The next phase of the BMZ child rights proposal for West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Assam would focus on prevention, protection and development aspects.

During Covid Pandemic 2020, India has recorded over 350 Crimes against children each day, according to National Criminal Records Bureau (NCRB). The high rate of incidences of crime against children forced Caritas India to take necessary action and develop programs to alleviate the situation of Children in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Assam states.

Caritas India took this initiative to restore the dignity of the affected people with the support of its partners, government and non-government stakeholders. The three days workshop cum write shop with its nine partners at Kolkata from 14^th-16^th June 2022 helped in finalising the areas of intervention for the future. All the partners have come with their rich experience in the field of child rights, development, and human trafficking to draft the proposal.

The proposal would enable partners to work on Child labour and child marriage, Child Trafficking and Education are the areas that evolved from the brainstorming session.

Fr. (Dr.) Jolly, Assistant Executive Director, Caritas India emphasized the importance of Micro, Meso and Macro level results of BMZ programs. He said, this meeting is a learning platform for partners – wherein partners share their experiences and expertise, learn from each other, and galvanize this for future program. He also highlighted the significance of log frame and Theory of Change.

Accentuating the importance of having a well-developed & articulated sustainability plan, Fr Parimal Kanji, ABCD, West Bengal Forum Director said good documentation is required for our program and projects.

Bal Suraksha Abhiyan, NEDAN, Seva Kendra Silchar, DEHAT, Anugyalaya, Darjeeling, SPMUS Murshidabad, Kolkata Mary Ward Social Centre and PGSS Gorakhpur partners presented their operational plan, population, area, activities, strategies, and budget at the Micro, Meso and Macro level intervention for the coming three years. The team brainstormed and briefly discussed every presentation.

Mr. Ghanshyam, the Head of Programs in Caritas India invited partners to identify the macro-level stakeholders at the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Levels and present their roles and areas of engagement.

Theory of Change and Result Framework said Mr. Dileesh Varghese, Lead – Meal is the backbone of any program. He emphasised keeping the Goals of the program ‘SMART’. He divided the participants into three groups and gave an exercise to develop the Result framework which was converted into Micro, Meso and Macro outputs.

Three days workshop was spearheaded by Mr. Ghanshyam (Head of Programmes), Devi Kalyani Pattanayak (Thematic Lead- Child Development), Dileesh Vargesh, Lead-Meal, Ms. Asha Rosaline Ekka (Programme Lead- Child Development), Mr. Mukul Gomes (Programme finance Associate), Ms. Abhishikta Bandyopadhyay (Programme Extension Associate- Child Development) from Caritas India.

Sr. Swapna, Assistant Director, Seva Kendra Silchar contended with the workshop and its outcome.  She expressed that the learning new tools and important aspects of child rights really helped in designing the programmes for the long run.

“I appreciate the participatory mode of the workshop where everyone was allowed to put forward their ideas and thoughts,” said Fr. Felix Pinto, Director, Seva Kendra Siliguri. He was happy that all the partners could flexibly share the challenges and through a detailed discussion could zero down to common outcomes.