India
Save the Children, Bal Raksha, Bharat
Save the Children, Bal Raksha, Bharat is an independent member of the International Save the Children Alliance. Save the Children has existed in India since pre-independence days and is currently working in 11 states and union territories of India.
We're improving the quality of teaching
We're working to improve the quality of education at preschool and primary levels in 10 districts of Jammu and Kashmir. Together with the government, we're training teachers in 50 primary schools and 47 Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) centres how to get their pupils really involved in what they're learning.
We're enriching children's lives outside school
We're running activity centres in 135 villages, which give more than 12,000 children somewhere safe to play. Our 172 supplementary education centres are used by more than 7,500 children as somewhere they can go to study out of school.
Child protection
India's laws ban the use of young workers in hazardous industries, but thousands of children work in firecracker and matchstick factories, weave carpets, embroider clothes and work in cotton fields. Many girls are domestic workers, illegal for those under 14 since 2006. Shut away in private houses, they are often badly treated, and are particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse. During the past year we rescued more than 600 child domestic workers and reunited them with their families.
We've raised awareness of children's rights with more than 17,000 children, 3,500 parents and 1,000 teachers in West Bengal. We're also working with the government to set up processes to rescue and rehabilitate child domestic workers.
About one-third of the India’s one billion population live below the poverty line. Millions of children work to support their families.
A recent study carried out by Save the Children found that more than 50,000 children are employed as domestic helper’s in other people’s homes in Calcutta.
These children are subjected to many different forms of abuse - some are as young as five and most of them are girls. Nirubala, 13, was beaten with an iron.
Save the Children - through their partner Right Track - provide child-workers an education along with recreational resources at a number of drop-in centres.
Kanika, left, shares a joke with other rescued child domestic workers in a drop-in centre.
We're combating trafficking
Human trafficking in India has become an organised crime generating a business worth some US$8 million. The trade relies on enticing women and children from poor areas with promises of jobs and/or marriage. We've set up 87 anti-trafficking networks at village level across the states of West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.
We're raising awareness of HIV and AIDS
Working through schools, children's groups and local partners, we've been raising children's awareness of HIV and AIDS. Funded by Save the Children Switzerland, we've carried out a study in three states of Jammu and Kashmir to understand how children see HIV and AIDS at the moment and how it affects their rights. In the areas of the country affected by the tsunami in the south, we've been able to talk to around 130,000 adults, young people and children who are still living in camps.
Find out more
- Go to the Save the Children India website
- Find out how we're saving children's lives in rural India
- Read about the difficulties of motherhood in parts of rural India
India related news stories
- Friday 26 September 2008 Over 10 million affected as Indian floods worsen
- Save the Children increases its appeal to US$4 million after Orissa region is hit by flooding
- Friday 19 September 2008 Thousands of villages still flooded, millions still homeless one month after deluge in India’s poorest state
- Children who were forced to flee their villages to escape flooding in Bihar, northern India, are still homeless and living in appalling conditions.
- Tuesday 9 September 2008 Disease kills children in India flood camps
- Children who fled their homes to escape floods in northern India are dying from disease because of dirty contaminated water and a lack of decent toilets and washing facilities in the camps where they are living.
- Monday 1 September 2008 Children living on highways to escape Bihar floods killed by traffic
- Children sheltering near highways after they fled their homes to escape rising floodwaters are being killed by high-speed vehicles, according to Save the Children’s emergency response teams in northern India.
- Friday 29 August 2008 Food price rises new threat for flood-affected children in India
- Escalating prices for basic foods are creating a new risk for hundreds of thousands of children in northern India after the Kosi river dramatically changed course and flooded areas that were previously considered safe.
- Wednesday 27 August 2008 India flood 'catastrophe' for 500,000 children
- Save the Children launches £1 million appeal after worst floods in India's northern Bihar province in over 50 years.
- Thursday 9 August 2007 Shameless cast support South Asia floods appeal
- The Shameless cast took to the streets of Manchester today to raise cash for Save the Children's South Asia flood appeal.
- Tuesday 16 January 2007 Gordon Brown must end modern day slavery of India's child workers
- Save the Children calls on Gordon Brown to put pressure on the Indian Government to end the exploitation of millions of children forced into child labour.
