Building Child Friendly Villages

kantin — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:43:39 -0500

by Bhuwan Ribhu
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This notebook will introduce and share the concept of Child Friendly Villages or Bal Mitra Gram (BMG), developed by Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), which directly address the multi-dimensional problems that generate, maintain and perpetuate the child labour situation. BMGs attack the triangular paradigm, a vicious circle of illiteracy, poverty, and child labour. The BMG is an innovative concept that offers a long-term, sustainable solution to a wide variety of problems such as child labour, trafficking for forced labour, poverty alleviation, and illiteracy, among others. BMGs aim at prevention while understanding the root causes to ensure sustainability and permanent settlement of the child labor problem. Not only does the BMG programme aim to withdraw children from work while enhancing the quality of education, it also aims at a holistic development of villages towards the creation of a child friendly society. Throughout the whole process emphasis is given on child participation, community mobilization, promotion of education, victim empowerment, gender equity and awareness of gender issues, while drawing upon the convergence of various poverty alleviation schemes and programmes, and ensuring long-term sustainability of the initiatives through the creation of sound community organisation and building a resource base.

A BMG village has no child labour. All children receive compulsory, good quality education, and the voice and opinion of the children ar eheard and taken into account. To date there are more than 150 Child Friendly Villages and currently BBA is working in an additional 43 villages to make them Bal MItra Gram. This notebook will outline how the BMG approach is child-centric and ensures participation of children, making it a comprehensive programme.

*Note: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the files marked with an asterisk (*). You can download a free version of this program from www.adobe.com.

Right to Know, Right to Live

kantin — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:06:02 -0500

by Sowmya Kidambi
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This notebook shares how Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) has been deeply involved in a collective process which has shaped and influenced the Campaign for the Right to Information in India. MKSS makes the case that without access to information and transparency there can be no genuine participation of all members of society, particularly the poor, in democracy. The right to know and actual transparency of information provides the ability to demand and access rights.

Access to livelihood, wages, medicine and other essentials inspired the workers and peasants in central Rajasthan to protest against the opaqueness of the local government. The Right to Information (RTI) campaign of MKSS is symbiotically connected to an understanding that without information and transparency there can be no genuine participation of the poor in democracy, no ability to demand and access their rights. The Right to Information Act is the result of a collective effort—of organizations and people who battled at the grassroots, in the villages and in urban areas. Many helped draft the law, some helped with critical input or provided the space and infrastructure, and yet others gave monetary contributions. So the credit is shared by a large group. The contribution of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan is one of many.

This notebook describes the origins of the right to information campaign in India from the perspecitve and experience of MKSS. You will see how MKSS began with a strategy of advocating for minimum wage payments for local labourers, but subsequently shifted to mobilizing local populations to demand access to public records that exposed extensive corruption and abuse of power in our state of Rajasthan, India. More recently, MKSS's strategy has again changed to engagement with the political process, as they have joined a national lobbying effort to change legislation governing the right to information and supporting transparent, accountable candidates for electoral office. Throughout these changes, MKSS deliberated to define the appropriate strategy for their goals, and to identify creative, inclusive tactics to further their strategy. You’ll see how the tactics and strategies they selected helped them build a mass grassroots movement for change and influence all levels of the Indian government.

*Note: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the files marked with an asterisk (*). You can download a free version of this program from http://www.adobe.com

Tactical Notebooks, India

Building Child Friendly Villages

Right to Know, Right to Live