CHILDREN'S VIEWS MATTER

The children were aware that two teachers in their school had not been coming to class for a few days. After asking around, they decided to ask their principal to check the teachers’ leave applications. Seeing that there were none and no sign of the teachers returning, they took up the matter with the ‘sarpanch’ (head) of the village. When that didn’t work, they called a local journalist and brought the issue into the open.

These are the ‘baal gats’ - activist children’s groups that have sprung up in two of Maharashtra’s districts where the agrarian crisis has worsened the already crippling rural poverty. These young crusaders have zeroed in on issues like education, child labour, cleanliness, etc., and taken it upon themselves to transform their villages. Though they are only between seven and fourteen, the collective power they exude is unparalleled.

With the help of Save the Children and other local organizations, the children’s groups were formed in over 900 villages with the issue of child labour in mind. All the children of the village are encouraged to be part of the groups and join the monthly meetings to discuss what ails them and their village. The youngsters then devise ways of tackling issues linked to child labor and education, directly or indirectly.

In one of the villages, the children basked in their victory of getting Manda (12) admitted to school. When they went door to door to see if all the children were getting a formal education, they realized that Manda had been working in the fields. "She was a very quiet girl who never spoke to anyone. She hadn’t been going to school for two years because her father made her work in the field. It took us a long time to convince her and her father", says 12-year-old Vishakha. Convincing her younger brother, however, has been an unfruitful task. “Every time he sees us, he starts running away from us. He just doesn’t like going to school,’’ the children say.

Just the same, the children from these villages have succeeded in ‘waking up’ the adults in their communities to their own reality and have successfully promoted change as a result. Their near-perfect view of the world and their vitality empowers them to do so. Perhaps we, as adults, should stop and listen to children more often with an open attitude, and then do our best to integrate their outlook in decisions that matter.

Source: The Times of India

YASHODHARA, BIGGER THAN EVER

We are starting a new period in the implementation of our projects in India. The children from Hadapsar, Yashodhara, and the schools we work with have enjoyed a well-deserved vacation after an intense academic year. We have also assessed the objectives attained and looked for new ways to make the projects as efficient as possible.

Bearing this in mind, and always having as our main goal the true benefit of Yashodhara children, we succeeded in associating with SAMPARC, a local NGO with many years’ experience in managing Shelter Homes. Until June of this year, SAMPARC operated a Shelter Home located a few hours away from Pune. However, their main sponsors were severely affected by the crisis in Europe and SAMPARC suddenly found itself lacking the funds to continue managing its project while having to care for 120 boys and girls aged between 10 and 15, who depend on them to access development opportunities for their future.

On the other hand, the laws applicable to Shelter Homes in the State of Maharashtra changed drastically in the last yearly period and Asha-Kiran had to quickly adapt to these changes in order to go on offering the same care and protection to Yashodhara children. To continue managing the Shelter, we are required to have our own premises and they have to be a certain minimum size; this involves a monetary output that is presently impossible for us to bear.

The missing piece of the puzzle was put in place after the first meetings with the people of SAMPARC - they needed support to finance and manage the Shelter, and we needed new premises to house the children and continue working as before. The result: Yashodhara Shelter now has a new building in a beautiful area in the outskirts of Pune, which is now home to a total of 140 boys and girls from 6 to 16 years of age. With the support of SAMPARC, who in addition to letting us use their facilities, is committed to managing the project jointly with us, we have managed to TAKE A STEP FURTHER AND ENLARGE THE SCOPE OF YASHODHARA EVEN MORE.

The same as every year, our commitment is to move towards the ultimate goal of reaching out to and supporting more and more vulnerable children in India.

SCHOOL AND WORK: INCOMPATIBLE

Save the Children points out the need for amending the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act (CLPRA) to bring it in line with the Right to Education Act (RTE). The CLPRA prohibits employing children below 14 as domestic help. Unfortunately, child labor, which is analogous to modern-day slavery, is still endemic.

Children who work as domestic help are forced to work long hours with little food, are paid minimal wages or not paid at all, and are largely invisible to the outside world because they live with their employers. This invisibility is one of the main reasons for the vulnerability of child domestic workers to exploitation and abuse.

