Safe Spaces & Tools of Empowerment – Adolescent Boys March Ahead

Challenges abound for Vulnerable Children

Surrounding transport hubs such as railway stations and bus terminals are clusters of bastis, which are home to numerous underprivileged families. Many of these families are run by a single person who does odd jobs. In most families this role is played by fathers, who themselves are sometimes addicted to substance abuse. In many other families, single mothers also work inhuman hours to bring food to the table. In both the cases, however, due to the parents being forced to spend several hours at work, there tends to be a natural neglect to their children’s wellbeing. For young girls and boys, this neglect becomes a safety concern, leading to unhealthy distractions, or sometimes even a wasted childhood.

Low-Income Urban Communities Foster Specific Issues for their Adolescent Boys

Adolescent boys face numerous challenges specific to their age group. Growing up in low-income families, boys face crippling pressure to contribute to the earning of their household. This pressure brings with a disinterest in education. “9^th kar liye, bohot hai. 10^th kar liye, bohot hai” (after completing 9^th and 10^th grade, they feel that they have studied sufficiently), explains Program Manager Sandip Jha.

Exacerbating their dire circumstances are factors such as limited opportunities to education, learning skills, nutrition, healthcare and access to developmental schemes. These issues compel boys to shoulder responsibility and seek work at a young age. In several runaway cases, this pattern emerges frequently, only strengthening this hypothesis. Add to this, adolescent boys inhabiting these bastis typically lack a male role model/mentor. It then becomes easy for them to fall prey to peer pressure and succumb to bad habits.

Having witnessed these patterns time and again, Railway Children India’s outreach workers identified the need to specifically plan and execute programs and interventions for adolescent boys, to be able to cultivate positive behaviours, giving boys the opportunities to grow and thrive in their community and have access to opportunities they deserve.

Child Activity Center Becomes the Primary Safe Space…

Establishing a Child Activity Center in every community was our foremost goal. This allowed us to offer a safe haven for children of all age groups. This safe, nurturing space not only proved a relief to parents but also became a playground for children to come, gather and express their creativity. Before the CACs, adolescent boys, having no healthy alternatives chose to loiter in the community and indulge in bad habits. After CAC’s, however, they received a space to simply be and grow.

While at the CAC, boys would realize their own potential through myriad activities such as paintings, essay writing, poems and shayari. They also got involved in karate classes, computer classes, amongst other activities and found outlets of creativity which gave them confidence and motivated them to pursue their talents.

… And a Home to Success Stories such as Ayan’s

Twelve-year-old Ayan’s story best depicts the transformative power within the humble CAC.

12-year-old Ayan (name changed) was discovered through the vulnerability assessment in the community, after which he was introduced to the RCI Community Centre and its activities. This introduction enhanced his interest, leading him to frequently inquire about the activities held at the CACs.

Ayan’s father was a cobbler and mother a homemaker. Surpassing the pressing situations at home, Ayan excelled in his studies. He would find joy in participating in the activities at the centre, an enthusiasm shared by all his siblings who are also involved and regularly attended the various activities at the community centre.

Demonstrating consistent attendance at the Community Centre and exhibiting stellar leadership qualities, Ayan soon became the President of his group.

Aayan has set an example for the other adolescent boys in the community and a close follow up is being kept ensuring that there is no disruption in Ayan’s studies.

School Enrolments and Re-enrolments—RCI’s Aggressive Goal

In Ayan’s case, owing to his interest, it was easy for him to continue schooling. This is not true for several other boys though. Many boys across communities had dropped out of school after Covid. Several others had never been enrolled. Routinely, RCI conducts enrolment and re-enrolment campaigns. Before the final enrolment though, RCI assists students and their families with several important documents such as Aadhar card and birth certificate. Across five communities, RCI has been successful in enrolling and re-enrolling (dropouts) 34 children. That is 34 children who had long been away from the gainful education system.

Special Cases Demand Special Attention

Now, picture a 15-year-old boy who has been out of school for the past 3 years, when he was studying in the 4th grade. “It is not beneficial to enroll children in school directly,” explains Sandip Jha. “Ideally, he should be enrolled in the 7^th grade, but after the gap in education, his academic competency does not match his ideal grade. He will neither be able to sustain in the same nor will he be able to sustain in a lower grade.”

“Repeatedly, in our conversations with adolescent boys we hear them saying they don’t want to go to school because they have to sit with much younger boys.” This recurrent pattern motivated our team to plan the academic competency mapping. With the help of an external agency, RCI’s goal is to track a child’s academic competency and link him/her with the appropriate formal/informal mode of education.

So far, RCI has implemented two modes of informal training—peer-led life skill training and linking to vocational training. With the goal of creating a sustainable model where groups of children in a community are able to teach and learn together, the peer-led life skill training model was initiated. The process required identifying peer facilitators from the community and training them to in turn positively influence and conduct training sessions with their peers.

For boys in their late teens, sometimes rejoining is an impractical solution as it is likely to set them back than push them ahead. Here, vocational training in specific tasks such as computer hardware repairing/mobile repairing stand as fruitful alternatives. Boys too are keener on utilizing their interests and passions with these workshops.

Conducting these multi-faceted sessions and programs for the growth of adolescent boys would not have been possible without the unwavering support of our donors Mukul Madhav Foundation. Together, we are able to bring real change and transform lives of vulnerable adolescent boys.