Despite India’s fast growing economy, two-thirds of India’s population still lives in poverty – 68,8% has to deal with less than two US dollars per day. And this is not only a problem of smaller towns and rural areas – it’s an even bigger problem in the metro cities including Delhi.

Two roads in the south side of Delhi are leading from Chattarpur to Asola Wild Life Sanctuary and to Sultanpur Mandi. Towards the fag end of these roads, on either sides of the roads, there are slums and unauthorized resettlements of families who are extremely poor.

The lack of local livelihood opportunities leaves most people of these slums no other option than to travel to the main city or nearby suburbs to make their living. Although these areas are very much in the heart of south Delhi the socio-economic conditions of the people living there are very hard – and even harder for their children.

Most children of these areas are attempting regular schools but it’s astonishing to note their literacy skills. Even after class IV or V majority of them are unable to read a sentence or to comprehend it properly. In other words, the literacy levels of these children are lower than their grades.

And this doesn’t come as a surprise as a large number of these children are first generation learners, meaning their parents are illiterate or barely literate. These children need a lot of handholding to be able to continue to study in schools and learn. Their families though value education but they find it a long road to reach somewhere.

For them, earning a livelihood is far more important since there is no economic security for them. Both parents work and children look after the home and their siblings. In this backdrop, education is among the last priorities for them. Children do go to schools as free mid-day meal and free books and uniform is the attraction for parents. But how much these children learn in the schools is a big question.

We at Concern for Humanity believe that there is just one way to lead them out of the circle of poverty. It’s through education!!! With our ten learning centres, we try to bring empowerment to the unprivileged children of five slum areas in Delhi.

These slums are predominantly occupied by migrant rural population who came here years ago in search of a livelihood. Over the years, the temporary mud huts got replaced with brick walled rooms, but the basic character of the slums remained unchanged. The slums have poor basic amenities.

There is no piped water supply or sewer in these slums. People rely on water tankers which supply potable water. There is limited public transport services to these slums and the private transport facility is expensive. Hence commuting becomes a challenge for women, adolescents and those working on odd work shifts. There are senior secondary government schools in the area where almost all children of these slums go. These are co-education schools.