Balāngan initiative -- right to education for the girl child

on 10^th september 2005, Drksākshi started a Bālāngan (children’s space) at Dabrāpara. On January 4, 2006, a mid-day meal scheme for all the children who regularly attend the Bālāngan was introduced. By June 2007, the Bālāngan has an enrollment of 17 girls between the ages of 6 and 16. All children at the bālāngan have either dropped out of a government school or have never been to one.

Balāngan children are from very poor working-class families (Gond "tribal" group, Satnamis who are Dalits of Chhattisgarh, or other “lower caste” groups such as Dhimar who are traditional fisherfolk). The parents work as "casual" laborers in construction, mining, rag-picking, rickshaw pulling, domestic help and usually work under exploitative conditions. 

Bālāngan's mission is to aid personal development of children by 

• being a space where children experience their childhood with dignity

• making learning into an enjoyable, enriching and challenging act 

• preparing them to either re-join a regular school or learn a vocational skill for a livelihood

read more on bālāngan

In addition to Bālāngan, Drksākshi has also started a Dabrāpara community initiative for women to focus on adult literacy, health education and civic rights. The Lakshmi Sva-sahayata Samooh (Laxmi Self Help Group or LSHG) was started in memory of a young girl, Laxmi Mirre, from this community who died from malnutrition. LSHG had its first meeting on September 1, 2005 and now has 10 members. The goals of the LSHG are 

• to foster women's literacy and income generation activities

• to aid awareness about civic rights

• to generate community awareness about the need for the girl child to a right to education

Since September 2006, Drksākshi has also started the Janani videocenter where four students from Bālāngan are being trained in videography and photography as vocational skills. The goal of Janani is 

• to enable these students to earn a livelihood through setting up and maintaining a photo studio and tap into the regular market for ceremonial functions such as marriages, births, and other festivities

Other NGOs and development organizations such as Eklavya in Madhya Pradesh, Rupantar in Chhattisgarh, and Association for India's Development (AID, Chennai chapter) have offered their training materials for Drksākshi teachers.