E-Paper
Social organisation working for uplift of slum dwellers
A RAY of hope for their uplift and development has come for the hapless women and children of different slums in the city with concrete initiatives of a social organisation, ?Asmita? controlled by Diocese of Benaras ? an organisation of dedicated Christians to the social service.
A RAY of hope for their uplift and development has come for the hapless women and children of different slums in the city with concrete initiatives of a social organisation, ‘Asmita’ controlled by Diocese of Benaras — an organisation of dedicated Christians to the social service.
Asmita, working for last eight years under the supervision of Father Dilraj, concentrated on women and children of different slums in the city for their uplift and development. Domestic maid servants and rag pickers are on the priority of the institution. For the purpose, 24 slums spread over the city have been adopted by the institution where different sorts of social activities are being carried out by the social workers of Asmita.
“We are concentrating on non- formal education to the children of slums, preparing them to go to formal schools by conducting classes free of cost.
The teachers are those female teachers, who have been educated through this educational process by Asmita earlier.
Prior to become teachers, they were hapless woman. “We do not appoint qualified teachers with high salary expectation,” Father Dilraj told Hindustan Times.
Asmita also runs a vocational training school for the children of slums, he added. The institution was formed at Nagwa area here with a group of slum dwellers of the unorganised sector in 1998. Most of them were migrant labourers including ladies and children from tribal and rural belts of Bihar, MP, West Bengal and UP.
A majority of them were engaged in domestic work, rag picking and rickshaw pulling. Children of these labourers were not going to schools.
Focussing other activities of the organisation, he said, “It has also formed an Asmita Crisis Intervention Group, helping the hapless women fallen victim of several atrocities.
These women are extended proper counselling by the activists of centre with necessary facilities like clothes, food and accommodation to make them self reliant.”
He said the institution has also formed several ‘Self Help Group’ among the slum dwellers for their economic survival through very small and marginal business.
The slum dwellers have been sanctioned loans of small amount for buying trolley, vegetables, juice grinder and other things with very low rate of interest as compared to government banks to make them self reliant.
