Sl.No.

Program Running No. of beneficiary receive support in the year 2009-2010

No. of Beneficiary receive support in the year 2010-2011 (till December 2010)

Proposed Budget 2011-2012 Cost per Beneficiary(€)

01. Education 354 379 37 € 02. Nutritious food to

malnourished children

450 131

03. Medical Facilities 3397 4562

2.43 €

Total No. of beneficiary receive support

4201 5072

Kolkata is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located in eastern

India on the bank of the River Hooghly and with a population exceeding 15

thmillion; Kolkata is India's second largest city and the world's 14 largest

metropolitan area. One of the iconic symbols of Kolkata is the bridge across the

river Hooghly better known as “Howrah Bridge”. The bridge connects the twin

cities of Kolkata and Howrah and is a symbol for millions of rural poor trying to

escape poverty in their villages. The Howrah Railway Station and the Head

quarters of Eastern Railways, connects Kolkata to all parts of India through its

vast network of tracks crisscrossing the entire country. Even though it is the

second largest city, appropriate infrastructure has not been developed in the last

century. As a result, Howrah is continuing to face its perennial problems like

traffic congestion, population explosion and pollution. The railway unloads

thousands of migrants daily who eventually settle down in the numerous slums

and settlements. A large section of this population remains homeless, living on

pavements and temporary shelters along drains and under bridges. It is

estimated that about 20% of the population of Howrah live in slums and various

unauthorized settlements. These slums and settlements while scattered

throughout are highly concentrated along the western and northern parts of the

city. The reason for the high concentration of slums and settlements in the

western and eastern parts of the city was the traditional presence of high

industrial activity in these areas of the city. Ship-building, Jute, Textiles and

manufacturing industries proliferated, attracting cheap labour from the vast

hinterland who settled down in these areas and made Kolkata and Howrah

important livelihoods destinations.

thFor the well being of the slum dwellers on 19 May 2009 in partnership with Goal

India we have started a Project named as “Integrated Development Program for

the Poor living in Slums and Settlements of Howrah”.

The project focused on Health and Education of slums in Howrah District. The places

of operation are: Tikiapara opposite of Big Bazar (Banjara Bastee) which falls under

Howrah Municipality Ward No. 22 which consist of 250 households of 1500

populations and Bhagar Bastee near big garbage dump under Howrah Municipality

vide ward number 8 which consist of 650 households with 3900 population.

The project runs since May 2009 but unfortunately partnership agreement with no

longer due to some unavoidable circumstances of policy formulation depends on

Community need and relating terms and condition adopted for the interest of

beneficiaries.

So, the agreement has been terminated with Goal India and we faced terrible trouble

with stressful situation but not stopped at all. Considering the rapid demand of

poorest of the poor beneficiaries indeed increased our double effort for

implementation of the project. This pen picture scenario and felt need of the slum

dwellers inspired the team as well as empathetic support from our beloved well

wisher (AVTM, France) took the new shape of the project under named

th stDevelopment of Slums since 6 August 2009 and the project work effect from 1

September 2009 under auspices of AVTM, France.

More or less the economic condition of the slums belongs

to the poorest of the poor class due to close down of heavy

engineering and other industries and thousands lost their

only source of livelihood both directly and indirectly. Among

them some people are working as laborers, sweepers who

are engaged in sweeping, picking, van pulling, maid

servant and some of them work as a middle man and their

per day income ranges from Rs. 40 to Rs 150. All the

people of above-mentioned categories are recognized as

workers of unorganized sectors. Generally, most of them

used to live in jhupri, footpath, a very few of them lives in

shops and hotel where they are working on the road side

(especially found in Tikiapara Banjhara Basti) as poverty

and nature of their work compel them to live in bare

minimum space and in absence of basic amenities. People

of Banjara Bastee at Tikiapara spend their life style by

profession begging, singing & people of Bagar Bastee near

big dump at Belgachia spend their life style by profession

picking & sweeping. The combined condition both working

place and home needs to be the greatest gains in

information, motivation, behavioural skills and behaviour.

Moreover, many of them specially the youth are forced to

participate to involved anti-social activities and they are

exploited by the older one to behave as it.

Though they are staying away from their native places, they are

maintaining all their tradition, cultural heritage and inter-personal

relation intact similar to their native village. They are very

orthodox, close door regarding their culture and habit.

As the slum area consist of mixed culture and mixed communities so

there lives different category of people. Some are from Bihar

community who speaks in Hindi, Bhojpuri and Maitheli. Where as

some are from Orissa community who speaks in Oriya, UP people

used to speak Hindi, Assam people speaks assamiya and minority

communities of different states used to speak Urdu.

