At this meet, small voices address big issues
Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, July 02: In a world where size matters, it was heartening to see little ones of the Childline India Foundation take centrestage to voice their opinions and grievances with the world they will soon inherit.
The Gujarat chapter of Childline recently arranged a state level children’s meet where 40 under-privileged children interacted with government authorities and brainstormed on issues like child labour, education, health and child rights. About 15 children from Baroda and 25 children from Ahmedabad, all in the 12-18 age group, spoke to various representatives of the State Government during the meet.
Five team leaders made presentations on education, health, child labour, the police force and the railways. Prakash Solanki, 18, expressed his concern about child labour. “Sometimes, it is the family’s economic situation which forces a child to earn a living whereas at other times, it is various powerful individuals with vested interests who push poor children into child labour. In either case, the children have to abandon school and fall into bad company.”
Sheetal Waghela, 13, expressed her concern about the insensitivity with which the police dealt with street children. “Though not all policemen are bad to us, street children are terrified at the sight of policemen,” she said.
Syed Shaheen, 17, spoke about the situation of girls’ education in municipal schools. “Since men in the neighbourhood tease girls who go to school, they often give up on their academic dreams despite their parents being supportive.
In many schools, there are no toilets for girls. Teachers are not dedicated to their jobs and often ask for personal favours,” she said.
RM Patel, Secretary Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, said, “It is not enough to rescue child labourers but also to rehabilitate them and provide alternative employment to the adults in their family.”
Aruna Dave, of the Social Defence Department, said, “The government introduces many useful schemes for children. The public needs to be made more aware of these schemes and the target group of children must be identified so that they can be helped. NGOs can play a very important role in facilitating cooperation between the government and the public.”
Source: Indian Express