The Problem

(1) Low awareness levels among children on child rights issues. - The child rights violations in the District are the result of deep-rooted problems like poverty, gender discrimination, caste discrimination, various customs and traditions, in-access to qualitative education and health services, inadequate local livelihood sources, etc.

(2) Low awareness among adolescent girls on health issues and menstrual hygiene management. - The menstrual hygiene practices in the families are still old and unhygienic as there was no such awareness given to them. The awareness of child rights issues is low in communities.

 The Venture

Creating Child Collectives in schools and hostels where regular awareness sessions and capacity building sessions on the topics are held to achieve the following

0bjectives:
- Involving key stakeholders to influence change by sensitizing the communities.
- Promoting leadership among children and enhancing their leadership capacities.
- Enabling the Core Group members to create awareness at a family level.
- Enabling families to have better access to different services and linking families to different social security schemes.

Unlike the conventional approach, it is a peer-to-peer initiative and hence the comfort levels, openness, sharing thoughts or ideas and participation will be higher. The approach encourages children to take up leadership roles and become ambassadors of change thereby making them work with much more conviction for the desired change, and conveys the message through street plays, skits, etc. will be a powerful medium in this process.

The Problem

Punjab is known as an agrarian and prosperous society with a dark side of child labour. The rich farmers of Punjab, often do not leave aside the chance to employ the cheap labour they can access by employing children. Particularly in the cotton farms, children are often engaged in cotton plucking work. Children provide cheap and unorganized labour and are easy to exploit. The children engaged in labour are often from marginalized communities in villages or they belong to migrant families arriving in villages during the cotton plucking season.

The Solution

Rajpal works with many different stakeholders in child welfare departments in the government and also the NGOs that work on child labour free Punjab. She holds orientation programs, rallies, door to door programs with parents to explain to them the importance of sending their child to school and giving them an education. She also explains to them the illegal nature of making children work. She does this with both, parents and farmers who employ children. Then, in the final stage, she works with the children to explain to them why it is important to go to school and how it affects their future. If the children finally understand the importance, Rajpal helps them to get admission in school.

The Venture

In order to prevent child labour, the venture conducts awareness campaigns including orientation programs, rallies, door to door visit, and corner meetings with parents in vulnerable pockets. However, they realized that they could do it more effectively by sensitizing farmers for not hiring children to work on the farm. Thus, they initiated campaigns with farmers whom we asked to declare their farms as child labour free and pledge for not employing children ever. These names were displayed on a village wall congratulating them and also to monitor if they stick to their pledge. “Child Labor Eradication” is trying to block the entry for these children to get involved in labour from the employers themselves.

The Problem

Adults tend to turn a blind eye towards the apathy of children and ignore the various issues they face. It is one of the main reasons for issues such as child labour, child marriage or child abuse does exist in our society. The issues are often ignored, as they are not systematically identified in the first place. Most often, adults tend to reason out the issues of children as blaming their family situations or the government’s weak service delivery mechanism for the not being able to support the children in need of care and protection.

The Solution

Gurmeet works with many different stakeholders in child welfare departments in the government and also the NGOs that work on child labour free Punjab. She holds orientation programs, rallies, door to door programs with parents to explain to them the importance of sending their child to school and giving them an education. She also explains to them the illegal nature of making children work. She does this with both, parents and farmers who employ children. Then, in the final stage works with the children to explain to them why it is important to go to school and how it affects their future. If the children finally understand the importance, Gurmeet helps them to get admission in school. She uses a vulnerability mapping tool to help find these vulnerable children from various religions, castes, and economic classes and helps protect them from any type of exploitation, abuse and violence, and helping them get an education.

The Venture

As the core problem lies with the identification of children’s issues, “Learning to Map Vulnerability” suggests a mapping of vulnerabilities around children. Mapping would help timely identification of children in need of care and support and it would also help adults to plan and implement preventive steps in order to protect children from various forms of exploitation, abuse and violence. Thus, the venture has initiated a bi-annual vulnerability mapping process in their village supported by members of children’s groups and child protection committee formed in the village. This helps us to prepare our action plan to deal with them. Primarily, the process ensures children’s participation while addressing the issues concerning them and also provides a permanent platform for presenting their views. In this process, the venture interacts with children from various religions, castes and economic classes in order to understand their issues. We list out the issues identified and prepare an action plan to address them one by one. One of us takes the responsibility of following the issue with elders and the village officials. Through this exercise, we are not only able to address children’s issues but are also able to prevent them.

The Problem

Rumi works against the idea of child marriage, child labour. She also works in her society to oppose the Dowry system.

The Solution

Save the Children in association with its partner organization Vikas Bharti has carried out numerous activities which proven to be helpful for children like Rumi. 
•    Strengthening of Child Parliament in schools
•    Regularising the meetings of the School Management Committee and orienting the members as well.
•    Awareness activities like Street plays and orientation of children on Life Skill Education through ‘Lalitha –Babu’ Module.

