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Bala Vikasa Kendram is the Navajeevan's wing for
the working children started in 1997.
From this centre, Navajeevan carries out field
visits – meeting working children, employers and
adult workers; family counselling – for the
parents of working children; supplementary
nutrition, bala sanghas - unions of working
children; tailoring & other small skills
training for girls; girl children associations;
awareness creation on child rights, child labour,
gender discrimination and proper health care.
the local industrial units which employ children
to labour were in a state of denial about the
problem, either flatly denying that children
were employed, or seeing it as an act of virtue,
which improved the lives of the children. Even
the autonagar technical association stoutly
maintained that there were not industrial areas.
In
2001,
the A.P State labour department put the number
of working children in the area as 44
children.The Auto technicians owned up to 400
children. |
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in the same year 2001, Navajeevan developed a
methodology, conducted three training sessions
and a trial run, and using 37 members of its
team, as well as student of reputed colleges in
Vijayawada, systematically counted the number of
children coming into work, by bus, bicycle on
foot at all the entry points to Autonagar.
Consequently, it was able to establish that
there were at least 6,294 child laborers working
in Autonagar of which about 2,300 below the age
of 14 years. History
of Bala Vikasa Kendram |
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