowledge and solve their difficulties, developes in them team-spirit through games & patriotic spirit through songs.

Since these kendras are running in the Sewa Bastis, the teacher as also Sewa Bharati worker can easily contact parents as well as other slum dwellers and discuss problems of their children, and also arrange programmes on certain occasions like Independence Day, Republic Day, Ganesh Festival, Navratri Puja etc.

For children of tender age, who are not yet eligible to school, Sewa Bharati has started Balwaries in Sewa Bastis. The aim here is not to teach them but to keep them engage in various activities viz. reciting of songs, storey telling and playing games under the supervision of teacher. This ensures that they do not go astray and develop bad habits, since their parents in most of the cases go to earn their livelihood.

It is observed that students from Sewa Bastis and from families of low income are too slow in grasping the several subjects and are poor in Maths and Science. Disinterest of parents, lack of educational facilities, difficult social surrounding etc. are the main reasons for their poor performance. Sewa Bharati has started coaching in English, Maths and Science especially for students of 8th, 10th, 12th standards. As the number of students is limited personal guidance is also possible in some cases. As a result of this coaching it is noticed that interest level of students in studies has increased.

In Bhopal, on the land of 12,000 sq.ft. a 3 storied building with 10000 sq.ft. carpet area has been constructed for "Sewa Vidya Mandir" This is a Co-ed School for boys and girls of Sewa Bastis (Slum areas) from families which have very small earnings. The school is equipped with all facilities like Science Laboratory, Library, Computer Lab and a large play ground. The teaching staff is dedicated and well qualified. This year the result of Board Examination of 8th and 5th class  was 100%, most of the students passed with good marks.

Another Higher Secondary School for the slum children has been started from the session 2004-05 at Bilaspur. Presently the teaching is upto standard 11th with the strength of about 550 students.