On an overcast morning last week, a small group from Save the Children, including myself, were greeted enthusiastically by children from the village with chants of “child rights now!” and other slogans of rights, protection and education. As we walked through the village, we paused briefly to ceremoniously plant a small tree just opposite the village primary school—a reminder that children may be thinking just as much about environmental stewardship as a rights issue as are adults.
welcomed by the children's group
As we gathered in the village square—seemingly the entire village had come out to express their views and opinions—we were welcomed by the Sarpanch, women’s Self Help Groups and, of course, the local children’s group and Child Protection Committee (CPC). There was a small cake and candles for the children’s group who were celebrating their first year of existence. The Sarpanch and children spoke passionately about the goal of making the entire village child labour free and ensuring that all children were enrolled full time in school.
I held a separate and lengthy discussion with members of the Child Protection Committee, women’s Self Help Group, local farmers and our partner organisation, Apeksha Homeo Society (AHS). The CPC was quick to point out some of the earlier themes of the day—that they were truly committed to ensuring their village was child labour and exploitation free. The CPC had already facilitated large community-wide forums and discussions on child labour and at the suggestion of the children’s group, had spoken directly with families/households that continue to send their children to work, especially during the high seasonal work of agriculture. At the same time, their understanding of the importance of education in mitigating and eliminating child labour was profound, and in accordance, the CPC had also held discussions with teachers regarding their duty to find out why some children were irregular in their attendance and, of course, why other children were not attending school at all.
When I asked what the next steps were for the CPC, children’s groups and others, I was impressed when the head of the CPC proudly showed me a 2-page action plan document that they had been working on together in consultation with the larger community: in addition to action points, there were benchmarks and indicators, timelines and a list of responsible parties for ensuring implementation. While it was certainly a proud moment for the village to share their action plan with me (and ask lots of questions on how I thought they could improve upon it!), it was equally a proud moment for Save the Children and AHS, who have been working with this community—along with 1,800+ others—on building their capacity in child rights and protection and providing training in simple tools and techniques that they can use to begin to monitor, prevent and respond to child labour and other issues of exploitation and abuse.
one of the approaches to eliminate child labour is by ensuring that schools are child and learning friendly. here an ingenious game of child rights snakes and ladders is painted on the floor of the school!
The Child Protection Committees, children’s groups and women’s Self Help Groups truly are our frontline social change activists and warriors in the profound movement that is happening in Amravati and many other districts and villages of Maharashtra.
As we left the village a few hours later, it had started to rain; yet, my feeling was that it would take a lot more than a monsoon shower to dampen the spirits of this community—a village well underway to achieving child labour free status!
Contributed by: David Bloomer, Head of Child Protection, Save the Children
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