Collective lobbying brings results

A petition signed by over 200 Bareilly families has succeeded in gaining official government recognition of the need to improve schooling provision in the area

Educational provision in many parts of India is poor, and aspirations for children's educational attainment are low. Bareilly is no exception. The Bareilly Homeworker Group has helped increase awareness among homeworkers of the importance of sending their children to school by running a series of awareness-raising campaigns including meetings, wall-writing and leafleting, which is now resulting in increased demand among homeworkers for decent quality schooling for their children.

Praveen has been embellishing garments for the past ten years. She is a founder member of the community group 'Hands', representing its members' issues with the Bareilly Homeworker Group.

She is desperate to make sure all six of her children receive a decent education. With help from BHG, Hands members have set up a non-formal education centre in Faridapur

Praveen says: "We started a group with 25 members, and from this we realised that we should send our children to school. But how can we teach our children when we barely have enough money to feed them? So we started a school ourselves, which is a charity. Someone in another village gave us the building to start our school, and the teachers volunteer to teach for free."

"For me, school fees are the number one priority, followed by house and food bills."

At the same time, the Group organized a petition to set up a school in the village of Richola, where a highway that divides the village prevents parents on one side of the highway from sending their children to school on the other side.

In late 2007, after eight months of continuous lobbying, the Bareilly District Magistrate asked the India Labour Department to respond to the BHG's petition, which was signed by over 200 families.

In March 2008, an official from the Labour Department visited Richola and publicly announced that that there is a need for another school in the village. We believe this would not have happened without the action taken by BHG and NHG.

In the meantime, Group members have also helped set up and run a tuition centre in Richola which now has more than 150 children attending.

Akeeludin is a young villager in Faridapur who volunteers to help at the tuition centre in Richola. He says, "I want the people of my village to develop economically. I want our children to be better educated so that we can help build a strong nation."