MANOS Unidas
Inclusive quality education for children and women empowerment through income generation program of Musahar community in Patna District, Bihar State of India
Manthan’s aim is to impart education to rural children especially from the Mahadalit communities. Child centered education is our major objective. We believe that Education should be interesting, meaningful and should also keep one grounded in reality.
Manthan’s motto is that financial constraints should not be a hurdle in accessing quality education, especially to the Musahar community. We are of the strong opinion that if proper educational system is established in the villages, the rural areas would improve automatically.
The project has multiple components including; children’s education, training, capacity building, skill building and income generation program for women. A new component targeting women empowerment have been added, namely. Introducing income generation activities is in response to the felt need of the women in the project areas. Majority of the women in these areas lead difficult lives due to lack of livelihood opportunities and the resultant poverty.
Apart from this, the project will also focus on improving the academic performance of the children through more effective strategies. In the last phase, the CHIRAG book was the primary means to teach the children who attended the . But, in this project phase, the government school syllabus would be used to teach the children from classes 1-8. This additional support would provide a strong foundation for the children to perform well in school and aim for higher studies. The centers would be called SEC (class 1-4) and CRC (class 5-8). We would establish 15 SECs and 7 CRCs.
Additionally, formation of youth and adolescent clubs would be initiated for students of class 11 and above and youth in the age group of 15-20 years. We aim to start 10 such clubs to organize the youth. These groups would provide a platform for the youth who don’t get space to express themselves. These youth clubs will also act as a unified platform to offer various type of trainings – life skills, vocational and technical - in collaboration with Asha Deep and other such institutions.
These youth clubs have great potential to empower the youth, prepare them for decent jobs and steer them away from social evils such as drugs and other substance abuse.