The discriminated Lodha community should be respected and integrated in their villages through a variety of measures and given access to their social, economic, political and children’s rights.
Systematically deprived of their livelihood in the forests of southern West Bengal during British colonial rule, the Lodha had no alternative means of earning a living and began engaging in criminal activities. To this day, they are still discriminated against as “criminal” and systematically excluded by the population and the authorities. In our project area, only 10% of the Lodha find work in the surrounding non-Lodha communities, mostly as poorly paid day labourers. The illiteracy rate in the target population is 85%, and only a small proportion of children and young people go to school regularly. The state elementary school program Odishas provides for the implementation of joyful learning methods based on Montessori pedagogy. However, the teachers in the project area are authoritarian, sometimes hitting the children and practicing frontal teaching, only less than half of the teachers come to class regularly.
The Indian project partner Sikshasandhan implements a variety of activities together with the Lodha community, the wider population and the authorities. In addition to constant lobbying with authorities and working in and with the schools, the heart of the project is the strengthening and development of self-help groups, school management committees and youth clubs.
Projektträger: Karl Kübel Stiftung für Kind und Familie
Project partner: Sikshasandhan
Funding year: since 2017
Project No.: 70-17ro