Campaign Story
About the project
Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district faces numerous child rights challenges, including child labor, school dropouts, child marriage, orphaned children, child trafficking, and substance abuse. Practices like child labor and child marriage are often socially accepted within the community. Many families remain vulnerable to child traffickers who lure victims under the false promise of a happy marriage. The community also struggles with deep-rooted gender bias, which severely affects the health and education of girls.
The District Child Protection Unit (DCPU), which is responsible for addressing these issues, lacks adequate staff and organized outreach mechanisms. This leads to delays in implementing action plans and often forces children into institutional care due to the inability to trace families or conduct timely home visits.
Making a difference
CRY America’s Project SMVM works towards ensuring the protection of children and women in this community by implementing programs aimed at building a comprehensive child protection mechanism. Key activities under the project include identifying and tracking vulnerable children, connecting families with social protection programs, and forming Children’s Collectives to raise community awareness on critical issues like child labor, child marriage, substance abuse, and child trafficking.
Another key focus area is promoting children’s education by strengthening engagement with community stakeholders, vulnerability mapping of Child in Need of Care and Protection (CNCP) children, and bridging learning gaps through support classes.
The way forward
● Sensitize 30 School Management Committee (SMC) members and 600 Children’s Collective members on child rights and education.
● Conduct child rights awareness sessions with 36 Child Collectives, enabling them to escalate 80% of child education issues on a quarterly basis.
● Enroll 500 children aged 6–18 years in remedial or additional educational support programs.
● Facilitate school enrollment for 320 children aged 6–18 years.
● Organize two block-level trainings for SMC members on child rights and protection issues.
● Develop Individual Child Care Plans for 700 Children in Need of Care and Protection (CNCP).
● Ensure 100% rescue and rehabilitation of trafficked children, including their mainstreaming into formal education, while working to fully eliminate child marriage and child trafficking in the community.
● Through the Community Cadre model, strengthen Village-Level Child Protection Committees
● Train 142 VLCPC members to assess and respond to child protection concerns.
● Train 10 Child Protection Committees, frontline workers and representatives of child-rights organizations on relevant laws
● Form and support 142 children’s collectives in building their leadership on child-rights issues
● Link at least 1448 children and their families with public services and social protection programs
● Provide mental health services to children, families and caregivers
The way forward
● Orienting Anganwadi teachers on Early Childhood Education (ECE) programme components.
● Strengthening parents monitoring committee
● Conducting awareness programmes on child labor at the community level
● Implementing Life Skills Modules in child collectives to inculcate self-esteem and self confidence
● Transact life skills modules on sexual and reproductive health in adolescent girls collectives
Project Impact
625
CNCP (Children in Need of Care and Protection) children identified
2,050
Children involved in Children’s Collectives
172
Children attended child rights orientation
927
Families linked with social security programs
12
Special Learning Centers (SLCs) established
300
Children attending SLCs
40
Children benefited from the Digital Learning Center
4
Children rescued from child labor
1,822
Children from Children’s Collectives sensitized on child protection issues
Last year’s disbursed budget Jan 24 to Dec 24: $33,433
This year’s approved grant for Jan 25 to Dec 25: 82,303
Karmeshwar’s path to recovery
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