Child Welfare Program in India

India is a diverse country. It consists of a combination of different cultures, castes and people, religion. It is considered to be the fastest growing economy in the world. However The country is plagued by many social problems, such as poverty, gender discrimination, Unemployment, health, and illiteracy are a large part of their population.

In order to solve these problems in society, there are different volunteer organizations and NGOs Lakshyam is one of the child care NGO in Delhi who works for various child welfare programmes. Lakshyam aimed at improving the lives of disadvantaged children and providing a positive direction and a healthier approach to their lives. Lakshyam continues to swear a credible, honest, transparent and accountable organization dedicated to providing a privileged future for those without privileges. 

Lakshyam has organised various child welfare programmes in India such as  “Butterfly- Child Welfare and Education” In this we provide basic education to poor children through integrated learning method. Child welfare and education programmes have been established to provide comprehensive assistance to needy children through a learning programme that focuses on textual and practical knowledge and personality development. We try to bring children involved in various occupations, such as rag picking, begging, toy sales and shoe polishing, and children who have dropped out of school or never attended to bring them to our centre. Our goal is to have children attend regular or open schools within three years of our intervention.

 

”Lakshyam Toy Library” As education itself does not promote the overall development of children, and toys play a vital role. They help children explore and understand the world around him. They enhance the child's imagination and creativity. They engage children emotionally with others through imaginative games and role-playing with friends. When children feel pain, they often find comfort in their favourite toys. Through this programme Lakshyam aims to bring back the essence and innocence of childhood in the lives of poor children. Children can enjoy a spacious environment, free to explore and carry out imaginative games. Educational toys, games and books such as cars, bicycles, soft toys and dolls are also available to help children grow and develop. Lakshyam established the first toy library 10 years ago and collected thousands of toys from various schools in Delhi. Now expanded to 17 cities across the country. In each city, donated toys, educational games and books are placed in the library for children to play for free. Children can access them anytime, anywhere.

The main aim of Lakshyam is to provide comprehensive development education for children, Provide children with an enabling environment that allows them to freely develop creativity and curiosity, Ensuring education for all by providing free remedial education to poor children, Help children choose the right career path for them and provide them with opportunities and guidance. 

Our country’s underprivileged children who live in villages and small towns, migrate to urban India they are inspired by short-lived income and life dreams. However, they find themselves exploited at every stage of their lives. Together with child traffickers and exploiting factory workers, they also face deprivation of formal education and nutrition. Donate to online NGOs and quickly join the cause of supporting the poorest and poorest children in India. Your donation will not only help these children, but also make you feel satisfied and satisfied.

Women and child development in India

India, a country where women have been given the status of goddesses has also been disappointing itself from centuries by never actually providing them an environment wherein they can flourish and grow as individuals. It is pretty sad that in a country as large and culturally rich as India, women are still a long way from being treated as equal citizens. Women live in constant fear of rape, trafficking, physical and sexual violence, denial of equal opportunities for education and work. Women's rights are extremely important if a country needs to move forward and prosper, and no matter how much India “shines,” the nation can go only so far if half its population is held back.

Our focus on women development forces us to trace the root problems which actually generated in our society years back. The dominance of men in our society never even considered women as people who deserved equal rights and opportunities. The over possessive nature of the men in our society made them to think of the women in their lives as obligations. The fact that the boys in the families were taught to provide safety to the women in their families rather than empowering the girls so that they are able to protect themselves hints at how regressive the approach went years back. These problems have continued over the years and crimes against women in India are not only a major concern but also a matter of shame. A country which boasts loudly about its rich cultures has one of the highest percentages of crimes against women such as rape, domestic violence, dowry and oppression in the world. Issues of safety, discrimination, lack of opportunities, hygiene and personal care, education and oppression have managed to survive over centuries.

 The good news is that we have increasingly become vocal about our problems and have started to counter them in our own ways. Being the youngest nation in the world with more than 65 percent of the population under the age of 30,we have now also started to understand the importance of nourishing our children by providing them better healthcare and education so that they build a better tomorrow for our country. It was in the year 2006 that the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of India, came into existence as a separate Ministry targeted at directly solving issues related to women and children in the country. Its aim has been to empower women to live with dignity and contribute as equal partners in development by providing an environment which is free from violence and discrimination. It also aims to nourish children by giving them opportunities to grow and develop in a safe and protective environment. The government in this way runs welfare, support services, trains for employment so the women are able to earn their own money making them independent, runs awareness campaigns about how and why education, cleanliness and healthcare are important rights of every women and child in the country. The government runs most of these campaigns and projects in association with one or the other NGO’s which are deeply engaged in making our society better than the previous day. The benefit with NGO’s is that they have a simpler constitution and issues are heard directly from the common people to help them to rise from the disparities of societal problems such as poverty, discrimination, unemployment and lack of education.

