Underprivileged children in the city seem to be comparatively more privileged than their counterparts in other districts. Simply because the accessibility to social security schemes like scholarships for children is much better in Bengaluru. A recent study taken up by EveryChild, in three districts of Karnataka, found that scholarships were a strong deterrent to dropout rates. But ironically the awareness levels about this were low, even at the school and teachers’ level. So this study was shared with the department of women and child welfare to enhance utilization of the scholarship scheme.

EveryChild jointly conducted a study in collaboration with the Karnataka state Commission for Child Rights on the issue of accessibility and impact of Sponsorship for children in Karnataka under Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000, in the year 2010-11. To begin with, it was done only in the three districts of Bengaluru Urban, Mysore and Bagalkote, where it was shocking to see that awareness levels about this scheme were very low.

“Ideally at the school level, teachers and principals should know and encourage students to opt for this, but ironically not many were even aware of schemes like this,” said Baburaj, research consultant for this study. However he added that in Bengaluru the awareness about these schemes were definitely much better than in the other districts, which meant the number of underprivileged children from Bengaluru gaining access to this benefit was higher.

Roughly around 300 children from Bengaluru had access to this scholarship, whereas only about 60 from Bagalkote and 25 from Mysore were covered under this scheme. “Sponsorship for children enables them to access education, healthcare and learn skills for the future. These are the core commitments made by India within the UNCRC,” said William Raj, country director, EveryChild India.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Channels> Cities> Bengaluru / December 12th, 2011 / DC, Bengaluru