Ensuring Quality Education for Poor Children
We strive to ensure educational equity and health equity for impoverished rural and urban slum children through holistic development initiatives. We do this through off-the-school tuition and nutritional assistance, and kitchen garden promotion to nurture local food sustainability.
Education & skill development are the most fundamental pillars of a functional society. We work with children in our target villages and city slums who are the most deprived to ensure their access to education and their fundamental rights for their secure future. Through tutorial assistance, literacy development programs, basic life skills training, and nutritional supplements, we promote their comprehensive growth. Since 1995, 15,000 children from poor families have received quality education, while 2000 backyard kitchen gardens have been developed by students, aligning with sustainable agriculture practices.
Similarly, rural youth are guided towards well-paid jobs by supporting them to complete vocational skill training. This is done through supporting the youth with student financial assistance to meet their day-to-day travel expenses and nutritious meals to complete courses in high-demand fields, including STEM education promotion, and as many as 550 youths have gained vocational training and secured remunerative employment, advancing community empowerment and economic equity.
General and Region-Specific Causes that Necessitate Our Interventions.
In the first place, the parents of a vast majority of children in villages and slums cannot assist their academically. This situation aggravates the problem of educational inequity. With modern education systems requiring home support for schoolwork, children from marginalized communities struggle severely. Unable to afford private tuition, they face systemic barriers to access to education. The children from villages and slums find it extremely difficult to cope with. Since 1998, SPPD has intervened to address these challenges through literacy development programs and student aid.
- The standard of education is very poor among the children belonging to these marginalized communities. Parents and children lack awareness on matters like personal hygiene, road safety, environment, child trafficking, climate change, etc. Moreover, in Tamil Nadu children in rural areas are malnourished and few children face the problem of stunted growth. However, the condition of rural children is still worse with very poor nutritional food intake. This poor nutritional status affects their academic performance in a big way and is reflected in levels of concentration and cognition in the classroom and studies in general.
- Parents of children are forced into migration of parents due to collapse of sustainable agriculture triggered by prolonged droughts. This situation leaves youth in precarious “home alone” situations. These youth, often neglected, face early school dropout rates, risks of child labor, health disparities, and exposure to exploitation. SPPD addresses these challenges by building awareness of migrant labor rights and vocational skills training. We also provide nutritional assistance to malnourished children and promote sustainable agriculture practices to mitigate climate-driven displacement.
- There exist multiple causes for involuntary migration, such as unemployment, social discrimination, and natural calamities. These factors destabilize rural families. The SPPD’s interventions, like educational equity programs, child protection mechanisms, and women empowerment initiatives, help to break these vicious cycles of vulnerability, ensuring comprehensive growth for marginalized children.
Evening Study Centres for Educational Equity in Tamil Nadu
This scheme is the first of our initiatives that aims to provide supplementary education to children in rural and slum areas from grade 1 to 8th and up to 12th grade through our Evening Study Centres (ESCs), addressing educational equity and ensuring access to education. Since 1995, over 15,000 have benefited, paving the way for a holistic development for underserved communities.
Skill Development of Youth
The purpose of conducting vocational skills training by SPPD is to prevent rural youth from entering hazardous occupations by equipping them with employable skills for high-income generating jobs. Through these educational equity and career guidance, SPPD helps school graduates away from illegal sand mining, distress migration, and other life-threatening work, enabling them to be part of socio-economic equity and community empowerment.
Addressing Systemic Challenges
Many youths, after completing 10th/12th grades, remain idle due to lack of required educational standards and career direction to cope up with the competitive world. Realizing this pathetic situation experienced by rural youth, SPPD has taken steps to remove the mindset of both parents and youth who consider the high income yielding technical jobs as low in social esteem. Similarly, the youngsters who complete their 10th and 12th grades successfully are forced into illegal sand mining for quick money and other life-risking and distressing migration jobs.
Interventions & Support Systems
Taking this alarming situation into consideration, SPPD challenges this situation by promoting STEM education and gender equality in healthcare to ensure equal opportunities for girls and boys. To start with, SPPD sensitizes both youth and their parents on the value of demand-driven skill training in areas like hospitality, healthcare, and allied medical fields. To lessen the burdens of parents, SPPD offers student financial assistance that includes travel costs and daily nutritional lunches. This ensures easy access to training courses. Since 2007, 95% of trainees, 550+ youth (both boys and girls) who have completed the skill training courses in SPPD have secured remunerative employment in reputed hotels, hospitals, and restaurants across Bangalore, Chennai, and Ooty. This constructive intervention has transformed their families’ economic equity and broken cycles of poverty.
In addition, our programs counteract this by:
- Providing vocational training to youth in high-demand fields.
- Imparting youth with entrepreneurial skills for self-employment.
- Advocating workplace protections and safe migration practices.
Sustainable Impact & Partnerships
SPPD collaborates with hotels, hospitals, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) partners, ensuring job placements for these rural youth. As part of the training process, SPPD emphasizes the need for climate-resilient livelihoods like eco-tourism and sustainability in healthcare roles. This aspect aligns with global development frameworks.
Holistic Empowerment
Other than skills, SPPD addresses mental health awareness and public health advocacy. The purpose is to ensure that the trainees flourish in urban workplaces. SPPD also integrates disaster risk reduction measures as part of the curricula. This enables the youth to acquire the skills of crisis management, helping to build resilient communities.
Our model is unique in the sense that it promotes inclusive growth and sustainable development initiatives, uplifting rural economies and reducing distress migration. Our model creates pathways for coming out of poverty. Through such community-driven solutions, we help youth to lead a life of dignity and security, and we build hope for a future free from exploitation.
