Article Source: Deccan Herald

Date of Issue: November 27, 2007

Author: Chetana Dinesh

Title of the article: It's a matter of rights!

The Youth Wing function of CRY is actively involved in educating children about their rights. Chethana Dinesh reports.

It's a normal class of about 40-odd girl students. On the imposingly huge black board is written in bold - Neighbourhood. The teacher walks about the class leisurely, while students, with their heads bent, are engrossed in their drawings. When the time's up, the teacher signals and all the students submit their drawings to her. The teacher goes through each one of them and notices that no two drawings are the same. When the children are asked to speak about their drawings, they do so, animatedly. They voice their thoughts on their neighbourhood and about their dream neighbourhood too.

Well! This is the scene from a session where children's rights were the topic of discussion. Students, all in the age group of 10-12 years, wake up to the reality of their immediate neighbourhood, realising what is lacking in it and what ought to have been there. The class teacher, who doubles up as a facilitator too, prods them to come out with ideas and tells them about rights they can actually demand for.

This interactive session, the highlight of which is the voicing of thoughts, is possible only because of the Youth Wing of Child Rights and You (CRY), an organisation that works towards ensuring basic rights for children.

Started in 1990, with the objective of educating children about their rights, the Youth Wing function of CRY believes that children are the vital forces of change and hence need to be aware of their rights. CRY firmly believes that the four basic rights of survival, development, protection and participation should be guaranteed to all children.

Through its well planned and specially designed modules, the Youth Wing goes about its task in a systematic manner, targeting school children in the age group of 10-12 years. The process begins with the personnel of CRY visiting schools and enrolling teachers for the programme. These select teachers are trained by CRY on ways and means of conducting these interactive and professionally developed modules.

Till a few years ago, personnel from the Youth Wing visited schools and delivered talks on human rights in general and child rights in particular. However, since follow-up was not possible for them because of many extraneous factors, they decided to enroll teachers for the programme and requested the heads of schools to make sessions in child rights a part of the regular curriculum. Today, as a result of these negotiations, these sessions are held twice every week for sixth standard students in schools that have subscribed to the programme.

Says Sonia Dominica, asst. manager - Youth Wing, "Teachers are best suited to implement the programme because of their teaching experience."

Volunteer teachers, about two from each school, receive training from the personnel at CRY once every month. Since most schools, especially this year, have their medium of instruction as Kannada, the modules are suitably translated to Kannada and given out to the teachers. Though these modules act as "framework" for sessions with children, teachers are free to modify it to suit the temperament of the target group.

Though teachers who volunteer to be a part of the programme do so at their own free will, they express their happiness at being instrumental in bringing about some positive change in their students.

"During every session, it is heartening to note the manner in which students articulate their fondest dreams and deepest fears. They are slowly realising their right to demand for facilities that are due to them. Accordingly, they are also learning to distinguish between right and wrong," says Ms Geetha, a teacher-facilitator.

Narrating an incident, another teacher-facilitator says, "In a session where home and family were being discussed, one of my girl students suddenly broke down. On enquiring, she said she was being sexually abused by her uncle and didn't know where to draw the line. We immediately summoned her family members and saw to it that the culprit was brought to book."

It is instances such as these that encourage the personnel at CRY to reach out to more and more schools. Their programme modules are also varied, so that the sessions do not get boring and repetitive. "We employ simple techniques like drawing, story-telling, poster analysis, play acting, role play, street play, singing, debates and the like to help children open up," says Ms Dominica.

CRY also encourages children to review books and movies to trigger their thoughts on child rights. "At CRY, our endeavour is to empower communities to stand up for children's rights, and address basic causes like gender, caste, religion and ethnicity that deprive children their rights," adds Ms Dominica.

Right now, Youth Wing is actively involved in the implementation of its modules in about eight government and two private schools in Bangalore. Very soon, through its developmental partners in the State, Youth Wing will be moving to other towns of the State. And, Kolar will be the first beneficiary. Plans are also afoot to target children in non-formal educational centres in various parts of the State.

For details, contact: 25484952/ 254840656