Institute of Psychological and Educational Research
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Mission Statement
IPER is an outcome of the untiring efforts of its workers and unstinted help of its patrons and well wishers. 46 years down the lane IPER is working with the deprived population at all levels. The journey started 46 years ago in 1971 Dr. Arun Ghosh , National Award Winner for Child Welfare in 2001, established the Institute of Psychological and Educational Research briefly known as IPER, his dream project for integrating education and psychology to benefit the children in their education and development. Guided by Dr. Ghosh a band of dedicated students of his worked in the field to run IPER. Soon it became a hub humming with the voices of children getting the benefit of a free space for themselves it worked with children who were mentally challenged, environmentally challenged as child labour, street children, children who are rag-picking, children who are victims of abuse and violence. Invited by Ministry of Labour GoI he started the Holiday school Project for Child Workers in the city of Kolkata.
About This Cause
COMMUNITY WORK Community is the base of all social work that IPER is doing. In the early years when IPER was working with children especially child workers, street children it was felt that the services that are organized in IPER with the children often do not get fully utilised as the community and the family are not involved. With this learning for the last three decades the work of IPER has assumed a much larger area namely the family and the community that the children live in. IPER has taken up community mobilisation in partnership with the Municipal bodies in maintaining infrastructure built in the community like toilets, garbage disposal system through behaviour change of the users. With the CHILD LINE Project of IPER also community campaigns are being done on such social issues like child marriage, child labour, drug addiction, disability. IPER also initiated a programme with training from British Council titled as Active Citizen to build a team of Volunteers as Active Citizens who would work as active members of the community to bring about changes according to the felt needs of the community people. Other community related activities taken-up by IPER are • women’s meetings • parent’s discussion sessions • protection group formation • youth team building exercises • creating a ‘No Smoking Zone’ especially near schools and hospitals • preventing use of plastic for protecting environment ‘No Plastic Zone’ is created with alternatives • campaigning against addiction of drugs and alcohol • holding street dramas on social issues by children • holding awareness programmes on social issues like Child Rights, child protection, women’s rights, combating child abuse and child labour, protection from violence, superstitions against different health related issues and similar issues • campaign on protection of environment and make it eco-friendly • Workshops for stakeholder groups like police, councilors, members from local youth groups, and so on Strategies that are followed with the community members to form self-help groups to understand their needs and address them through such methods as - • Social mapping • Focus Group Discussions • Street drama • Signature campaign on issues like prevention of child labour, child marriage, gender based discrimination • Initiating Resource Centres in the community IPER believes that ~ • EDUCATION is the most powerful tool for all development & strength • It is a Right of Every Child IPER, a premier organisation with the disadvantaged population especially children and women for more than four decades in the city of Kolkata and around, has launched and completed a number of projects on education. Working in the field of education IPER felt that the major victim in the schools is quality education and hence retention. The girls are doubly disadvantaged one for their gender and other as being the hidden work force within the home. The schools are often pushing the children out from the school rather than pulling them in. Thus to address these problems IPER supplements the educational programme with health, nutrition, economic skill training, life skill training, computer skill and recreational facilities. The beneficiaries include children ~ • engaged in labour • living on the streets • in prostitution • abused • in conflict with law • who are deprived of their rights To address these issues IPER facilitates: • Setting-up Community Learning Centres taking education to the door-step of every Child • Awareness on the need of education through street drama, camps, social mapping, FGD SCHOOL-ON-WHEELS for smaller pockets where Community Learning Centres cannot be run Mainstreaming of children with technical, material and financial support • Training of ladies as Local Educators • Learning Wonders --An English Medium Quality Learning Centre for Children IPER’s work on EDUCATION ~ With Schools • Orientation Meeting of Head Teachers • Formed Parent Teachers groups • Held PTA Meetings • Supplied Learning Materials • Formed Resource Corners With Children • Identification of minimum learning skills for different grades • Bridge Courses for out-of-school children • Mainstreaming & supporting children in schools • Remedial Coaching • Planning of lessons per the skills for the child • Supporting educational cost in schools IPER Developed & Published ~ • ‘Manual for Parents’ Education Programme’ supported