To intervene on the emerging challenges in the context of child labors at Varanasi, PES (Promoting Elementary Schooling) project started during July 2005 in this important city of east U.P with the support of Terra des Homes, Germany. Most of the handloom weavers belong to the Dalit (SC), Rajbhar (OBC) and Muslim (minority) communities and the children of these communities were most adversely affected due to closure of handlooms, that’s why weavers dominated developmental blocks – Chiraigaon, Cholapur and KashVidyapeeth were identified for the interventions through this project. A primary base line survey was conducted, by which initially 45 village panchayats were identified on the basis of intensity of the problem.

	Total 2679 children were identified that were not registered in any school, out of which 1506 (56%) were girls and rest 1174(44%) were boys
	The survey reflects that there were 32% schools without toilet facility.

This project is being implemented in 45 gram Panchayats of three blocks in Varanasi district with following objectives:

	90% children of the project areas are main - streamed with formal school education system
	School drop-out rate is decreased by 40%
	Education among young girls is promoted.
	Status of government schools is improved
	Community participation in schooling enhanced

Human Welfare Association, HWA is facilitating two type of education support for rural Children and Adolescent Girls:

Functioning Education Centers (Basic Education): The education centers functional under the PES project have its own specialty, uniqueness and easy acceptance. The centers were opened on the basis of intensity of problems, no of non school going children... Read More

Educational Support Centers: There are general tendency in villages that the girls should not study after 8th standard (middle schooling), this is primarily because of social security as the girls reach to puberty... Read More