Guwahati: Once affected by insurgency and social challenges, Charaideo is seeing positive change through “Chirayu Charaideo”, a joint effort by govt departments, schools, Army, and community groups. The initiative works to reduce school dropouts, child labour, child marriage, trafficking, and substance abuse, while creating better opportunities and support for children and youth.“Chirayu Charaideo” won the Assam govt’s Karmashree Award 2025-26 for excellence in public administration. Since its launch in Nov 2024, the initiative has improved school attendance, reduced dropouts and strengthened efforts to combat child labour and child marriage in Charaideo.The initiative has helped rescue 28 children from child labour over the past six months and enrolled 873 aspirants in Agniveer training. It also helped prevent three child marriages over the past three months, particularly in tea-garden areas, through community-led interventions.According to official records, average student attendance rose from 46.41% to 61.76%, an increase of 33.1%. Elementary school dropout rates fell from 8.61% to 4.4%, while secondary school dropout rates nearly halved, from 25.7% to 12.4%.In Gunotsav assessments, 96% of govt schools secured A+ or A grades, while 45 schools were upgraded to A+. The number of Grade C schools fell from nine to three, and no school remained in Grade D.Charaideo DC Neha Yadav, leading the mission, said “Chirayu Charaideo” has proved to be a highly efficient governance model.“Chirayu Charaideo is demonstrating how local administrations can achieve maximum impact using minimum resources. Built on the foundation of utilising existing systems, the initiative provides a blueprint for sustainable development without relying on substantial additional funding,” Yadav said.Key interventions include “Apunar Bondhu Kot Gol, Notun Bondhu Kun Ahil – Champions of Change”, which identifies and re-enrols out-of-school, dropout and at-risk children through attendance tracking, home visits, counselling and community participation.“Granth Mela” promotes reading, parental engagement and the identification of children who have never enrolled in school. Schools and education officials monitor enrolment and follow-up.The “Sonjugi Bhasha Samol ‘PIPLI’” language model seeks to bridge the language gap among tea-garden children by combining Shadri, their home language, with Assamese-language instruction. “Prerna Kakshya” digital libraries promote digital literacy, self-learning and career guidance.Under “Janma Setu”, officials facilitate delayed birth registrations through trained personnel and a dedicated digital centre. “Agnipath se Agniveer Tak” prepares students and dropouts for armed forces recruitment through awareness programmes, coaching and physical training. The initiative also seeks to promote employability and help prevent drug abuse and extremist recruitment.Officials have suggested that the framework could be adopted across Assam and in other states seeking to improve public-service delivery through existing systems and limited additional resources.
