Bhiwandi is a suburb of Mumbai, India, located 12 miles northeast of Mumbai. This city has the largest number of handloom fabrics produced in India. Most of the population is employed by this industry, known for producing pollution and hazardous waste. Many children are forced to work to help support their families; Bhiwandi has the highest number of children engaged in child labor in the region.
This area has no proper schooling facilities or children's parks. Children live in slums surrounded by a massive garbage dump that stretches as far as the eye can see. Poverty forces parents to have their children work digging through the garbage dump looking for recyclable items; they work long hours for a mere 50 cents per day.
Bhiwandi also has a red-light area. The current metro area population of Bhiwandi is 890,000.
Country Profile
- The population of India is 1.42 billion people
- 444 million children in India are 0 - 18 years of age
- 29% of all children are under the age of 6
- Indian children have high levels of malnutrition
- Only 42.5% of children in 3rd grade can read 1st grade text
- India is home to the largest number of child brides in the world
A Note to Our Sponsors
Udaan is a project aimed at mainstreaming children who have never had an education or dropped out of school at a very early age. Our goal is to work with them for one to two years and then transition them into vocational training or regular education.
If you are a sponsor, please note there are times a child may drop out of the program because of the following reasons.
- These are migrant communities, and sometimes a family decides to go back to their village.
- Parents do not always see the value in education, although our constant goal is to mentor the parents so they become involved in their child’s future.
- A child may drop out of the program if they mainstream into regular school or a vocational program.
If your sponsored child drops out of Udaan, we will inform you, and you may transfer your sponsorship to another child.
The Udaan sponsorship model is unique from other sponsorship models because of the nature of the communities where we are located.