Child Rights Special Grama Gram Sabha

 Child Friendly Grama Panchayats in Karnataka a unique best practice

It was in Aug 2006, CRT-Child Rights Trust a Bangalore based NGO made a presentation on the situation of children in Karnataka and the probable responsibilities of RDPR-Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, towards child rights that made the department to issue a circular on conducting `Grama Sabhas on Children's issues' in Karnataka.

The circular issued by RDPR, GoK (2006) to conduct regular Grama Sabhas on children’s issues is bearing fruits. Various NGOs and several Grama Panchayats have taken the idea in a progressive manner and are conducting Grama Sabhas effectively. CRT developed this model with the support of CRY and EveryChild during 2003 to 2006 and is continuing to work in some select districts with a separate dedicated team. CRT has also developed communication and reference material for this activity, which has been used by RDPR and in various trainings conducted by Abdul Nazeer Sab State Institute of Rural Development (ANSSIRD) to trainers and GP members on the importance of the idea and the processes to be followed.

This joint effort by RDPR, SIRD and hundreds of NGOs actively involved in child rights and rural development, in the last six years thousands of Grama Panchayats have conducted 'Child Rights Special Grama Sabhas' enthusiastically. In the beginning a few NGOs and some section of the Govt. departments raised several questions about the validity or feasibility of conducting special Grama Sabhas on child rights issues. After a few initial hiccups, the said Grama Sabha with the able support by RDPR, could solve hundreds of issues pertaining to children, which were otherwise ignored by the local administrators and people's representatives.

Best practice

1. Panchayats are now aware of not only CRC provisions but also related issues like MDGs and State Plan of Action goals to be achieved in terms of survival of children, protection issues, measures to be taken for the development of children and honouring the rights of children to participate.
2. Every year RDPR Secretariat issues a circular reminding the GPs to conduct Child Rights Special Grama Sabha around November.
3. SIRD-State Institute of Rural Development has evolved a training manual based on the experiences of NGOs and invites NGOs to train the trainers on Child Rights as well conducting Child Rights Special Grama Sabha.
4. The Education Department mentions the Child Rights Special Grama Sabha in its annual time table sharing information with the students to take part in the event.
5. RDPR issues advertisements in newspapers and radio with special interviews and programmes
6. In 2011 the minsters for RDPR and DWCD jointly addressed a press conference announcing the modalities to be followed by GPs to conduct the special Grama Sabha on child rights.
7. Every CEO of ZP nominates nodal officers through TPs to every Grama Panchayat to oversee the modalities to be followed by the GPs in conducting this special event
8. The GPs are instructed to give wide publicity to the event, organise with due notice, provide opportunity to children and adults to raise issues pertaining to children, instruct all the concerned officers (anganawadi workers, teachers, health workers, police, fair prize depot proprietors and others) to be preset to respond to the demands of the children. GP pradhan to take the responsibility of finalising the decisions taken in the Sabha and the same is minuted for follow up. They are also expected to record the proceedings in video form and share with the ZP along with time line for fulfilling the promises.

Some outcomes

• Children come prepared with issues, when given an opportunity that they can raise their issues. In many GPs children have experiences about three to four Grama Sabhas and know what issues to be raised.
• Adult community are generally amused in the beginning, but now eagerly look forward for the special Grama Sabha (its true that the regular Grama Sabha normally do not discuss many issues which can be considered as trivial, but of great importance to the life of the community in villages)     
• Minor issues like (which adult world think) changing the time of drinking water supply in the villages (which was earlier obstructing children from attending morning session in the school); getting the long absentee teachers red hand and compelling them to attend classes (!); prevention of child marriages; getting anganawadi to children belonging to minority and scheduled castes; preventing dedication of children into devadasi system; getting the Panchayat take note of the filth in the school premises in the week ends (abuse of school premises by youth); getting a playground to the school; getting disability screening done in the village itself; identification of orphans and destitute in the village; toilets for schools; higher education provisions for rural children; child protection issues; public transport to schools; health care, etc.
• A very significant achievement is that in many Grama Panchayats the four basic service providers health (ANM); early childhood care and development (Anganawadi); education (School teachers) and the Panchayats have conducted joint meetings to resolve the issues rose in the Child Rights Special Grama Sabhas.