The festivals which are celebrated by those communities are Chhat

Puja, Kali Puja, Holi, Shivaratri, Rajaparba, Ravanabodh, Ganesh

Puja and Common festivals like Rakhi Bandhan, New Year etc.

Children appeared to be happy souls screaming and running around

and play until the last drop of energy is exhausted. Have food in open

ground and sleep under the stars. There is no homework, no school,

no exams just picking garbage, most of the teenager are engaged

themselves as a maid servant, factory labor, begging, doing hawker

in the train compartment, without thinking to devote their valuable

time for going to school due to extreme level of poverty.

Most of them are indulged in addiction of Alcohol, Ganja, Heroine and

other sedatives.

Most of the people are affected with Tuberculosis, skin disease,

Malaria, Jaundice, Diarrhea and other water borne disease.

Alcoholism is rampant and both males and females are addicted to

illicitly produce home liquor. Most of the young migrated are

habituated with multisex and frequent habit to visit commercial sex

worker which implies risk of acquiring HIV and also STI.

The project has started in two slums areas of Howrah District, one is at Tikiapara and the second one is at Belgachia with the target population around 5400 beneficiaries

under auspices of Les Amis Des Villages Du Tiers Monde (AVTM, France) and part of it is supported by Pierre and Sylvie Jacot, Switzerland.

With your kind support now the program are running in full phase and lots of beneficiaries are thankful to receive the support. Now the slum dwellers living over there are

becoming aware about education as well as about health related problem.

At first the Health clinic and education program was running in the

local club and under the tree which was very difficult for us to run.

Then with the approval of the donor two multipurpose centres were

constructed and were inaugurated on 1st December 2009.

The first one is at Uttar Bantra Banjara Bastee at Tikiapara railway

station. The centre was inaugurated by Sri Samir Das, an influential

community social activist came from khudra Kutir Silpa, Department,

Govt. of West Bengal. Around 1000 local people including 133

children, 400 health beneficiaries and 500 local people had attended

the ceremony.

The other one is at Bhagar Bastee at Belgachia. The centre was

inaugurated where at least 3000 community people including 212

school drops out students attended the ceremony and make the day

graceful.

Children in the target population need non formal education and among adults literacy is far

above the ground. Access to Government education schemes is also poor across the

population. Parents of the learners are innocent and live under poor economic strata. Most

of them depend on big garbage. The new generation along with their parents goes to

Bhagar as their day to day living for easy earning. They choose garbage picking, begging

and other related works. Mainstreaming and regularizing children in school going age

accessed coaching centre for 6 days in a week. The team member picks up the learners to

attend coaching centre regularly or involved with government education at nearest schools.

Total numbers of student attend the coaching = 379

Class wise distribution of the Beneficiaries in the centre

No. of children admitted in other school = 55

Sl.No. Name of the

Centre

Pre-

Primary

Class I Class II Class

III

Class

IV

Class V Class

VI

01 Tikiapara

Banjhara Bastee

72 39 30 09 08 17 07

02 Belgachia

Bhagar Bastee

80 55 29 16 10 06 01

Tikiapara Banjhara Bastee Belgachia Bhagar Bastee

Girls Boys Total Girls Boys Total

97 85 182 89 108 197

Malnutrition is one of the major causes of disability and permanent impairment. If

diagnosed and treated timely, it can save children and improve their physical and mental

conditions to a great extent, thereby helping them to improve the standards of their lives

and livelihood. Asha Bhavan Centre with the help of AVTM, France had taken an initiative

to identify vulnerable children suffering from acute malnutrition and supplement nutritional

intake so as to bring them out of potential danger and build their physical and mental

health. ABC has been supporting malnourished children to recover to a path of healthy life.

Age wise classifications of the malnourished children from April 2010 to November 2010:

