Children are naturally capable people who have a mind of their own, they are keen observers and most objective social scientists. The times are changing, and children across the globe are uniting against social evils, violence against children and planet. With the growing consciousness about enabling child participation in decisions affecting them, Caritas India programme Child Rights-My Responsibility in North Bengal has been promoting child-led community actions and child rights awareness.

On 10 & 11 June 2019, a two-day workshop was organised on Child-Led Advocacy by the Darjeeling Regional Child Rights NGOs Network (DRCRN) in collaboration with NINE IS MINE campaign for child parliamentarians and local NGOs, at Seva Kendra, Siliguri. The workshop intended to make the Child Parliamentarians aware of the rights and responsibilities, and how as parliamentarians they were empowered to take actions towards protecting child rights. They drew up both the advocacy plans based on specific situations of children in their region’s context and strategies to achieve their advocacy goal. These included street plays, rally, and letter to the authority, and so on. The Child Parliamentarians carved out their advocacy plans on issues of child marriage, child labour, and corporal punishment in schools.

The spirit behind the workshop was that of making children believe in the strength of their voice in a democracy, even if they are not voting as adults, and that speaking up was necessary to secure the future. The initiative is a beginning to the formation of child advocates in the region to participate in decision making and influencing societal and legislative thinking for a world fit for children.

The Darjeeling Regional Child Rights NGOs Network was founded by Caritas India with its partners Anugyalaya Darjeeling Diocese Social Service Society (ADDSSS) and Bal Suraksha Abhiyan (BSA) 2013, which now has about 30 organisations working on child rights in the hills of North Bengal. In the near future, the Network plans to launch advocacy initiatives and dialogues for a constitution and effective functioning of child protection systems across the hill districts, together with the child parliamentarians.