M Venkatarangaiya Foundation

M Venkatarangaiya Foundation is a rights based grass root level development organisation registered as a trust in India in 1981. MVF has been actively involved in elimination of child labour through universalisation of education and has so far mainstreamed over 1 million children from work and in to full time formal education till they complete class 10. , , Over the years we have evolved strategies for successful mainstreaming of children, many of which have been proved to be universally replicable. , , In fact the Stop Child Labour Campaign, which is an initiative of Hivos, FNV, SKN, CONCERN and others in Europe has acknowledged our strategy and asked us to initiate similar programmes in over 10 countries in Africa and Latin America. We have been actively providing technical support to this campaign for creating child labour free zones for over 5 years now. , , M V Foundation has also been instrumental in creating forums in every village we work for the protection of child rights and acting as sentinels. We have also brought over 1500 government school teachers together under the banner of Teachers Forum for Child Rights. This is unparalleled in the history of the country where government school teachers are now fighting for the rights of each and every child. , , Similarly, some of our strategies notably the Residential Bridge Course Camps which are instruments of change which help in mainstreaming older children, who have been out of the school system for longer periods of time, have been acknowledged and accepted by the Government of India. , , We have so far, in the 20 years of our work, been able to mainstream over 1 million children from labour in to school. Many of these children have gone on to finish graduation and are actively pursuing jobs in various fields. The impetus given by our campaign has inspired them to take up further education. , , Over 50,000 children have passed out of our residential bridge course camps. We have so far been able to make over 1500 villages child labour free. These are the models on which many organisations, governments and countries have modelled their campaigns against child labour.