The Venture

 The inclusion of Life Skill Education component as an extracurricular activity, That has enabled the students including Rumi, to face the challenges of life that they commonly face during the adolescent period. 
The orientation programme has given Rumi the strength to raise voice against social evil. Not only that she is now an inspiration for many students in her school, as a Discussion Leader, whom she counsels and motivates to raise their voice against any form of injustice. 
Rumi's effort is being of late recognized, she is being felicitated for her contribution, by the State Government.

The Problem

The community in rural Punjab lacks awareness of the issues of Child Rights, Women Rights Child Protection, gender inequality and female foeticide. This often leads towards incidences of Child and Women’s rights violation. The Child Protection Mechanism is weak which exposes children to risks and vulnerabilities of Child Marriage, Child Labour, Trafficking, Substance Abuse, children dropping out of school etc. Many times, the basic human rights of women are also violated in these parts, due to practices like teen marriages, gender discrimination, female foeticide, and a very male-dominated society. There is an urgent need to transform this patriarchal society and streamline it with our modern values and ethics.

The Solution

Children's Group formed by Save the Children educated us on Child Rights. However, it was a challenge to disseminate the information given to us with all the children in the village. 
So, I formed a Street Theatre group in my village involving five other children. We write our own scripts and direct our own performances. We use street theatre as a tool to aware and empower community members on Child Rights. I wish to turn this into an awareness campaign which would spread across districts of Punjab making people aware of Child Protection issues and preventing them. 

Street Theatre is known and accepted medium as it dramatizes situation from people’s lives. Being a method of infotainment, the street theatre attracts a wider audience from different age groups and gender. Also, the use of local language and slang allows people to get involved with the skit being performed. The feedback is immediate with the audience replying with laughter or applause. Street Theatre needs little investment and can be performed within confined spaces. Being a mobile medium it also reaches the remote audience. It is easier to get more children involved to perform Street Theatre and build their capacity.

The Venture

Lovepreet and his friends have been staging plays, small skits and theatrical dramas over the course of the last year. They have performed in ‘Suburban’ areas as well as Villages, that is poor communities that lack awareness of such issues. The topic for such performances ranges from CHILD RIGHTS and PROTECTION to GENDER EQUALITY. The locations for their performances are carefully chosen to maximize the impact. This includes crowded markets and streets to community spaces in village panchayats and rural colleges. In this period, they have observed many people have changed their mindsets about Gender Based Discrimination, child protection. They have been successful in convincing people to look down on female foeticide and think of it as a social evil. Many people from the area appreciated them for their performance and thank them for making them aware of issues related to children.

The Change Maker

Lovepreet always felt that sections of society around him favoured one gender and exploited the women and children around. In the 8th grade, his school organized skits and plays on gender equality and the importance of women. It was here when he realized that he could use theatre as a tool to facilitate social transformation. He put together a team of 5 and started. This boosted his moral and his work has increased ever since. They facilitate street plays and shows in various colleges, villages and towns in community spaces to portray the different social problems faced in Punjab.

The Problem

During the harvest season at Haryana, manpower on farmland is an issue and children’s involvement in the agricultural work is promoted by families. Children are often involved in cotton plucking and wheat harvesting. Landlords find it affordable to engage children as they could be paid less and can be exploited with long work hours. Children engaged in farm work lose on their education and often end up dropping out of school.

The Solution

She works in rural and semi-rural Haryana with young people/kids that are being forced into child labour or voluntarily work in various industries like cotton agriculture. 
Anju's employs 2 strategies to get this done. They are -
(1) Build a large team of young people
(2) Advocates with village authorities, parents and school teachers and principals to stop child labour and child marriage. 

Anju believes in the power of the youth hence her whole team comprises of her peers. Her team meets every week discusses the various child marriage kids, how to tackle them and divide various territories that they function in, into teams to go door to door, canvas the neighbourhood and advocate for child rights. During the process, the team also identifies young people involved in child labour and enrols them in school through conversations with parents, law enforcement and village authorities. 

Almost all of the young people Anju and her team have identified are all still in school. She has also been able to prevent over 20 child marriages as of 2019.

The Venture

Anju Rani along with other children in her village have created a campaign “Komal Haath Kalam Ke Saath” (Tender hands with Education). They act like a task force, which visits the farms nearby their village in the harvesting season and counsel the parents, children as well as landlords for not employing children in the farm work. They explain the effects of involving the children for labour work and its implications on their future. They also spread awareness on the importance of education through discussions and informal seminars. Anju recognizes the truth that you can’t change the world alone and has hence built a team around her work. Each member of her team is allocated an area where he/ she watches out for any violation of child rights whether its child-labour, child-marriage or denial of education. Anju also works with local law enforcement officers for cases where the local landlords or parents are adamant and won’t budge. As a symbolic gesture, Anju and her team offer a pen to the child working in farms and bring them back to school with due permission from his/her parents.

The Problem

Illiteracy and being oblivion of the importance of education.
 

The Solution

Divya and her team identify children that work in local shops, farms and dabbas, and enrols them in schools. She helps people realise and value the importance of education.

