Most villages on the way seem to have gone into a hiding behind mud walls, but Liya seems to have found life even in this scorching afternoon. Everybody is headed to the village primary school. The largest classroom of the village is filled to capacity with children, women and a few elders. Men are crowded outside the door and windows stretching to get a glimpse inside.
Amidst this anticipation and curiosity, young Neeta stands up to address the crowd. As she elaborates the findings of her children’s group on the condition of the school, involvement of the teachers, violence, places which scare her and her friends, most elders look at them patronizingly. However, this is where Neeta surprises them. She looks up at them and asks “what will you do about these problems? How will you help us?”
Silence envelopes the room; for a while no one has answers. And then a few parents wonder aloud what they can do about what is happening in the school. It is then that a young lady finally raises her voice and says “We will have to go to the school and talk to the teachers, and we will have to do this regularly; they should know that society is watching the school.” All this while, Neeta waits patiently for the elders to give their opinions and draw out a common action plan.
Even as the meeting begins to disperse after a couple of hours, a grandmother says that never in her life time has she seen such an event where children have led a meeting like this. The ball has been set rolling. One after the other, children stand up and raise issues of child labour, water, sanitation, environment, nutrition and health and give the elders a chance to voice their own opinions and action plans. The children insist on commitments from village leaders and villagers alike.
By the time the meeting was over at this school, the sun had turned into mellow gold, but the winds of change had started blowing.
Source: Child Rights for Change
