Children’s Day in India is celebrated on 14 November every year as a tribute to India’s First Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. The day is a commemorate to increase awareness of the rights, care and education of children. On this day, many educational and motivational programs are organized across the country, by and for children where everyone speaks on the rights of a child which are manifested in the Indian Constitution & India had also ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Speaks for the Children that All children are equal and have the same rights; Every child has the right to have his or her basic needs fulfilled; Every child has the right to protection from abuse and exploitation and Every child has the right to express his or her opinion and to be respected.

Caritas India Swaraksha Anti-Human Trafficking (AHT) Program Partners PGSS, DEHAT, DSWS and Shakti Samuha are continuously engaged in empowering children so that they are aware of their rights & can raise their voice against any kind of abuse with them. Various actions are taken by the Child Parliament in different areas to stop child labour, Child marriage and to address the flaws such as requesting Gram Pradhan for renovating toilets, Boundary walls, Classrooms so that children can get a conducive environment in schools with maximum attendance. Under Swaraksha AHT Program, the child parliament in the community is strengthened through various platforms after attending the Workshops & Trainings. 

During the Child Rights week, the children from the Child Parliament got the opportunity to learn through several programs organized by Caritas India Partners Under Swaraksha AHT Program. DEHAT organized the excursion for cross-learning where Children’s from different villages got the opportunity to visit other villages & meet the Child Parliament leaders of that area to learn from each other on different Initiative & actions taken in their areas.

The objective of the exposure was to create a platform to unite and raise a collective voice against child right violation, share challenges and issue of the children at different places, ​learn best practices to sort out the problems and plan to express their demand before policymakers.

A joint Program “ChildLine Se Dosti” with Childline India was also organized by the PGSS for the children during this week to create awareness among children & sensitize them to raise their voice on any abuse or violence they came across either in family, society or any place.

Recently, through Caritas India efforts few Children were recognized & got nominated for International Peace Prize in which Arun Mishra, the Prime Minister of Child Parliament from our project area got this opportunity for his outstanding work to protect the child right & take actions for the Rights of Children. The nomination of Arun, other Child Parliament leaders were very encouraged and showed eagerness to visit his place so that they can also Learn on the achievements from his area.

The request of cross Learning was taken into consideration and during the Child Rights week, some of the Child Leaders from Child Parliament of different villages came to see the progress in village Bakshigaon through the actions taken by the Child Parliament. In this Pandemic hour, the spirit & the interest of these children could be seen & realized that they travelled from 10-80 Km from their homes just to see & learn what made Arun for being nominated for International Award. Behind this visit, the children motive was to get more Knowledge for more actions in their areas too. 

During this visit, they decided to activate the village-level child protection committee because every village level stakeholder i.e. Asha, Anganwadi, schoolteacher, village head and child representative are the members of VLCPC. Reasons behind this decision were to create a platform for the children at the village level to express their views and raise their demand accordingly. 

They emphasized to stop child labour and decided to sensitize the parents of those children who send their child for the work. Child parliament members will mobilize parents and identify the root cause of sending their child to work and will take action accordingly. 

The most important discussion was to sensitize the system by reporting the child abuse cases to the services providers like Child helpline 1098, Police 112, PM helpline number 1076 etc. so that maximum call from the children can be made which will draw the attention of the government towards children for rapid responses on the complaints.

Likewise, PGSS Gorakhpur during this week engaged the children with Childline and observed the week through Childline se Dosti program which means friendship with childline so that every child can report the abuse through child helpline number without fear. The objective of connecting the Children with childline se Dosti Program was to create exposure for them with different stakeholders or service providers who are always there to support the vulnerable children or the child in need of care & Protection. Observing Child Rights week is the time for children when they are called to share their views & expressions so that their voice can be taken at the Policy level where changemakers can listen to their plea & answer to them.

Several activities were undertaken during this event like taking oath for child safety by tying thread at the hands of duty bearers, realizing the dreams of flying high by flying a kite, encouraging children through sports competition, creating Child-Friendly environment, promising through the signature campaign, public awareness in the community by taking out a rally and disseminating Information on good touch and bad touch through awareness meeting.

This event was not only witnessed by Children but also different Stakeholders like border forces, CO, Tehsildars, Police Department, Panchayat Leaders, Women staff were also a part of this event.