Future course of action

Currently conducting Child Rights Special Grama Sabha, although the circular and the directions given RDPR and the concerned minsters say that it is compulsory, it still remains optional. There is a need to formalise this special Grama Sabha in the Panchayat Act, making it clear that GPs have an obligatory role towards children and their rights and conducting this Grama Sabha is not ceremonial but a statutory requirement. Messages in this regard were given by the concerned minister in a recent congregation of GP Pradhans and members and NGO representatives at Dharawada.

A lesson on this issue need to be introduced in the social studies text books at class 7, highlighting the importance of children taking part in this special meet.

As other states are showing interest in learning the process and the usage of this special Grama Sabha, GOI need to take note of the development and consider the process as a best practice for other states to follow.

Childline Update

 ChildLine 1098 is working for protection of children who are in the need of care and protection. In the ChildLine sucture CRT as a nodal agency is involved awareness and rescue operations. Some of its recent activites are recounted here.

Recently CRT was involved in rescuing of Bonded labours at  Nelamangala along with other NGOs (APSA, Action aid, IJM, SICHREM) and department representatives.  Similarly it was involved in rescue operation of begging children in Bangalore city along with Colaborator [Colab] agencies and other NGOs and departments. In this operation around 155 people were rescued including adults and 100 children.

CRT conducted ChildLine and Child Rights awareness programms with the school children with CMCA organization and Rotary club in different places along with ChildLine. Also with the help of Colab agencies and 'Anka Team' a role play on child rights and ChildLine was staged.

 aotection. In the ChildLine sucture CRT as a nodal agency is involved awareness and rescue operations. Some of its recent activites are recounted here.

Recently CRT was involved in rescuing of Bonded labours at  Nelamangala along with other NGOs (APSA, Action aid, IJM, SICHREM) and department representatives.  Similarly it was involved in rescue operation of begging children in Bangalore city along with Colaborator [Colab] agencies and other NGOs and departments. In this operation around 155 people were rescued including adults. Among that 100 children were there.

CRT conducted ChildLine and Child Rights awareness programms with the school children with CMCA organization and Rotary club in different places along with ChildLine. Also with the help of Colab agencies and 'Anka Team' a role play on child rights and ChildLine was staged.

 aotection. In the ChildLine sucture CRT as a nodal agency is involved awareness and rescue operations. Some of its recent activites are recounted here.

Recently CRT was involved in rescuing of Bonded labours at  Nelamangala along with other NGOs (APSA, Action aid, IJM, SICHREM) and department representatives.  Similarly it was involved in rescue operation of begging children in Bangalore city along with Colaborator [Colab] agencies and other NGOs and departments. In this operation around 155 people were rescued including adults. Among that 100 children were there.

CRT conducted ChildLine and Child Rights awareness programms with the school children with CMCA organization and Rotary club in different places along with ChildLine. Also with the help of Colab agencies and 'Anka Team' a role play on child rights and ChildLine was staged.

Children voice their demands loud and clear to CM

      It is not every day that one gets to see Karnataka Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda answering a series of questions posed by none other than children. However, this is exactly what happened on November 15, at Conference Hall No. 333, Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore, when the Chief Minister was grilled by around 80-odd-children from different parts of Karnataka, on various issues pertaining to child rights. Along with the chief minister, several members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) and members of the legislative council (MLCs) participated in the discussion, where child representatives took the centre stage. Along with the CM, MLAs Sri Manohar Maski, Sri Ne. La. Narendrababu, Sri Basavaraja Horatti, Smt. Vimala Gowda, Sri Mukhya Mantri Chandru, Sri Harris and other legislative assembly and legislative council members were also present. UNICEF Hyderabad representatives Dr. Yogendra Mathur, Sri Soni Kutty George and Smt. Nina Nayak, Chairperson of the Karnataka State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR), members of the NGOs and media were also present. The CM and his colleagues signed their commitment to the Child Rights Commitment poster and inaugurated the programme.

      The event was part of the state-level Children's Parliament hosted at Vidhana Soudha for almost two hours—11.00 am to 1.00pm. The unique attempt to help children raise their issues directly in front of highest policy makers was a collective attempt by Karnataka State Legislators’ Forum for Child Rights, Karnataka Child Rights Observatory (KCRO) and supported by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Hyderabad. For the first time in the state, a chief minister had held consultation with the children directly and listened to their problems in the Vidhana Soudha, the epicenter of power.