Talking about major NGO’s which are focused towards development and empowerment of women and children Lakshyam, Sayfty, Care and Sankalp have achieved tremendous milestones and successes in recent years. NGO’s like Lakshyam work on a step based approach starting with providing remedial education to children so that they see a brighter tomorrow than their parents and then moving towards exposing their mothers with professional training in stitching and tailoring to equip them with a platform where they can exhibit their products and earn money for themselves. Other NGO’s like sayfty and care are deeply focused towards spreading awareness among women on issues such as abuse and self-defense. They work towards providing women with affordable Health Care, jobs and safe environment to prosper in a world that is free from violence and discrimination which allows everybody a chance to grow irrespective of their gender. With increasing efforts of the government and various NGO’s in this direction, there is a huge need for us citizens to become a part of these campaigns in one way or the other because only an integrated effort can stop us from falling back in the evils of these already long lasted problems of gender inequality, discrimination and violence.
   

Lakshyam:Embarked Upon a Social Revolution

‘ 

Established in 2004, Lakshyam is a social enterprise that uplifts children and women of at-risk communities through education, employment and resource mobilization.

‘Lakshyam Toy Library’ is one of the main programs of Lakshyam that distributes toys and books from the privileged children to the not-so-privileged ones. Toy Boxes are set up in several private schools in Delhi and each child donates a toy and/or book that are then delivered to the 13 tie-up Centers/NGOs across 11 states. Lakshyam Toy Library Centers have been opened in the rural districts of states like Delhi, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Schools like Mother’s International School, Delhi Public School and Laxman Public School have carried out the collection drives of toys & books at their respective campuses.

Butterfly: Child Welfare and Education’ program has been designed, keeping in view the two integral building blocks of a healthy child, Development & Participation. The Remedial Education Center based at the Basti (slum) adopted by Lakshyam, JJ Basti in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi provides an education encompassing textual knowledge and personality development. The children have attended various workshops at venues like Oxford Bookstore, given dance performances at venues like Kingdom of Dreams and at colleges like Kamala Nehru College and DCAC. They recently visited RashtrapatiBhawan on the 14th of November ’14 and met the Hon’ble President of India as well.

The third main program of Lakshyam, ‘Rooh: Awakening Women’s Soul’ focuses on creating an environment conducive for women from the not-so-privileged communities. Theprogram imparts skill-building training and teaches the art of sewing, cutting, stitching and embroidery to women, thus creating opportunities for income enhancement. Focus is also on issues affecting the lives of women, like health & hygiene education, basic civic sense etc.Lakshyam’s product line of handmade products that are crafted and created by the women and adolescents are put up on various online portals, exhibitions and stalls at reputed venues like Bora Bora, Maruti Suzuki Fest and Jamia University Fest among others.

Besides the three main programs of Lakshyam, various health camps and community developmentactivitiesare carried out, in order to bring about long-lasting improvements in the compromised communities undertaken by Lakshyam, in urban and rural environments. Our next coming program is a two-fold initiative of recycling waste paper and producing free of cost notebooks for promoting education.

All the programs are supported by various corporates, colleges and schools along with several local and international volunteers & interns that make for an all-round team. The supporters from various walks of life have been contributing to the social revolution that Lakshyam has embarked upon with great fervour.

If you want to join in too, log on to http://www.lakshyam.co.in or write to us at support@lakshyam.co.in

Why Lakshyam is the best Volunteer Organization in India?

There are so many amazing NGOs that are doing some phenomenal work in India, these NGOs work hard in the field to bring about change in a hands-on approach. Different NGO's work in different ways for their own causes to achieve one common goal, making this society a better place to live in. Few NGOs work for the education and rights of underprivileged children residing in slums, orphanages and shelter homes. Some NGOs work to eliminate hunger & malnutrition. Some NGOs work to improve the conditions of senior citizens in India. Some NGOs work for improving the conditions of animals. Some NGOs work altogether for the betterment of environment and plants.

I had recently volunteered at a NGO, LAKSHYAM. Since its inception in 2004, LAKSHYAM has established itself for the welfare of the society, and mankind at large. Engaged in a number of social welfare activities like child welfare, health, education and women empowerment, Lakshyam has rigorously aimed at implementing effective and innovative solutions to improve quality of life of the not-so-privileged communities. Lakshyam's ‘Butterfly Program’ provides Remedial Education Centers for students, in order to fill the gap in the government education system. Lakshyam ‘Toy Library’ aims at delivering toys and books from the privileged kids to the not-so-privileged ones. Till now, over 2,00,000 toys and books have been distributed across India. Lakshyam's ‘Rooh Program’ tirelessly strives to educate the women of India and empower them with the confidence to lead a healthy lifestyle.