“You cannot have one law that promises elementary education to all children and another one that regulates child labour. With the RTE now in place, there just cannot be another law which regulates child labour”, a spokesman said. The ‘regulation’ part of the CLPR is in direct contradiction with the constitutional guarantee of free and compulsory elementary education for children between 6 and 14.

Also, around 70% of child laborers work in agriculture. Yet, this form of child labor is left out of the purview of the CLPRA. Any law that attempts to tackle child labor cannot overlook the category of children in agriculture since the majority of child workers are in this sector.

If the Indian government is serious about implementing the RTE, then it must amend the CLPRA urgently. India is one of the very few countries that has not ratified ILO Convention 182 on banning the worst forms of child labour. According to the 2001 census, there are 12.6 million children under the age of 14 engaged in child labour, but civil society places the number of child labour at a more realistic 40 million or so.

While poor families need all the help they can get in their effort to make a living and this often entails pushing their own children to work, society must be educated on the equally pressing need of extracting its disadvantaged children from the vicious circle of poverty and lack of education.
 

 
Source: Save the Children

ABOUT SCHOOLING

One out of four places in private schools in India will be reserved for socially and economically disadvantaged groups. This resolution is a result of the Indian Supreme Court having recently endorsed Clause 12 in the Right to Education Act. Some private educators challenged the constitutional validity of this clause, arguing it violated their autonomy, but the Supreme Court certified that this applies to both public and unaided private schools.

Approved in 2009, the Right to Education Act (RTE) makes education a fundamental right of every child aged 6 to 14 and specifies minimum regulations in elementary schools. It is the first legislation in the world placing the responsibility of education directly on the State.

“We celebrate the Court’s decision. However, it is crucial to ensure a proper implementation of the Act, allocating the resources needed and effectively monitoring its application while enhancing the public education system”, said Mr. S. Eswaran, General Secretary of the All-India Primary Teachers’ Federation. He explained that key issues such as gender balance and preventing discrimination within the classroom should be taken into account.

“We, as teacher unions, believe that an egalitarian education system would aim to enhance the quality of public education above all. One of the main challenges is solving the current shortfall of teachers through quality recruitment and professional training,” Eswaran concluded.

According to the 2011 Indian census, the literacy rate has gone up from 65% to 74% in the last decade - an important attainment in the second most populous nation in the world. Although this can be considered a success, a lot more has to be done to meet the Millennium Development Goal of achieving universal primary education by 2015.

Source: ei-ie.org

SLAVE CHILDREN

Govind grew up with his family in Nepal, but after his father’s death, and having worked as a slave for two years in his home country, he came to the Indian border at age 11. With nothing to eat, his only goal was to find work. Soon, he began to fix phones and take care of customers in a small phone business, but his new job was as bad as the previous one; his boss beat him, did not pay him, and he could not leave the store even at night.

Fortunately, Govind was able to escape the cycle of slavery and extreme poverty. “One day I saw a children’s demonstration going by. They were part of the Global March against Child Labour. They held a meeting in the courtyard just behind the phone store. One man was telling people how he had been freed from the carpet industry. He seemed like a good person and I thought that maybe he could help me. ‘Take me with you, my boss is not good to me. If I go back now, he’ll beat me’, I said. I was accepted.”

Kailash has spent 25 years rescuing children from jobs where, in the best of cases, they get measly wages and frequently suffer all kinds of abuse. He insists that the underlying problem is far from being solved despite being ‘rescued’. The financial hardships of families forces them to give their children to middlemen who travel across the country offering loans between 10 and 20 Euros to the needy in exchange for their children’s work. They take the children, place them in businesses, and the families never see their children again nor the promised money. The children live in appalling conditions, like animals. They work 15 hours a day and eat and sleep on the job site,” says Kailash.

