Chakwaja Village

The Northern areas of Bihar state suffer from recurrent floods during monsoons because of heavy rainfall in the catchments areas of Kosi River. Millions of people are displaced and marooned due to the devastating floods. In the absence of proper embankments, this story is repeated year after year. Thousands of families get displaced and migrate to other areas, leaving their children at the mercy of the nature. Most of these children are trapped in bondage or are abused/ exploited.  Some children are left on roads to fend for themselves.  Unfortunately no social security measures are in place to take care of these orphan children. Scrupulous middlemen are always on the look out for such unsupported children to use them for hazardous occupations outside the state. Several reasons like landless and small farm size and dominance of agricultural labourers are responsible for such large scale out-migration of labourers looking for sustenance in other states. Due to after affects of globalization and cutback of budgets for rural and agricultural sectors, farmers also attempting suicides or they sell their children for earning a livelihood.

In view of the above a large number of children are left on the roadsides by the parents without any supervision, food and medical care support. Jan Kalyan Samiti- Chakwaja and Initiative for Social Change and Action (ISCA) have been supporting such children in difficult circumstances, who require immediate livelihood support, as otherwise these children would fall prey of unscrupulous persons, who would otherwise sell them and these children will be bonded for ever, which is one of the contemporary forms of slavery being practiced in this part of the country.

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Mr. Pradyuman Kumar, Secretary of Jan Kalyan Samiti- Chakwaja (having law degree from recognized university) witnessed an orphan child laying his life on the roadside near Patna railway station in 1972 due to hunger. He was going to attend his Court business, while passing through the Fraser road, Patna on 23rd January 1972. He observed that a child aged between 8-10 years was lying on the roadside. The child was motionless due ill health and hunger. He picked up the child and wanted to take him to hospital for emergency treatment. Unfortunately the child passed away in his lap while transporting him to the hospital. This episode changed his whole life and he became motivated and determined to serve the orphan and neglected children in such difficult situations. He devoted his whole life for this cause. He got registered Jan Kalyan Samiti- Chakwaja in 1986, as a charitable organization to take care of the orphan children and other children in difficult situations.  He started his rehabilitation camp for the identified children to provide basic rehabilitation and life-skill training to them. Unfortunately he has been alone in this fight without any financial and material support. He literally begs moving from place to place to seek monetary and other support from public in order to keep the rehabilitation work in place for the last 20 years

The identified children in the rehabilitation camp are mostly orphan children or released children from hazardous occupations through raids. Jan Kalyan Samiti- Chakwaja provided basic livelihood services and life-skills by Jan Kalyan Samiti- Chakwaja- Chakwaja. The support includes shelter, healthcare, food security and learning of basic life skills.