Adolescence is not only a pivotal time in the life of a child but the gateway to adulthood. It is also a critical opportunity to make progress for all children. And it is a stage of life in which we must invest more attention, resources and effort today, or suffer tomorrow the social and economic consequences of generation less equipped to become fully contributing members of society”. When the benefits of education are obvious, it has yet to acquire the required urgency in the development agenda of interventions.
Ramanathapuram District had a population of 1353445 as of Census 2011. The District consists of 69.66 per cent of the rural population. Share of scheduled caste and scheduled tribe's population in the total population is 18.40 per cent and 0.08 per cent respectively in the District
With a gender gap of 16.68 percentage points (at the state level it is 13.63 percentage points) in literacy levels, there is a great variation across blocks in Ramanathapuram District in terms of children enrolment in schools, especially secondary education and dropout rates.
The District level primary and upper primary enrolment are better than that of secondary enrolment. Enrolment of Girls in secondary education is poor in certain blocks. Higher percentage of BPL families, getting poor grades, inadequate transport facility and insufficient school accessibility pose a higher proportion of dropout in secondary education as per the HDR of Ramanathapuram District.
Mandapam, is one of the four blocks that has lower completion rates in upper primary education than that of the District, because of its coastal nature and inadequate school accessibility. Mandapam block has higher dropout rates than that of District status. This block is one of the most backward blocks in the District as per various index values with regard to Human Development. This is a block with low secondary school enrolment and it is likely that most of the adolescent children are out of school in this block and working as our survey of 30 villages shows. Across the District, drought is a common concern. As per State Planning Commission (SPC) under State Balanced Growth Fund (SBGF) seven blocks have been declared as backward blocks (Bogalur, Kadaladi, Kamuthi, Mandapam, Mudukulathur, Paramakudi and Tirupullani).
Our survey shows that many adolescent girls from this block are recruited to work in fish processing units and spinning mills in other Districts under very exploitative working conditions. Thus, in order to promote and protect the rights of adolescents in Mandabam block of Ramanathapuram District in Tamil Nadu and in particular to prevent and respond to exploitation of adolescents working in the textile industry by building a protective environment for them within their communities.
The area in which PAD is working has a history of trafficking of children and adolescent girls for work to various other places. PAD being a host to Child Help Line, came across many emergency calls involving trafficking of children to other states for work as well as complaints on adolescent girls trafficked to textile units in other Districts of the state. PAD has good experience in organizing rescue of such children networking with various other child protection agencies as well as working with other NGOs in rescuing adolescent girls from textile units. These children are reintegrated into the community by involving their parents and local elected bodies. Action as per law is also undertaken to rehabilitate such children. So far, we have rescued 215 of children and more than 60 adolescent girls.
In order to create general awareness among the communities, PAD has undertaken several campaigns along with Campaign against Child labour (A National Network of organisations) on policy changes such as, compulsory education up to secondary level, (as the dropout rate is high in the age group of 14+ in Ramanathapuram District and they become potential workforce and reserve labour for the modern slavery system), to remove all the exceptions in the newly amended Child and Adolescent Labour prohibition and regulation Act 2016. It is also demanded that the children in 15-18 age group should not be allowed in non-hazardous industries and to identify and notify all hazardous occupations where adolescent children are involved. For example, the textile mills and fish processing units are not categorized as hazardous in the law to prohibit adolescent children working in such industries. It is also demanded that the right to education should be up to 18 years and 12 years of schooling.
The children (8 to 14) and youths (15 to 29) have been organized in all the 117 working villages of PAD into clubs in order to provide space for expressing their concerns and promoting Child Friendly Accountable Mechanisms and to transform youths into change agents. Helping these children and youth to get more information on their legal entitlements so that they can hold duty bearers accountable for their rights
Under youth leadership process, we follow “Camp approach” because the amazing power of Temporary community is to bring about radical and life changing transformation. Creating a safe place away from their daily routine is the foundation for unlearning and learning. Opportunities for extended living together will help to reinforce new values and attitudes. This “Camp Approach” has proved to be an effective mechanism for empowering youths with changes in their attitudes in a positive direction.