      Be it the low-quality food supplied at anganwadi centres, or the discrimination faced by HIV-positive children, the young participants at the session minced no words in bringing forth issues related to school-going children across Karnataka. The other topics which figured during the interaction between the Chief Minister and the children included lack of infrastructural facilities in schools, lack of good quality teachers in schools, problems faced by disabled children, stray dog menace, poor health care facilities, education of migrated children, trafficking, female foeticide, lack of transportation facilities and ban on liquor, to name a few.

      If 14-year-old Mohammed Anas, a student of Shivarama Karanth High School in Putthur complained of the huge amount of corruption involved in the supply of food to anganwadi centres by highlighting the involvement of teachers in selling off food meant for children, then another teenager expressed his plight at being thrown out of his school, after he was found to be HIV positive.

      The courage and conviction with which the children addressed questions to the Chief Minister left everyone baffled. Right from politicians, bureaucrats to activists, everyone present at the event praised the children for their in-depth knowledge of ground realities, and passion to solve their problems.

      A patient Chief Minister, after listening to the children assured them that their issues would be addressed immediately. He also asked the children to write to him directly whenever they faced any kind of discrimination or violations of their rights.

      As part of the Children's Parliament, young participants were provided a day-long time on 14th November to interact among themselves and prioritise their issues to be discussed with the CM. This coincided with Children’s Day celebration, observed across the country. Many of the children who participated in the state level children’s parliament felt that the momentum now created should not die down with this particular programme, rather the process of children’s representatives meeting the Chief Minister and other cabinet ministers with their demands should become a regular feature every year.

Data Collection Workshop, Hubli

Data Collection Workshop

BSW College, Hubli

Report

Research Methods for Social Work have undergone several changes in the recent past, particularly in the areas of Research Designs, Techniques of Data Collection, Analysis of Data and Computer Application in Social Work Research.

Against this background, a workshop was organised for social work studetns, educators and researchers of BSW college with a specific objective to bring research closer to social work practice, and to find from the research methodologies used by social scientists those methods that can be best adopted in the context of social work.

The above said workshop was organised by CRT (secretariate of KCRO) at Kanakadas Shikshana Samiti, Hubli on 8-10th Septemer 2012. Around 45 students and teachers participated in the workshop.

During the first day, the participants were oriented about importance of data, types of data, types of research, sampling methods etc. On the second day the students visited the Noolvi grama panchayat in four groups and collected the data about the children. During the process participants were made to follow multi-stage sampling method to select the household along with the ressource mapping of the village.

On the third day, the participants compiled, analysed the data and presented their findings in groups.

Children voice their demands loud and clear to CM

      It is not every day that one gets to see Karnataka Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda answering a series of questions posed by none other than children. However, this is exactly what happened on November 15, at Conference Hall No. 333, Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore, when the Chief Minister was grilled by around 80-odd-children from different parts of Karnataka, on various issues pertaining to child rights. Along with the chief minister, several members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) and members of the legislative council (MLCs) participated in the discussion, where child representatives took the centre stage. Along with the CM, MLAs Sri Manohar Maski, Sri Ne. La. Narendrababu, Sri Basavaraja Horatti, Smt. Vimala Gowda, Sri Mukhya Mantri Chandru, Sri Harris and other legislative assembly and legislative council members were also present. UNICEF Hyderabad representatives Dr. Yogendra Mathur, Sri Soni Kutty George and Smt. Nina Nayak, Chairperson of the Karnataka State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR), members of the NGOs and media were also present. The CM and his colleagues signed their commitment to the Child Rights Commitment poster and inaugurated the programme.

      The event was part of the state-level Children's Parliament hosted at Vidhana Soudha for almost two hours—11.00 am to 1.00pm. The unique attempt to help children raise their issues directly in front of highest policy makers was a collective attempt by Karnataka State Legislators’ Forum for Child Rights, Karnataka Child Rights Observatory (KCRO) and supported by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Hyderabad. For the first time in the state, a chief minister had held consultation with the children directly and listened to their problems in the Vidhana Soudha, the epicenter of power.

