Dr. SC Shukla - General Secretary, Bal Sahyog; Principal, Delhi College of Arts and Commerce; Former Deputy Proctor, Delhi University

What is Bal Sahyog's area of work ?
As the name suggests Bal Sahyog stands for welfare, rehabilitation and better future for children deprived due to economic and social poverty.

Our philosophy behind Bal Sahyog is to impart young boys with education and vocational training simultaneously. As a matter of logical linkage, an emphasis is also paid on empowering women in the resettlement areas where we work. We strongly believe that if might of the family and the children is to be improved, the hands of the women need to be strengthened. Therefore, we also run vocational training programmes targeted at the women in the community.

Please tell us more about your education programme and the target audience it benefits.
Our education programme involves providing government recognized education up to 8th standard to the boys. Besides, this vocational studies programme in the trades like carpentry, sheet metal, tailoring, 2 wheeler repairs, book binding, electronic and electrical gadget repair is also run. We are also planning an IT education programme and several other courses relevant to the needs of children and market.

At our center in Connaught Place, we admit 150 children every year. Out of these 120 are provided boarding and lodging and stay with us for 3 years. There are 30 students from the neighboring community who also attend the education and vocational training programme. We also have centers in Kotla Mubarakpur, Paharganj, Inderpuri, Karol Bagh, Wazirpur and Nangloi. These centers run non-formal education programmes, post which children are mainstreamed into the formal education system.

What is the work that Bal Sahyog is doing with street and working children ?
Are the beneficiaries amongst the 150 children you just talked about ?
The programme on "Street and Working Children" is run by us along with Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India. We have been provided guardianship of 300 children, whom we make ready for education and then bring in to the mainstream. They are also provided vocational training, nutrition and primary healthcare facilities. These 300 beneficiaries are apart from the 150, I earlier spoke about.

How do you select the beneficiaries ? What are the challenges in this ?
We had conducted a survey to work our priorities vis-à-vis the various target beneficiary groups. The first priority is given to the parentless children. These include rag pickers and other working children. The next on priority are children with single parents, especially mothers. Then there are children deserted by their parents.

The challenge is to attract children towards education and distract them from various allurements and substance abuse.

What is the curriculum of your education programme ?
The curriculum follows the guidelines provided by the government. Although, it follows the guidelines, yet the non-formal education warrants that nothing be set in stone and remain flexible and topical. The curriculum suitably adapts to the ground realities in the area of work, inputs of the community and needs of the children.

Bal Sahyog was established by the former Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi. How do you ensure it stays apolitical ?
It is not necessary that an NGO started by a political figure will have a political underline or ideology. Infact in 1954 when Mrs. Gandhi founded Bal Sahyog, she was better known as the daughter of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru. She selected people from apolitical background to run the organisation. The day she became the Prime Minister, she resigned from the organisation and just remained in the capacity of its patron. Even later, all the Prime Ministers' of India, irrespective of their political allegiance, have helped Bal Sahyog in achieving the goals envisaged by its founders.

What is Bal Sahyog's governance structure ?
We have a governing body that is duly elected after every 5 years. The vacancies as and when created are filled at the instance of the patrons. The governing council comprises of leading social workers, bureaucrats, academics and community leaders. Under the governing body is a full time Director. There is an Administrative and Social Welfare wing to support the Director in day to day functioning. The governing body meets every 3-4 months or earlier if there is a pressing agenda to discuss.

We have a full time accountant to maintain our books, which are duly audited by a qualified Chartered Accountant. An audit is also conducted by the Delhi Government for the programmes supported by them.

How do you monitor and evaluate your programmes ?
All our programmes have firm outlined objectives. These objectives are used for our internal working and also shared with the government ministries who fund us. There is a reporting structure that the social welfare department has to follow. A continuous tab on the plan and finances is kept by the administrative and accounting staff. The full time Director further keeps a check on the working.

I also look into the overall shape of the programmes on a regular basis. Rest our monitoring reflects in the successful completion of the education of the children with us. The programme is such that its impact can be seen even by an uninitiated person.

Since Bal Sahyog has patrons at the highest levels of governance, what has been your contribution to ensuring children/community friendly policies ?
Bal Sahyog has effectively leveraged its relationships to contribute to policy affairs at the highest levels.

• Under Prime Minister Mr. PV Narsimha Rao, Bal Sahyog contributed to conceptual development of the PM Rozgar Yojna.
• In 1987 when Sh. Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister we contributed to the policy draft on Vocational Studies.
• To the previous NDA government we had sent our recommendations for creation of a Child Welfare Commission, that proposed to look after million of children in India, affected by lack of resources, economic and social poverty.

Do you network with other NGOs working in the same domain ?
We have suitably helped like minded organisations in the past and this would continue well beyond. On the contrary our emphasis has been at networking with the community, as at the grass-root level that is a bigger challenge for us. We have not actively networked with other NGOs beyond the instances of helping each other out. We are also not member of any Sectoral network.

How do you raise resources for your programmes ?
This is a very difficult task. We have been surviving so far on grants, individual donations and rental from an advertising bill-board on our premises. We are always in deficit as most of our grants have a matching component, which although small in percentage works out to be quiet large in absolute money terms.

We receive grant from the Delhi Government for our recognized education and vocational training programme. The funding covers 95% of the budget. There are several allied expenses that are also not covered by this grant, which makes our component of contribution to a high of 12%. The Central Government gives us a grant that covers 90% of the budget for the Street and Working Children Programme, the remaining 10% we try to bridge through the ways I mentioned.

What do you think can enhance credibility of the voluntary sector ?
In my opinion an NGO's credibility must be seen by the work it does than what it preaches. Some people have established NGOs to make a fashion statement. The credibility of the NGOs can be enhanced by delivering at the ground work level. No amount of rosy lectures or fancy proposals drawn to attract funding can match this aspect in ensuring credibility.

You are yourself an academic. You mentioned of academia in your governing body. What has been Bal Sahyog's contribution to promoting Social Work education ?
Every year we provide internships and on-field exposure to budding social work professionals. We provide platform to students from Jamia School of Social Work, Delhi School of Social Work, Kashi Vidyapeeth and several other institutes to learn on the job at our programmes. May be in the coming years and if the beneficiaries show an interest in it, we may train them to be professional social workers too. We often go to various social work schools to share our ground level working knowledge.

What are your expansion plans in the near future ?
We plan to expand the ambit of trades in our vocational education programme. We have undertaken a need assessment study with children and community to identify the future areas of focus. The study would also help us in identifying such areas for women and adolescent girls, who we feel are a key in our endeavor of serving poorest amongst the poor.