Following are the various objectives Lakshyam aims at:

• To help rural women learn easily employable skills
• To grant a financially independent status to rural women
• To help women protect themselves from domestic violence
• To help women attain the independent stance and say in the household by means of financial independence
• To give children a conducive and progressive environment for their development without any short comings
• To provide free-of-cost remedial education to children and give a fair access to education to all
• To help children choose the right career path and ensure the availability of fair opportunities to all
• To see rural India grow with its ethnicity and pristine beauty
• To create a cycle of giving back. Where talent, in stead of flowing towards urban cities, gives back to its home
• To save drowning neighborhoods from the plight of poverty
• Promote education and fill in the gaps created by money
• To attract well-educated teachers and provide standard education to children dwelling in rural areas

I had volunteered at Lakshyam’s Ghaziabad centre. The centre has children with age group ranging from 4 to 12. All these children belong to not so financially developed families. Also these children lacked primary education. But here at Lakshyam, these children are provided with all the necessities comprising of lots of stationery, books, clothes and uniforms. I had an amazing experience spending time with students. Teaching them various subjects like English, Mathematics, Environmental Studies, Computers and Hindi was completely a unique experience for me. The children were very sweet and cooperative. And they had the zeal to learn new and interesting things. And I was amazed to see how some girls had remarkable dancing skills.

Overall I feel blessed to have worked with LAKSHYAM the best Volunteer Organization in India. It is always good to do something for the well being of our nation. I hope to stay in touch with this organization and do my bit whenever required.

Women and Child Development: Making World a Better Place

Introduction

Women and child development has become the buzzword today with women working alongside men in all spheres and children are expected to get influence by their environment at different age level.  Women development can be defined as a process leading to enhancing women’s control over financial, human and intellectual resources. In any nation, women development can be assessed by their involvement in social, economic and social fields. Similarly, child’s development is the process of growth of child from dependency to increase independency. It is important that parents take every step necessary to ensure that their children grow up in environment where their social, emotional and educational needs are met.

Issue

As is a widely known fact, the condition of women in India as well as the rest of the world personifies pitiful. We have a high rate of female feticide and at the same time the discrimination against girls in India has been going on since ages now. Even today, there are several sections of the Indian society where the girl child is treated as a burden. Leaving behind the educational and medical front, girls in India lag far behind in receiving affection as well. Also, being the second most populated country, India has a large number of youths crowning its resources. However, this resource is misused one as well.

There are various problems faced by women and children together – Undernourishment which means lack of sufficient calories in food leading to weakness, lower work efficiency etc., Malnutrition which means lack of sufficient ingredients such as vitamins, proteins etc. in the food leading to illness, less weight of child at birth, high rate of child mortality etc., Limited Education as the number of school going children is still far from satisfactory.

Development Programs by Government and NGO

For the social and economic development of women and children, Government and certain NGOs have launched various schemes and programs such as:

1.    Support To Training-Cum-Employment Programme (STEP):

The women are given training in sectors like agriculture, dairying, village and small industries.

2.    Swa-Shakti Project:

Swa-Shakti aims at increasing women’s access to resources for better quality of life by providing health and education services and imparting skills to women for income generating activities.

3.    National Commission for Women:

National Commission for Women protects constitutional and legal rights of women, recommends remedial measures, facilitates redressal of grievances and advises the Government on all matters affecting the welfare and development of women.

4.    Rooh-Women Welfare Program:

This is one of the programs initiated by LAKSHYAM NGO in New Delhi. Lakshyam’s program, ‘Rooh-Awakening Women Soul’, meaning the spirit, aims at strengthening women demeanor towards life itself. The program’s first step is to provide remedial education to children; second step is to provide an essential degree of exposure along with professional training and third is to equip the girls with popular platform to sell their skills. This program also targets developments in ways of financial issues by organizing various workshops that enable poor women to self- generate employment.  Health awareness campaigns are organized every now and then.

5.    Butterfly – Child Welfare Program:

Lakshyam NGO launched a similar program for children welfare named “Butterfly – Child Welfare and Education” that symbolizes freedom with wings of butterfly. This programs aims at imparting holistic education and well-round development and abolishing the term “underprivileged”. Students at Lakshyam are taught Hindi, Mathematics, English and Computer Sciences. It provides free of cost tutorials as well.