Children Degree of Malnutrition Age

Boys Girls Total A B C D

0-6 months 02 02 04 00 02 02 00

7 months – 1 year 13 10 23 09 05 09 00

13 months – 1 ½ year 12 08 20 04 09 06 01

1 Yr. 7 months – 2 yrs. 14 15 29 07 10 08 04

2 yrs. 1 month - 2½ yrs. 08 02 10 02 03 03 02

2 yrs. 7 months – 3 yrs. 09 10 19 01 16 02 00

3 yrs. 1 month - 3½ yrs. 01 03 04 00 02 01 01

3 yrs. 7 months – 4 yrs. 06 10 16 01 06 07 02

4 yrs. 1 months – 5 yrs. 03 01 04 00 02 01 01

5 yrs. 1 months – 6 yrs. 02 00 02 00 00 01 01

TOTAL 70 61 131 24 55 40 12

As of April 2010-

December 2010 Normal Children Degree of Malnutrition

Age Boys Girls Total A B C D

0 – 6 months 02 02 04 00 02 02 00

7 months – 1 year 13 10 23 09 05 09 00

13 months – 1½ years 12 08 20 04 09 06 01

1 Yr. 7 months – 2 yrs. 14 15 29 07 10 08 04

2 yrs. 1 month - 2½ yrs. 08 02 10 02 03 03 02

2 yrs. 7 months – 3 yrs. 09 10 19 01 16 02 00

3 yrs. 1 month - 3½ yrs. 01 03 04 00 02 01 01

3 yrs. 7 months – 4 yrs. 06 10 16 01 06 07 02

4 yrs. 1 months – 5 yrs. 02 01 03 00 02 00 01

5 yrs. 1 months – 6 yrs. 01 00 01 00 00 01 00

TOTAL 68 61 129 24 55 39 11

Disabled Children Degree of Malnutrition

Age Boys Girls Total A B C D

4yrs 1 months – 5 yrs 01 00 01 00 00 01 00

5 yrs 1 months – 6 yrs 01 00 01 00 00 00 01

TOTAL 02 00 02 00 00 01 01

Age-wise classification of normal malnourished children:

Classification of Disabled Malnourished Children

Develop health seeking behaviour reduced morbidity and hygienic environment,

proper medical intervention, sanitation and sharing knowledge about water

borne diseases, knowledge relating reproductive child health, prenatal and post

natal care, proper housing approaching to house drainage system launched

health clinics by general physician for 3 days in a week. More than 100 patients

regularly come for treatment of common illness like (water and vector borne

diseases, STIs, skin disease) and receive high quality medicine at free of cost.

Even Linkages with government health department and other agencies were

also made especially for DOTS (course of treatment for tuberculosis) and other

programs. With support from Pierre and Sylvie Jacot we are able to provide

medical support to the beneficiaries.

No. of Patient attended the clinic = 4562

Sl.No. Name of the Centre Male Female Total 01 Tikiapara Banjhara Bastee 678 1092 1770 02 Belgachia Bhagar Bastee 1274 1518 2792

In those slum areas the people living over here are illiterate and they

are totally unaware about health and hygiene. To sensitize the

community regarding their health, hygienic, education, disability,

family planning, AIDS etc our team members organize Awareness

program along with the community members. Especially with the

mothers and also with the youth. 4 community Sensitization

programs were organized.

No. of people attended the program = 181

Alternative means of livelihood skills and knowledge development

to address for families focusing on adolescents and youths women

enhancement on existing trades providing vocational training

especially tailoring and sewing activities for joint intervention among

the target communities. Unacceptable means of livelihood such as

begging, extracting metal from water, garbage picking etc. and

gradually involvement of children in these activities for betterment of

catchments beneficiaries.

No. of beneficiary = 20

Children are the building bricks of a nation. If we do not

build their character today it will be reflected in future.

Sports are a way for the children and it is the way to build

the spirit of healthy competition within the children. Thus

we always honor the need for sports for the students and

to fulfill this need on 9th February 2011 Annual sports meet

was organized for the children of Development of Slums

project at Belgachhia Bhagar Bastee. The colourful day

was inaugurated by our Honorable General Physician Mr.

Chanchal Ranjan Bandyopdhyay. About 300 students

participated in various events i.e. 200 mtr run, frog jump,

Yogasan, Spoon & Marble race, Memory Race, Musical

Chair etc. Even parents of all the children and the staff

attended the 'Hari- Bhanga' competition with full

enthusiasm. In such a back ward society the sports meet

inspire all the participants and each and everybody

enjoyed every moment of the day. In the last session of the

day prizes and certificates were distributed to the winners

of all the events. The gala day was ended in the evening

but we hope that we will try to build the spirit of

sportsmanship for the students in future also.

Korina, 8 years old girl lives with her

parents at Tikiapara Banjhara Bastee

of Howrah District. Her father is the

only earning member of the family

who earn day to day living by

repairing Burner and mother earn

some money by begging inside the

public places associated with

Korina's little sister. Altogether there

are 12 members in the family who live

in a thatched house with mess

bamboo. In spite of poverty Korina

pays attention to study so she

regularly comes to the coaching

centre and receives education. She is

very good in her studies and also do

all the assignments regularly

attentively. Inspite of this she is a very

good dancer and also she can sing

very well. She has an aim to become

a teacher in near future. The aim in life

most possib le selected wi th

observing daily behavior and way of

teaching of our team members.

