According to a joint report by UNICEF and ILO, India accounts for 30.3% of extremely poor children living across the world. It also states that 9.97% crore children in India live in poverty-stricken conditions.
This is indeed a sad state of affairs, given that these children fail to access equal rights and opportunities to education and health. They continue to face socio-economic struggles and hence, are robbed of their childhood innocence.
While the government of India has undertaken several initiatives and noble citizens also do their bit from time to time, it is the NGOs that work at close quarters to uplift the lives of these children. NGOs provide interact individually with each underprivileged child and provide then ground-level support.
Let’s take a look at various ways an NGO helps children enhance their lives:
Providing Education
32 million children in India up to 13 years have never attended any school. This is because they belong to poor families or do not have access to schools.
A child education NGO in India strives towards making inclusive and equitable quality education available to underprivileged children. The NGOs Sponsor child education in India run schools across slums and villages, provide admission assistance to poor families, and pool funds from donors to help underprivileged children pursue education. They also set up vocational training centres to help youth become employable after or along with education.
Foster Care Support
India is home to 29.6 million orphaned and abandoned children. This category of children lack opportunities for their development.
NGOs arrange for alternative care for such children. They develop community-based care solutions through which a certified foster family or next of kin families keep these children at their homes and care for them. NGOs provide help to these families with the child’s education and skilling.
Relief and Rehabilitation
Thousands of children get displaced or lose their families and homes during natural and manmade disasters. The circumstances leave a deep emotional trauma on their minds and they become vulnerable to organ selling, child labour, trafficking, and other social evils.
NGOs work actively towards the relief and rehabilitation of these children through an emergency response plan. They bring these children to safe places, safeguard their health and well-being, and restore them to appropriate alternative care. They also provide for the education and nutrition of these children.
Eliminating Child Labour
Around 152 million children in India are engaged in child labour. A few of them are even exposed to dangerous work conditions and occupational hazards which affect them mentally, physically, socially, and morally.
NGOs come to the rescue of these children and protect them from labour by fostering their rights and well-being. NGOs also connect with employers and families to create awareness programmes about child labour. If the situation demands, they also help child welfare authorities to conduct raids at workplaces engaging in child labour.
This is an inclusive but not exhaustive list of support and welfare things that NGOs do to enhance the lives of underprivileged children. NGOs create a sustainable ecosystem that helps children survive and thrive.
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