"The emerging farmer
suicide capital of India" isn't a qualifier which any region in the
world would ever want to allude to itself. Sadly Marathwada, a historically
backward region of Maharashtra has been a helpless witness, falling prey to a
yet another vicious phenomenon of farmer suicides over last few years. It is no
wonder then that
Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana (BJS), a leading nonprofit
organization with an extensive experience in disaster response has felt the
urge to extend its maximum contribution to alleviate the woes of the bereaved
families. The rapidly spreading problem of farmer suicides is nothing short of
a disaster and BJS aims to address a potentially bigger problem emanating from
this scenario in a manner which holds the promise of having a long lasting
impact on the lives of the survivors of the suicide victims.
The loss of a loved one and
especially an earning member always deals a cruel blow to the kith and kin of
the victim. Matters become worse for the impoverished and the marginalized sections
of the society; the economic impact of the tragedy gets compounded by the
psychological impact on the traumatized family members. At such times children
belonging to such families become the most vulnerable of the lot and nothing
can prepare them enough for the multitude of challenges that come in the wake
of such a tragedy. It is extremely crucial to provide a conducive psychosocial
environment to such children in order to prevent them from succumbing to cycles
of trauma, depression and loss of purpose in their early lives. The hard
hitting reality of the loss of income and life often leaves very little choice
for the surviving elders in the family, but to go out and work (especially for
sugarcane cutting as in Marathwada)to keep the hearth running. Very often the
children are left alone at home to fend for themselves. In the absence of
proper care and timely attention to such children, myriad social problems could
surface in the long run for them. Thus it is critical to constructively engage
them and channelize their minds in the proper direction when tragedy strikes.
Education is by far, the only means to shape the lives of such children and
keep them from going astray.
It is with this intent and after
looking at the grim picture of the Marathwada region, that the project of the
educational rehabilitation of the children (boys and girls) from the households of farmers who have committed
suicides across Beed, Latur and Osmanabad districts has been undertaken by BJS.
BJS would do so by relocating the children, identified through a planned
mechanism and moving them to its state-of-the-art
Wagholi EducationalRehabilitation Centre (WERC) in Pune. WERC is a facility established by BJS
specifically for such purpose since the 1993 Latur earthquake. BJS has a
successful history and a proven track record of rehabilitating over 3000
disaster affected children since then.
BJS believes that for a crisis so
acute, the intervention has to be long term and is therefore ready to invest
close to a decade on every child who will thus be brought to WERC. This project
will entail that the responsibility of the holistic education, food,
accommodation, daily needs, counseling, healthcare and nutrition of all these
children would be entirely borne by BJS from Std V- XII. We are hopeful that this project will bring a
ray of hope in the lives of the families of these children as much as it will
be a life changing experience for the children themselves.
