“I will not let other children in my community to become school drop out any more”, says Ratu Golari, a 14 years old boy from Hathiagonda village of Somanathapur Panchayat under Korukonda block of Malkangiri district. After completion of his Class-V, Ratu decided to drop school going due to meagre pecuniary condition of his family.  Ratu’s family comprises of his parents and an elder brother. The parents are engaged in agricultural work, whereas his elder brother works in a construction site as well as assists his parents in farm activities at times.

Korukonda block being the operational area of CYSD Child Development Project, this case came to the notice of its Program Team. A counselling team of the project encouraged Ratu to continue his study, but it was a bit difficult task for the team to persuade a small child for continuing his education who seemed quite disinterested to pursue his higher study. After continuous visit to his home accompanying a local community mobiliser, the project team counselled him including his parents and eventually Ratu backed to school in Class-VII.

Repeated counseling and provisions of study materials could have ignited Ratu’s interest and made him more lively and enthusiastic in study. During this Covid-19, he was provided with educational kit (pen, wordbook, storybooks, compass, notebooks etc.) which helped him continue his education at home, thus preventing him from losing touch with his previous learnings.  While acknowledging his thankfulness to CYSD for enlightening his future by taking care of his study, Ratu says, “I will be a teacher in future and will never allow other children in my community to become out of school any more”.

Besides, during this difficult times of pandemic, Ratu’s family was provided with survival kits – dry ration and basic amenities and further supported to earn their livelihoods. Since his parents are engaged in paddy cultivation, along with other farmers, they have received free agricultural input support, like paddy seeds. They have been informed about the use of novel and better farming techniques through the “Mo Upakari Bagicha” scheme introduced by the government of Odisha. This year, with the help of CYSD team, the family has been able to successfully implement the line-transplantation technique in paddy cultivation, knowing the fact that the new method has better benefits and outcomes than the general broadcasting technique. This will lead to better germination of seeds, easy pest application and weed management. “The adoption of line-transplantation method hopefully increase in the productivity of crop at a good pace as the fertilizers and other nutrients are available to all the plants in equal amounts”, shared father of Ratu with cheerful face.