Site Visit Report
Asha Delhi 10% Reservation Project
Site visit on 28.3.10; report by M.R. Ravi
Volunteers of Pardarshita India, Prakash and Parvati, are implementing the Asha Project on 10% quota for Economically Weaker Sections of the society in Public schools of Delhi, which have got lands at concessional rates from DDA, in the southern and south-western districts of Delhi since 2007. The Project steward has been Uday Gosain and volunteers Chiranjeeve and Aseem have been monitoring the project and its accounts.
The nature of the work is creation of awareness amongst the communities of EWS people in the district about the availability of such an opportunity, provide the courage and logistical help in the entire process: asking the school for applications which are often hostile in the first effort, complaining against the schools to the District Education office, ensuring that the schools have a transparent selection process and monitoring the school – parent – government officer relationships after admission to ensure that the children get all their entitlements including book allowance from the Government. The process also gets amply more difficult with the inclusion of help in getting the documents required for the process from the Revenue District offices: birth and income certificates.
The camps where work is going on are briefly listed here:
Israel camp:, Vasant Kunj: Population of the camp is about 2500-3000. work started here in 2007, and about 40-45 children from the camp are attending schools including Ryan International School, Bloom Public School, Delhi Public School Vasant Kunj, Vasant Valley School, Deep Public School, etc. About 15 children are admitted each year since 2008.
JJ Bandhu Camp, Vasant Kunj: Population ~1500. 6-7 children are presently enrolled: even though 10-11 children were enrolled, others withdrew owing to other personal reasons unconnected to the admission process or school. Children go to DPS Vasant Kunj or DAV Public School Vasant Kunj.
Safdarjung Enclave: This colony is not an EWS colony, but a few residents of servant quarters or rented accommodations in parts of this colony are under the category. About 25 children from this area are admitted to Greenfield Public School, Hillgrove Public School and Delhi Police Public School. The colony not being a slum-type of community, communication between parents does not happen automatically and this leads to individualism and difficulty in sustaining the efforts in this area. No admissions were made in 2010 under EWS quota in this area.
Resettlement Colonies in Dwarka area:
JJ colony, Sector 3, Dwarka: (population 2500-3000) Pappan Kalan (3000): a total of 4-5 children from these two colonies go to DPS Dwarka and Pragati Public School. The efforts of Pardarshita volunteers has resulted in DPS Dwarka doing a transparent open lots admission process for EWS children every year since 2009.
Najafgarh, Bijwasan, Bharthal, Mahavir Enclave: Put together, about 6-7 children go to the nearest public school in the area: Pragati Public School Dwarka, Basawa International School, Sec 23 Dwarka, Venkateswara International School Sec 10 & 16 Dwarka and Maxford International School, Dwarka.
The colony I visited on 28th March 2010 was the Bhanvar Singh camp in Vasant Vihar, which has a population of about 4000. The work here started in 2008, and 11 children were admitted: 7 in DAV Public school Vasant Vihar and 4 in Chinmaya Vidyalaya Vasant Vihar. I had the opportunity to interact with the ladies of the houses from where children were admitted. One common observation is that all of them are proud and happy about their child going to a good school. One of them remarked, “ I never knew that our poor children can also go to such big schools to study”! One of the mothers faces stiff resistance from her husband, who is of the view that why face so many difficulties when the child can happily go to the nearby government school, but she says that it is still worth the trouble. All other husbands were supportive.
Initial struggle was when the ladies went to school for the applications. While Chinmaya school guard would not let them in, DAV refused them forms after they met admissions in-charge. After a complaint letter to the Deputy Director of Education, forms were issued in both schools. Income certificate and birth certificate was the next ordeal, but they managed these in a month from the District Revenue office in Najafgarh in 2008, and their children were admitted. This year, the SDM of their revenue district has made the process of the issue of income and birth certificates more difficult, and even after 6 months delay, most people have not managed to get these documents: making this the bottleneck: only one child has secured admission in 2010 owing to this problem.
Renewal of admission every year as per rules requires a self-declaration by the parent. In implementing this there is a lot of variance between schools and again causes struggle for parents and Pardarshita volunteers.
The most pleasant part of my site visit was my interaction with the children. They are obviously able to communicate well, are reciting rhymes, alphabets and numbers, and are a lot confident. In fact the parents observed that these children have managed to change the environment of the homes: they do not let their parents speak foul language; they keep parroting the moral instructions received from their schools at home! The children are clean on personal hygiene, as I could check randomly. It transpired that the children would not want to miss even a day of school, and loved being there. So, surely they are treated well at school.
It is all working, but it is not going to be enough! The Right to Education bill is here, which provides for 25% EWS quota in ALL private schools in India: much bigger than the scope of this project (10% quota in some schools that got subsidised land from DDA in Delhi only). Watching the situation, soon organizations like Asha should focus on pressurizing the Government to become transparent, and ensure fair implementation of RTE!
As of now, this project is surely lighting the lamps in a few homes and lighting the torches for a few colonies which could be expected to become self-driving in a few years' time. It is an activity which must be supported. The volunteers are very genuine, and the communities trust them so much. This is a good combination that we cannot afford to lapse. My summary view is that this project is serving a very useful role and must be continues with more vigour and funds.