Bal Vikas Ashram Bal Vikas Ashram is a rehabilitation center for children aged 8-14 who have been rescued from slavery in Uttar Pradesh, in northern India. The Ashram organizes raids to free children who have been taken hundreds of miles from their home villages and sold to carpet loom owners. In the last year alone, the Ashram carried out 19 raids and released 111 children.
The children the Ashram rescues are often in a miserable state: they have been forced to weave rugs for 12-15 hours a day, locked in, fed only what it takes to keep them alive and kept in constant fear in order to prevent them from trying to escape.
The freed children (with their parents’ consent) are taken to the Ashram and given medical care. Informal education is a high priority in the children’s busy but relaxed daily schedule. Once the children are literate and understand their rights, it is almost impossible for them to be enslaved again. Usually by the end of their 6 months to 1 year stay at the Ashram, they are able to attend the appropriate school class for their age. Older children are encouraged to explore their aptitudes for various types of vocational training, such as carpentry and tailoring. When the Ashram staff take children back to their home villages, they work with the parents to obtain government self-employment funds and other entitlements: often owning a few goats or a sewing machine can protect a family from bonded labor in the future. As well as literacy and knowledge of their rights as citizens, graduates of the Ashram bring back vital ideas to their villages, such as how to organize microcredit groups, how to operate a bank account, techniques for plant protection and dry land farming, and how to use solar energy. Bal Vikas Ashram’s work is the subject of this slideshow. To view the slideshow with captions, click on the "options" button (lower right corner) and select "Always show title and description." To control the speed, use the navigation buttons (lower left corner). |
Bal Vikas Ashram is a project set up in 1999 and run by the Diocesan Development and Welfare Society, DDWS (an Indian-led Catholic social service agency). DDWS is an agency with over 20 years’ experience, and with 128 workers and many projects working across religious and ethnic divides for the empowerment of the poorest in this part of rural India.
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