      Be it the low-quality food supplied at anganwadi centres, or the discrimination faced by HIV-positive children, the young participants at the session minced no words in bringing forth issues related to school-going children across Karnataka. The other topics which figured during the interaction between the Chief Minister and the children included lack of infrastructural facilities in schools, lack of good quality teachers in schools, problems faced by disabled children, stray dog menace, poor health care facilities, education of migrated children, trafficking, female foeticide, lack of transportation facilities and ban on liquor, to name a few.

      If 14-year-old Mohammed Anas, a student of Shivarama Karanth High School in Putthur complained of the huge amount of corruption involved in the supply of food to anganwadi centres by highlighting the involvement of teachers in selling off food meant for children, then another teenager expressed his plight at being thrown out of his school, after he was found to be HIV positive.

      The courage and conviction with which the children addressed questions to the Chief Minister left everyone baffled. Right from politicians, bureaucrats to activists, everyone present at the event praised the children for their in-depth knowledge of ground realities, and passion to solve their problems.

      A patient Chief Minister, after listening to the children assured them that their issues would be addressed immediately. He also asked the children to write to him directly whenever they faced any kind of discrimination or violations of their rights.

      As part of the Children's Parliament, young participants were provided a day-long time on 14th November to interact among themselves and prioritise their issues to be discussed with the CM. This coincided with Children’s Day celebration, observed across the country. Many of the children who participated in the state level children’s parliament felt that the momentum now created should not die down with this particular programme, rather the process of children’s representatives meeting the Chief Minister and other cabinet ministers with their demands should become a regular feature every year.

Children's Library – A Celebration and Review

Date : 15/ 7 / 2012 Place: Ananthashayana Gudi, Hospet

Child Rights Trust with the coordination and cooperation of its networking NGO friends such as KIDS, BIRDS, Sneha, READS, DON BOSCO, Seeds and CARDS has successfully finished its one year of smooth functioning of Children's libraries. The concept of children's library “by the children, for the children, with the children” has made a mark in the communities of Dharwad and Bellary districts of Karnataka. Against this background, children in order to share their experience and opinion had gathered on 15th July 2012 at Ananthashayana Gudi, Hospet. Sixty five children were represented from ten different libraries (five children from each library)

Mr. Gundi Ramesh, State Youth Awardee; Ms.Sunitha Srinivas, Community Leader; Mr. Raghavendra, Project Coordinator and Mr. Anil, Project Assistant of CRT were the guests of the day. The programme was inaugurated by child representatives from different libraries (Ms. Shilpa, Chilipili Children's Library; Mr. Purushottham, Vishwa, Chinnara Pustaka Mane; Mr. Husain, KIDS Library; and Ms. Ambika, Nehru Library).

“In our village we had libraries only for adults but now we have our own libraries” proudly said Mr. Kiran, Member of Chilipili Library who gave the welcome speech ; Children of DON BOSCO sang a song on child rights. Later, one child representative and one librarian shared their opinion and the use of children's library in their community. Children were shown a documentary film of “Chagallatti Children's Library”.

Librarians expressed that they are going to initiate and conduct activity based works in order to strengthen the membership of the libraries and also to encourage more and more of Children's Participation. Children were given away with certificates and momentous by Mr. Ramesh. In his speech, Mr. Ramesh expressed that there is a need of rural children's library and people / parents of the community have to make use of such libraries to channelize children and to equip them with more knowledge. He also expressed that in the coming days every village and Grama Panchayats must be in a position to set-up their own children's library.

Post lunch session was facilitated by motivating children to sketch out and color their poster regarding their “Dream Library”. Children colored their posters and later prepared their action plan on how they are going to organize their library in the coming days. The programme was anchored by Ms. Shruthi, member of Chinnara library. The programme was wound up by distributing a set of books to children which carried the essence of Child rights. Totally, the whole programme was facilitated by children and backstopped by adults in terms of arranging logistics and other arrangements.

In the coming days CRT has its plan to conduct more number of workshops and trainings for the volunteers who want to establish children's library in their locality and who will contribute in terms of technical support. As a process follow-up, the coordination and monitoring of the existing libraries will continue with no changes in their system of functioning.