Aspire team’s meeting with Jajpur District Collector, DEO, Sub-Collector, Block Education Officer (BEO) and other government officials has prompted the officials to conduct a district level survey to track out of school children in all the government schools in the district. During the VER(Village Education Registry) updation earlier in Chingudipal, Kansa and Ransol areas, our team got suspicious about an unusually large drop in the enrollment of children in the 8th grade. Upon inquiring deeply, we found out that 50 children are engaged in Brick Kiln work. One of the major reasons for such cases of dropping out was recognised to be the lack of schools nearby. One of the children had to walk 22 Kms to get to the nearest school. Issues related to documentation are also preventing children from accessing school education in these areas. Our staff identified 36 children who are not being able to enrol in schools because of issues relating to documentation.

Once the survey is complete, district team will visit affected areas and verify out-of-school children and collect detailed information about them. The whole process is to be completed in one week’s time. Through this, 50 tribal children identified by Aspire will be brought back into their homes and enrolled in schools. More children with similar issues will also be identified and brought back into schools.

It was the timely intervention of Aspire’s Child Rights Protection Forum(CRPF) teams of Danagadi and Sukinda blocks that brought such a crucial issue to the officials and found a solution. Our CRPF teams have been actively working in Odisha to solve the problem of Child Labour and Child Trafficking.