The release of hundreds of child slaves in India are not isolated cases in a country where 17.5 million children work, according to UNICEF. As an example, a raid on Mumbai was meticulously planned for weeks. Several organizations located businesses where children worked in broad daylight. Some 150 officers combed 200 shops in a downtown neighborhood. With the arrival of the police, business owners ordered the boys to run away, while others were forced to hide in basements and attics. The operation ended with the arrest of 42 businessmen and the release of 450 children between 6 and 14.

The rescued children, many of them with symptoms of malnutrition, went back to their families, whom they had not seen for years. Most of the children come from the poorer states in India and neighboring Nepal. The organizations have appealed to the Indian government to support needy families so that their children do not end up in the hands of traffickers again.

Source: blogia.com

SEXUAL ABUSE on CHILDREN

According to a study on child abuse, over half of all Indian children have endured one or more forms of sexual abuse.

In an effort to curtail this form of abuse, India’s Cabinet has approved a bill aimed at combating sexual abuse of children, but some activists do not agree with one of its provisions: raising the age of legal sex to 18 from 16. This, they say, could push parents to use the new law to sanction older teen’s sexual behavior. Likewise, police may use the law to harass couples. It may lead parents to file reports of rape even though a youngster had consensual sex and no crime has been involved.

At present, India does not have a specific law to protect children from sexual offenses. Current laws guard against sex with minors but prosecutions of abusers are rare. One of the major innovations of the new bill is to set up specific courts to try child abuse cases, which would get around massive backlog of cases in the court system.

The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Bill, 2011, seeks to protect children from offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography. Under the provisions of the bill, any sexual activity, even if consensual, with children under 18 years of age would be considered as rape and would be subject to prosecution. “In many ways, it would help in fighting the cases of human trafficking and rape,” said Ravi Kant, president of a human rights advocacy organization.

In general, activists welcomed the bill in a country with a massive child abuse problem, but they also question how successful the law will be in tackling child abuse. “A legal framework is necessary, but reality on ground can change only when the community is involved,” an official said. “India already has laws preventing children under the age of 14 from working but that hasn’t stopped child labor. The law will also be very difficult to apply when sexual abuse happens within the home. Very often we think laws are the solution to everything, but with incest it’s even more difficult to prove a crime.”

Source: The Wall Street Journal

MENSTRUATION AND SCHOOL ATTENDANCE

 

Asha’s struggle to attend school during her period almost cost her dream to complete her studies.

In India, particularly in rural areas, menstruation is considered dirty and impure. Hence, girls are discouraged to attend school during their periods. The unavailability of sanitary pads, inadequate sanitation and separate toilets for girls in schools compounds the problem, has a huge impact on girls school attendance and is a major reason for their dropping out.

“There was no privacy to change when required and I was hesitant to seek permission to go home”, says Asha. For some parents this stage also signals maturity and the time to get girls married. “My parents wanted me to leave school and get married”, adds Asha, now in 11th grade.

Identifying sanitation and hygiene as pressing needs, the government of Tamil Nadu and UNICEF initiated the Menstrual Hygiene and Management  Program (MHM)in eight high schools in 2009.

“Improving sanitation facilities along with adequate hygiene services has a great impact on girls’ attendance", explains the Sanitation and Hygiene Specialist at UNICEF. The program focused on capacity building of teenage girl students like Asha to demystify taboos surrounding menstruation, orienting them to manage their menstrual process, and provide access to sanitary napkins and a place to dispose of soiled ones.

Through intensive one-on-one counseling, the myths and taboos on menstruation are on the way to being dispelled. Sanitary napkin vending machines have been installed in schools to promote privacy and easy access. “After the program was introduced, dropping out and absenteeism came down to near zero and the performance of the students improved", says the specialist.

The impact of the program can also be felt in the community. The girls feel empowered to carry the messages on hygiene practice into their households and community. “We have broken the culture of silence and are free to discuss the issue with our mothers, older sisters and other girls in our community. We are able to guide girls in their preparation for their first period”, expressed Ramiah, a member of the school counseling team and a friend of Asha.

Demanding privacy for managing their periods, girls like Asha and Ramiah were able to convince their parents to make a toilet at home. Over thirty families have built toilets in their homes after persistent demands from the girls, who are slowly bringing about social change in their community.

Source: UNICEF