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Children - Terre des Hommes

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98<br />

Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act.<br />

In Gandhigram too, as in the surrounding area, all the<br />

displaced adivasi families suffer discrimination from the<br />

upper castes as they have been forced to live with them after<br />

relocation. At the village meeting, the people reported that<br />

around 40–50 persons from the village have migrated out to<br />

the cities, for lack of sustenance.<br />

Status of Anganwadis and Schools<br />

The mining activities, compounded by the displacement of<br />

adivasi villages for the Panna Tiger Reserve have led to a<br />

breakdown of institutional mechanisms, or where they exist,<br />

they are made irrelevant to the child in the current situation<br />

of impoverishment. The study team visited the anganwadi<br />

centres and primary schools which are the main institutions<br />

of support for education and nutritional development of the<br />

child.<br />

Of the total population of 200 in Umraban village between<br />

60 to 70 persons are below 18 years of age. The primary<br />

school in the village has an enrolment of 39 children of<br />

which 21 are boys and 18 are girls, all of whom are STs. Of<br />

these children around eight, mainly girls, do not go to school<br />

but accompany their parents for work in the diamond mines<br />

and quarries or to take care of their younger siblings while<br />

their parents are at work. As this village is not very close<br />

to the road, the teacher is not regular and because of this,<br />

absenteeism among children was also reported. According to<br />

the survey conducted by PKMS, there are over 40 children<br />

below 6 years of age in this village, but there is no anganwadi<br />

facility in Umraban.<br />

In Mannor village, according to his survey, there are 126<br />

children enrolled in the primary school of which 60 are boys<br />

and 66 are girls, all from ST families. There is no school<br />

building at present and children were found to be studying<br />

under a tree. However, a new school building was under<br />

construction at the time of this study. Only about two<br />

children have studied upto class V in this village.<br />

Mannor has mining activities very close to the village and<br />

hence 20–25 children of the age group of 8 years and above<br />

work regularly in the diamond mines and stone quarries. In<br />

this village, there is an anganwadi, which has an enrolment<br />

of 127 children between 0 and 6 years of age. However, only<br />

25–30 children regularly go to the anganwadi, as the rest are<br />

taken to the mine sites by the parents because the anganwadi<br />

does not take care of the children all through the day.<br />

Bador village has a population of 650, as stated by PKMS,<br />

of which 200 children are enrolled in the primary school.<br />

There are 112 boys and 88 girls, with ST boys numbering 78<br />

and ST girls numbering 66, and the rest are SC (three boys<br />

and one girl) and OBCs (49) and General (3). However,<br />

when the team visited the school there were only 30–35<br />

children attending and the headmaster said that majority of<br />

the children go for mine labour work. The anganwadi in this<br />

village has an enrolment of 96 infants but only 80 attend<br />

the anganwadi regularly. There are 40 children in the age<br />

group of 0–3 years and 40 children in the age group of 3–6<br />

years. The anganwadi is mainly managed by the sahayaka or<br />

assistant who is an adivasi girl but the anganwadi teacher,<br />

who is from the Yadav caste neither attends regularly nor<br />

treats the children with care. Hence, the women said that<br />

they are not too happy to send their children to the local<br />

anganwadi. The anganwadi worker said that three infants<br />

were identified by her, as severely malnourished, and she got<br />

the children admitted at the district hospital at Panna. In<br />

reality, the PKMS, expressed that most of the children are<br />

malnourished and do not have adequate diet or sanitation.<br />

Purana Panna is a gram panchayat village with a large<br />

population. It has a primary school with strength of 154<br />

children, of whom 71 are boys and 83 are girls. Here again,<br />

as the mines are close to the village 15–20 children regularly<br />

go for work in the diamond mines, which are privately run<br />

by contractors, and do not attend school. The anganwadi in<br />

this village has 124 children, with 56 girls and 68 boys. Ten<br />

pregnant women and 16 women who have just delivered, are<br />

registered here. Of the children enrolled in the anganwadi, only<br />

25–30 children go to the anganwadi regularly as the others are<br />

taken to the mine sites by their parents. Hence, most of the<br />

infants were seen to be in the mine sites, exposed to the dust<br />

from the quarries and this is a serious hazard to their health,<br />

particularly with respect to respiratory infections.<br />

Half the adivasi population who were displaced from Jhallar<br />

relocated to Janawar and settled in the forest land behind the<br />

village. This new resettlement colony, called New Jhallar, has a<br />

mini-anganwadi which is linked to Panna anganwadi and has<br />

23 girls and 20 boys enrolled here. It is mainly taken care of<br />

by the sahayaka who cooks the supplementary food allotted<br />

to this colony. There is a primary school here but without a<br />

building (as it is forest land and they do not have permission<br />

to construct a building) but there are 15–20 children of<br />

school-going age here. There is no teacher appointed here,

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