The Venture

Through initiatives, there has been an increase in the number of students attending schools. Their engagement in school has improved to a great extent. She persuades parents to send their kids to school.
 

The Changemaker

Divya and her team have changed the mindsets of people in her community. Through advocating education for girls and creating awareness among parents, the numbers of children getting educated have increased.

The Problem

Kids are ignorant of the rights they have, that they can claim, which leads to negligence in identifying opportunities. They remain oblivious of their options.
 

The Solution

Thimma and his team holds meetings with Panchayat members to understand child rights and passes on the information to other kids. They also identify problems in society and fights to solve them.

The Venture

Through discussions and gatherings in schools and other public places, people are educated on options that they have but not aware of. Their commitment and actions towards the wellbeing of children in their village have become the inspiration for many children.
 

The Changemaker

A 17-year-old passionate and persistent Thimma Reddy is emerging as a role model for children in Navalkar village in Manvi taluka, Raichur District. He loves taking up initiatives of mobilizing and motivating fellow buddies towards understanding their rights and claim them. His commitment and actions towards the wellbeing of children in his village have become the inspiration for many children.

The Problem

Girls and women have become victims of violence.

The Solution

The initiative teaches girls to defend themselves.  Awareness is spread on domestic violence, personal hygiene and use of biodegradable sanitary napkins.

The Venture

Government school kids and people of all age groups are taught karate.  Awareness camps were held in 4 districts of Andhra Pradesh.

The Changemaker

Sherly and her team have taught karate to 900 students in government schools within 6 months in 4 camps. She is currently pursuing her Bachelors and preparing for her civil service examinations.

The Problem

In India, sexual abuse is an important issue, however, young children and adolescents, who are often the target of such abuse, have not been sufficiently educated on the subject.

The Solution

Sushma and her team teach self-defence to adolescents and children, in schools and orphanages in rural Karnataka, to empower them to protect themselves and their peers. They also educate them on the topic of sexual abuse to help them understand what it means, using a variety of tools including good touch and bad touch. Not only does she educate young people on the threats of sexual abuse, but also teaches both boys and girls about the consequences of their actions and how to respect and treat each other.

The Venture

Sushma works with a team of two, who conduct workshops with her. So far, they have worked in around 15 schools with over 1000 children. They have received financial support from the Deshpande Foundation.

The Changemaker

Sushma is in her 3rd year, studying Agriculture, at the College of Agriculture, Vijayapura. She started her venture after being exposed to several cases of sexual abuse in the media.

The Change Maker

Meghla decided that she was going to speak against the early marriage of the girls of her area, Kamlapur. With a few of her friends, she started talking to the young girls in her area, telling them about the dangers of early marriage. Those who did get married at a young age were made aware of the appropriate time for taking a child and helped them in any difficulty they faced. They conducted different sessions on raising awareness, developing life skills, besides talking to the girls personally. The youth and their families started talking about this tabooed social norm. With each passing day, a change is coming into motion. Till now Meghla and her team have stopped 5 child marriages successfully. 

The children from the slums are neglected even more than the children who live on the streets. There is a lack of resources and assistance for these slum children because most people are too afraid to even set foot in the slums. As a result, many people are unaware of the hardships and unhappiness of these slum children. Momotajul’s venture, Happiness is EID Dress, aims to help slum children by providing them the various resources they are currently lacking, such as food and clothing, and to establish a point of contact that the slum children can turn to in times of trouble or need. Happiness is EID Dress also works to increase awareness of the problems of slum children and inspire them to make a difference.

Moni recognized the ways in which gender inequality impacts girls in her village, particularly in regard to early child marriages. She created an advocacy platform called the Child Marriage Eradication Club to start a dialogue in her community about the dangers of this traditional practice. By bringing together local government officials and leaders from the community, Moni has encouraged many of her community’s key leaders and influencers to question the way in which women and young girls are treated. As a result, more and more people are becoming aware of the issue and the youth in her community now have a platform from which to fight for their rights.

The Problem

The children living on the streets usually do not have access to a proper meal per day. These street families do not have proper government documentation like Ration cards and Aadhar cards to avail the basic benefits offered by the governments.

The Venture

Manisha, through her initiative, ensures that each child living on the street gets at least one complete meal every day. She achieves this goal in collaboration with the ‘Hamara Foundation’. She has also joined forces with the Maharashtra State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights to advocate ‘The Right to Identity’ wherein she is focusing on getting these street families a temporary ration card so that these families can have access to low-cost food grains under the government’s Public Distribution System. She also looks for children who do not go to schools and facilitates admission for them under the Right to Education.

The Change Maker

With her efforts, Manisha is able to get 100 children one nutritious meal every day. She has been able to get 56 children back into a school, thus improving the literacy rate among these street children and enabling them to lift themselves out of Poverty through the means of education. Her venture has also performed around 20 skits pertaining to issues affecting young females in her society, where Manisha has been a forefront in increasing awareness about these issues.