by UNICEF • Training Manual for Teachers for English & Bengali language supported by USAID-Reach-India • Materials for Culture & Value Education & Training of Teachers supported by Ministry of HRD Primers – Class I – IV Value Cards Audio CD on Value Education Visual CD on Value Education • Learning materials for primary grades • Learning Boards for SCHOOL-ON-WHEELS • ‘Teaching & Learning Materials on Government prescribed Bengali Text Books’ supported by UNICEF • Identification of minimum learning skills for different grades & suitable pocket boards Child Rights Survival Rights – o Immunisation, Health care, Medical check-up and treatment when sick as well as pathological tests when required o Treatment and Nourishment with special diet for malnourished babies Development Rights – Under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child every child has the RIGHT to DEVELOPMENT • Education – given through the o 12 Community Learning Centres running in the communities o Remedial education in the 4 formal schools o Capacity Building – Child Rights, life skills & social skills, soft-skills, pre-vocational training o Social Development – Communications, o Talent development – • Musical skills, • dance training, • participation in different social programme Protection Rights – As enshrined in the UN CRC o Safety and Security - Open Shelter under ICPS for vulnerable girls o TaekWon-Do, Kick-boxing and Muay Thai as forms of self-defense skills o DMT – Dance Movement Therapy for behaviour management, emotional control and building of self-esteem and confidence o Studying the relation of enhancement of Hb count for children aged between ……. after special intervention Participation Rights – o Sharing discussion regular feature with children through monthly meetings and Focus Group Discussions, o Participation in of ‘Publishing Beyond Borders’, Photography Workshop, Self-Image through pictures, Active Citizens Programme of British Council, Children’s Magazine ‘Udaan’, ‘Read 4 Fun’ PROJECTS IPER in its long journey of four decades has successfully launched and completed several projects on different social issues. The underlying principle of all the projects that IPER ran and is running is that the future and strength of all development lies on CHILDREN. Past projects 1988-09 – De–addiction and Rehabilitation Project for Drug addicts 1983-96 - Holiday Schools for Child Workers Started under the aegis of Ministry of Labour, Government of India to provide education to the child workers the right denied to them. 1988-2000 - Late Afternoon Schools for Pavement Children These were targeted at those street children and working children who work part-time like vendors and rag pickers and are free to attend in the late afternoon. 1985-1999 - Open Learning Schools for Out-of-School Children Run with funding from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. 1990-1991 - Situational Analysis of Street Children in India A comprehensive Situational Analysis was done in Kolkata. IPER supervised and monitored similar analyses in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kanpur 1992-1998 - Child Workers Project under IPEC-ILO One project ran special schools for child labourers and the other aimed at prevention of child employment by massive drives for putting children in schools 1993 Integrated Programme for Street Children This program, under the Ministry of WCD Govt. of India, focused on street children. Major components were education, protection from abuse, health care and nutrition supplementation. 1995-96 - Bishnupur Shishu Panchayat—an experiment on child participation 1996 - Study on the Status of Street Children in Calcutta 2000-05 -- ChildWatch a programme for children at risk –UNICEF Focus was on children who were living in high-risk situations and needed immediate support to develop in a healthy manner with education, nutrition, healthcare, counselling, creative work to overcome trauma. 2000-01 - Training Workshop to deal with Traumatised Children for Teachers, Parents and Care-givers 2001-04 - Project on Protection Against Violence on children and Women 2002 - Education for the Urban Deprived Children of Kolkata–a KMC-UNICEF-IPER Project 2003 - Training Modules on Child Rights for the stakehgolder groups in Tea gardens 2003-12 – ‘Shikshalaya Prakalpa’ an educational programme for out-of-school children 2005-07 – Project on Value Education in Schools with development of materials and readers 2005-07 – ‘ Access to Education – A right for all children’ This project with Out-of-School Children supported by USAID was designed to ensure that all vulnerable children in the project area complete 4 years of primary education with a special focus on girls 2005-08 - ‘Progressive Empowerment Programme for Young Women in Difficulties’ The focus of the project supported by NIWANO Peace Foundation , Japan was on bringing about an improvement in the lives of marginalised women through capacity building, legal awareness and literacy and income generation and marketing skills. 2005-08 - Kolkata Environment Improvement Project (KEIP) Emphasis was laid in this project of Kolkata Municipal Corporation Empowerment through Self-defense IPER started empowerment through self-defense training in association with Geosatis Trust. It is important especially for girl children because they instinctively feel the need to learn self-defense; their parents are encouraging too. Many of the children now in their youth have won accolade in National and International competition