Korina Khatun

Place for bathing andwashing clothes

Kitchen of Korina’s family

Korina with herfamily members

House they live

Suraj a boy of 2 yrs old live with his

parents in Belgachia Bhagar Bastee. His

father is the only earning member of the

family who earn by working as a factory

labour. Altogether there are 6 members

lived in a thatched house. His father is an

intoxicated person. He spends all the

money which he earns in liquor. Suraj's

elder brother is engaged in garbage

picking and he takes his brother along

with him. Due to poverty it was very

difficult for his mother to provide sufficient

food to Suraj. Day by day he was

becoming thinner and thinner. Our field

worker visited their house and informed

his mother to bring her baby in the health

clinic. On hearing this Suraj's mother

brings her baby in the clinic on 2nd

February 2010 and from then onwards

the baby receives nutrient milk from our

health clinic regularly. Now his weight

has been little bit improved. In spite of

this parent counseling is also on

progress.

House they lived

Suraj with his mother

Suraj with his family members

Suraj’s kitchen

Suraj Sharma

Suman a boy of 5 years old lives with his

mother in his grand father's house at

Belgachia Bhagar Bastee. His father

divorced his mother and remarried and

lives with his new family at Delhi.

Suman's grand mother earns their day

to day living by picking garbage and

selling them in the market and his

grandfather earns by doing hawkery

which is very difficult for them to

manage their day to day living. Suman's

mother has a dream to make his child a

good citizen. So, she sends her son to

our coaching centre regularly. Suman is

very sincere in his studies and regularly

does his home- task. Suman has a

brother who is a malnourished child. Her

mother brings her younger son regularly

to the health clinic for health check up

and also to receive nutritious food. Even

to live in a better way Suman's mother

works with us to clean the room. They all

are very happy to receive the support

from us.

Infront of the house

The kitchen of Suman’s family

The study place of Suman

Condition of the house

Suman with his mother and brother

Punam a 20 yrs old girl lived with her parents at

Belgachia Bhagar Bastee. At the age of 13 years

she got married in the district of Bihar. After

enjoying one month her husband left her and

went to Delhi. After that he did not return back.

Then Punam rushed to her parents and took

shelter with them. She prepares food for her

family members and collects drinking water from

nearest municipality tap well. Our program

coordinator visited their house and saw that

Punam was very much neglected in her family

and she was very depressed. On seeing this on

6th September 2010 Program Coordinator

informed her to come to the centre to learn some

Vocational training for her livelihood support.

From then onwards she regularly comes to the

centre to learn sewing and knitting including

tailoring with other 19 trainees. She is a learner

but actively dedicated herself in noble

profession. She works hard. Her sincerity and

aptitude towards tailoring is surely be enough

hope to our other beneficiaries. Her presence in

our centre make more enthusiastic and viable to

early progress.

Punam infront ofthe house they lived

Punam with his brother

Punam Paswan

Sanitation

Md. Arbaj a small boy of 7 years old

lived with his family members at

Tikiapara Banjhara Bastee. His father

is unemployed and his mother earn

day to day living by begging which

was very difficult for them to manage

their livelihood. Md. Arbaj used to

spent time by playing cards with his

friends giving and taking money.

Gradually involved with gambling and

meet bad company. One day our

teachers surveyed the village and

came to know about him and bring

him to give non formal education and

then onwards he regularly join with us

to receive education. He is very

sincere in his studies and has an aim

to

Md. Arbaj in front of the house

The kitchen of the family

Family members of Md. Arbaj

Place for washing utensils, clothes, and bath place

Md. Arbaj

Md. Mansur a 12 years old boy lived

with his family members at Tikiapara

Banjhara Bastee. His father is the

only earning member of the family

who earn day to day living by

repairing burner. Md. Mansur use to

spend his childhood by playing goli

(marble) and moving aimlessly. Then

one day our teacher while going to the

centre saw him and brings him in the

centre. On seeing the children

studying over there he got motivated

and decided to study. Since 26th June

2009 he took admission in our centre

and continues to study well. On

seeing his performance our teachers

took him and admitted him in Class II

in the nearby Government school. He

is very happy to get admitted in the

school and also regularly come to

attend Education program to prepare

the lesson and receive guidance. He

is very happy to receive the support.

Md. Mansur Alam

The kitchen of the family

House they lived

Family members infront of the house

Join Us, Join our Movement……….

Asha Bhavan is a movement with a goal of ensuring rights for vulnerable children. This movement cannot sustain or succeed without your active support and cooperation. Join Us and be a part of this wonderful initiative. You can become a partner to our initiative by supporting our projects, sponsoring activities and events or by becoming our volunteer and be productively involved in capacity building and skill enhancement. Visit us, visit our centre. Asha Bhavan is located 45 kms from Central Kolkata city on the National High Way No. 6 on uluberia. Call us, come and be with our children.Asha Bhavan is your home too.