Sinha, Shantha

If the poorest families of Andhra Pradesh State in India did not indenture their children to serve in the households of landlords, or to harvest cottonseeds and flowers, or to herd goats for wealthier neighbors — or if they simply did not send them to work in local factories instead of sending them to school — would not these poor families be even poorer? Many well-meaning people think so. But SHANTHA SINHA, Secretary of the Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya (MV) Foundation, disagrees. And in Andhra Pradesh, she is proving she is right. 

As head of an extension program at the University of Hyderabad in 1987, Sinha organized a three-month-long “camp” to prepare children rescued from bonded labor to attend school. Later, in 1991, she guided her family’s MV Foundation — established to honor her grandfather — to take up this idea as part of its overriding mission in Andhra Pradesh. This was to link the total abolition of child labor to the absolute right of every child to go to school. 

In the poverty-stricken villages of Ranga Reddy District, SINHA and her foundation team encouraged local people to identify out-of-school and bonded children and urged their parents and employers to release them. They then organized transition camps to prepare the children to attend school. In doing so, they found allies among the youth and among teachers and local officials and even among one-time employers of child workers. With assistance from local and international donors, they expanded. By 1999, the MV Foundation was active in five hundred villages. 

By this time, SINHA’s original transition camps had grown into full-fledged residential “bridge schools.” Here children accustomed only to the factory or farm were introduced to a joyous but disciplined haven of learning. Using familiar songs, riddles, and newspapers, volunteer teachers developed the children’s basic skills and introduced them to the pleasures of reading. They then exposed them to a formal curriculum, to prepare them to enter a public school. Either through bridge schools or direct enrollment, some 250,000 former child workers have now done so. 

SHANTHA SINHA believes that poor children belong in normal schools, not part-time ones. She therefore seeks to improve the public schools where bridge-school students eventually enroll. Working locally in each school district, her foundation mobilizes parents, teachers, and elected officials to insist upon better schools and to support the cost of schoolhouse improvements and extra teachers. 

SINHA’s formal organization is relatively small but nearly thirty thousand volunteers and countless youth clubs, village education committees, teachers’ groups, and other affiliated organizations are carrying its spirit and work ever farther afield. Through this ripple effect, the foundation is creating a social climate hostile not only to child labor but also to child marriage and other practices that deny children the right to a normal childhood. Today the MV Foundation’s bridge schools and programs extend to 4,300 villages. More significantly, SINHA’s effective strategies have been adopted by the state and are now being implemented throughout Andhra Pradesh. 

A self-effacing leader who works at many levels at once, SHANTHA SINHA is “constantly networking,” she says. She wants people to know: Poor families who withdraw their children from work and send them to school do not become poorer. Family productivity rises when children go to school; job opportunities for adults improve when children no longer work. Ending child labor and educating children, she says, will lead to less poverty, not more. In SINHA’s bridge schools, children celebrate this hope. “Let us go to school,” they sing. “Let us change our lives.” 

In electing SHANTHA SINHA to receive the 2003 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, the board of trustees recognizes her guiding the people of Andhra Pradesh to end the scourge of child labor and send all of their children to school.

I accept the great honour bestowed upon me with humility. I am overwhelmed to be included with eminent personages and to be a part of such a great tradition of Asia. 

I owe this award to the parents in Andhra Pradesh who believed that their children deserve the best, and were willing to make enormous sacrifices to give them a life of dignity. The voice of these parents cuts across cultures such as tribal communities, minorities, dalits and others; across livelihood patterns such as agricultural labourers, landless labour, small and marginal peasants, artisans, fishermen, migrant labour, those engaged in informal work in rural, urban and semi-urban contexts. They have shown beyond doubt that there is a crying demand for education. 

I also owe the award to all the children who have braved their way to schools and are willing to fight a daily battle to continue until they finish school. It is no exaggeration to say that these young girls and boys, and their acts of defiance are paving the way for future generations of children and their rights. In a sense this award is a vindication of our organization’s stand that “no child must work and every child must go to school.” The award has been owned by thousands of our volunteers who are working relentlessly for the protection of children’s rights, especially the right to education. I often wonder what gives our volunteers this capacity to be so tolerant and magnanimous, and to engage even the most difficult of adversaries to become a protagonists for child rights. 

This was possible because of their belief in the path of non-violence and the power of dialogue and discussion. Their inordinate faith in the system and their conviction that it is possible to build a norm in favour of child rights is, indeed, so very touching. They know that in the emancipation of children, and building a society that respects them, lay the foundation for the emancipation of all. 

The Award has enthused all our partners — NGOs, government officials, donors, parents, youth, elected representatives, teachers, lobbyists — those who ardently believe that abolishing all forms of child labour and sending children to full-time formal schools is non-negotiable. There is a mood of celebration shared by everyone who is contributing towards the protection of child rights. Even in the remotest of villages in Andhra Pradesh, meetings and rallies are being held; messages of congratulations and greetings are being exchanged, giving all of us great sense of pride. 

It is still hard to believe the dramatic effect the Award has had. Protection of child rights has now made the headlines in the press and on TV. The possibility of children enjoying the right to education is being intensely discussed in the media, in schools, at work places, in farms and factories and in government departments. This is something we had always dreamed must happen. The Ramon Magsaysay Award has made it possible almost overnight. We do hope to seize this moment to move further towards the abolition of child labour. I thank the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for putting the issue of child rights on centre stage!