VOCATIONAL TRAINING PROGRAMME

FOR:
SCHOOL DROPOUT GIRLS
PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY CHALLENGED CHILDREN

DCCW runs a Vocational Training Programme for school dropout girls and for physically and mentally challenged girls and boys to teach them income-generating skills that will allow them to earn a living or at least augment the family income. The school dropout girls are those whose education has been halted and who would otherwise be consigned to a life of domestic drudgery and an uncertain future, while they await an arranged marriage. For teenaged girls, this is an especially vulnerable situation to be in as they are often considered a burden on their families. The courses offered in this programme include traditional, home-based vocations that girls can pursue even after they are married. As they are home-based they do not require the children to leave their homes, an important consideration for our girls who come from traditional backgrounds and for our physically challenged children for whom commuting is understandably difficult. In addition, these are vocations that require little investment, should our children want to set themselves up in business.

The courses offered in the Vocational Training Programme include:

Short-term courses in cookery, pottery and block printing are also held in the summer months. Our mentally challenged children enrolled in this programme are learning how to make paper bags and garlands.

Approximately 400 trainees in the age group of 14 to 18 years attend the courses daily, in 36 units spread over 16 centres in various slums and resettlement colonies of Delhi. The children are taught by trained instructors and after completing their course, they are given a certificate at an annual valedictory function. Trainees who do exceptionally well are given prizes by way of equipment, such as a sewing machine and beautician’s kits, to help them set up their own enterprise.

The Vocational Training Programme has brought these children out of their homes and has earned them respect, dignity and a new self-assurance. Our children find good jobs, even as they complete their courses, while others have gone on to set up their own enterprises like beauty salons.