PART-1
Background
“HUNAR”
as a concept evolved under the active guidance of Honourable Chief Minister of
Bihar, Mr. Nitish Kumar. The “Hunar” programme under the National Programme for
Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL) of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan was
inaugurated by Honourable Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at S.K. Memorial Hall,
Patna on 2nd July, 2008 at state level and by then Union Human Resource
Development Minister Arjun Singh in Delhi on 3rd July, 2008 at national level.
HUNAR is a collaborative project of the
Government of Bihar and the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development. It is
an innovative and powerful project focusing on Minority Muslim Girls which will
have far-reaching ramification in terms of creation of decentralized
educational delivery mechanisms. This Programme is totally community based. It
encourages a network of educational institutions (Madarasa, Maktabs and Centers
run by socio-religious organizations of the Muslim Community) in the minority
community neighbourhood, which allows easy access to these young girls in terms
of both geographical and socio-religious context, which is acceptable to their
families and community. This type of decentralized delivery mechanism has never
been attempted on such a large scale. Girls education statistics, particularly
among Muslim girls, in Bihar is very low and the Hunar Programme is an
intervention that will encourage Muslim girls to join the educational
mainstream in the long term.
To implement Hunar, Bihar Education
Project Council (BEPC) has entered into an agreement with the National
Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), an apex nodal body for distance education
in the country. This agreement provided
free skill training to about 13768 girls across Bihar, who are either
studying in various schools or have dropped out. The seven trades (along with
course code identified by BEPC for skill training were 251-Jute Production, 256-Bakery &
Confectionary, 401-404-Gram Sakhi (for health care service), 439-441-Early
Childhood Care and Education, 442-444-Basic Rural Technology, 612-Beauty
Culture, and 705-706-Cutting and Tailoring.
The Hunar scheme has been implemented
through three Nodal Agencies in Bihar i.e. Imarat Sharia Educational and
Welfare Trust, Edara-e-Sharia and Rahmani Foundation. These 3 are old
established socio-religious organizations of the Minority Muslim Community
which run schools, Maktabs, Hospitals etc. They have deep penetration in
minority dominant areas of the stated and enjoy the trust of the community.
Under this scheme NIOS, in consultation with BEPC, has made special provisions
for parameters related to infrastructure, fees as well as number of students at
study centers (designated as AVIs) run by these nodal agencies. These special
provisions were made to facilitate easier accreditation of AVIs for this
programme. Hence accreditation for traditional educationally backward
institutions, especially Madarsas and Maktabs, was easier. It is envisaged that
the skill training of girls will help them in their future areas of work. NIOS
provides free course material including Urdu text books under this programme
which is useful for most of the girls coming from families living under abject
poverty.
The BEPC has utilised funds provided by
the Government of India (Under SSA
through NPEGEL), and the State Government of Bihar for this purpose. This
initiative significantly improved the access of Muslim girls to the school
level education being provided by the aforesaid eventual accredited centers and
encouraged their parents to ensure their enrolment in government schools.
Objective of Hunar
Programme
· To
mainstream the education of Minority Muslim girls aged 10 year and above into
the formal education structure.
· To
promote/motivate girls enrolment in School.
· To
promote retention in school through the incentive of free vocational training
programme.
· To
attract the dropouts and bring them back into mainstream education.
· To
strengthen girls economically and otherwise through vocational training.
Course Fee and Duration
The course fee and training duration of
the selected trades were as :- 251-Jute Production (Rs 2000/-, 6 month),
256-Bakery & Confectionary (Rs 1200/-, 6 month), 401-404-Gram Sakhi (Rs
3500/-, 1 Year), 439-441-Early Childhood Care and Education (Rs 3000/-, 1
Year), 442-444- Diploma in Basic Rural Technology (Rs 3000/-, 6 month),
612-Beauty Culture (Rs 1000/-, 6 Month), and 705-706-Cutting and Tailoring (Rs
2000/-, 6 month).
The process followed in implementing 'Hunar' is
summarized below.
Stage I: Conception Phase
Bihar
Education Project Council (BEPC) after due deliberation identified NIOS as the
best suited agency to collaborate for
project Hunar. It was envisaged that free of cost skill training/upgradation
would be provided to young Muslim girls (10-14 years), who are already enrolled
in formal schools of Bihar or have dropped out. The beneficiary group was
extended subsequently expanded to cover girls (11-16 years) by BEPC in
consultation with the community representatives. The entire cost (in terms of
fees and other expenses) of the training
incurred by NIOS was to be reimbursed by
BEPC. Based on the outcomes of this Pilot Project, its scope would be further
enhanced to cover other most deprived sections, in addition to minority Muslim
girls, in the next academic session. After the agreement with NIOS, BEPC
published an advertisement in the local newspapers of Bihar in the month of
February/March 2008 about this project and invited applications from the target
group for “ 7 “ selected trades. In response, approximately 15000 applications
were received by BEPC. These applications/admission forms were processed by
Bihar Education Project Council and subsequently handed over to NIOS, which
found that approximately 13768 applications met the criteria and were as per
budget available in academic year 2008-09.
Stage-II: Preparatory
Stage
The
implementation strategy during this stage was jointly worked out by BEPC and
NIOS. It was envisaged that suitably located and equipped Educational institutions in Bihar like Madarasas and Maktabs in
the neighbourhood or vicinity of these young
Muslim girls would be identified and granted accreditation as AVIs of NIOS
based on the relaxed revised norms of NIOS. This was a unique and novel
implementation strategy which has not been undertaken till now elsewhere. It
involved a series of meetings with the religious cum educational leaders of the
community for enlisting their active support and collaboration for this project
at various levels.
The
Process for collaboration was as follows :-
i. Collaboration of Government of Bihar and
Bihar Education Project Council (BEPC) with NIOS,
ii. Collaboration with community leaders,
educationists and other activists from Civil Society Organization belonging to
Muslim community in Bihar for ensuring that the project takes a feasible and
concrete shape.
For this purpose BEPC was
able to identify amongst others, “ 3 ” nodal agencies based on its earlier
experience suggested to NIOS, which are leading socio-religious and educational
institutions for Muslim community in Bihar viz., Imarat Sharia, Edara-e-Sharia
and Rahmani Foundation. These prominent socio-religious organizations of the
Muslim community are responsible for running a large number of unit
organizations involved in socio-religious, medicare & educational
activities at village, block and district level in Bihar and neighbouring
states. These are mostly in the form of Madarsas and Maktabs which are
controlled & affiliated by these umbrella organizations. They have a very
high degree of community acceptance and reach, both in geographical and social
terms.
Since this was the first time that a central
Government Organization (apex vocational training body- NIOS) was making an
attempt to create this network at the grassroots level, there was no
pre-existing data or baseline information that could be used for the purpose of
creation of community based educational network to be used as delivery
mechanism for an educational intervention by Government of India and Government
of Bihar. A tripartite arrangement was arrived at between NIOS, Nodal
Organizations (Imarat Sharia, Edara-e-Sharia and Rahmani Foundation) and
Madarsas and Maktabs affiliated and controlled by these nodal
organizations, creating an elaborate and
complex network of educational institutions at grass root level to act as
delivery mechanism for this project. Other remarkable feature of this delivery
mechanism is that it comprises socio-religious/educational institutions run and
controlled by community in local neighbourhood or vicinity without the
participation of government or its institutions at any level. Since, this was a
complex task involving collaboration at grassroot level, it required series of
meetings and interactive sessions to identify and enlist the support of
prominent socio-religious leaders and institutions for this project, which was
process oriented and involved people across all levels.
TO BE CONTINUED