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Bal Mitra Mahapanchayat 2007
The leaders of the future
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Neha, the elected Sarpanch addressing the child participants |
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Children having fun at Air Force Museum
& National Science Centre |
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Young leaders at India Gate & Qutub Minar |
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Ms. Surekha Pandikar and Ms. Kusum Lata Singh conducting the workshop
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Children reading the different stories written during the workshop |
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Group Discussion and writing key points for the presentation |
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Mr. Ramesh Gupta talking to children |
“Main ladoongee ladai apni panchayat key saath milkar, aur har bachey ko mileyga acchi padai , accha skool aur achey master ji.”
“I will fight with my team of children parliament and every child will get quality education, good school and qualified teachers” said Neha the newly elected Rastriya Sarpanch (National Head) of Bal Mitra Mahapanchayat 2007.
Neha with other 8 elected member of Bal Mitra Mahapanchayat made a declaration for total elimination of child labour and provision for free, compulsory and good quality of education. Bal Mitra Mahapanchayat was held on 6th May to 12th May 2007.
In this Bal Mitra Mahapanchayat 70 children from Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Delhi who have been elected as leaders in Children's parliament from different villages assembled to share their success and difficulties that they had and learning's of working in their villages. This was the platform for all the children to meet other children and learn from each others experiences.
Its time to play and learn
BBA team planned an excursion trip for our young leaders for 6th, 7th and 8th May. They came from their respective villages to Delhi. In Delhi they visited India Gate, Museums and Qutub Minar.
How to express yourself
Children are like a sponge and at the age of 14-18 years they like to experiment. Therefore BBA organised creative writting workshop for them. Ms. Surekha Pandikar and Ms. Kusum Lata Singh from “Bachpan- Society for Children” who have been writing many story books for National Book Trust agreed to come to Mukti Ashram to conduct the workshop.
In the workshop they were taught the art to express themselves through stories, poems and acting. They were given a task to write on any topic they like and they were divided into 8 groups. The topics on which children wrote were paryavaran (Environment) Meri Gudiya ( My Doll ), Main Apna Bachpan Bhool Gaya (I have forgotten my childhood), Bal Mazdoori ( Child Labour), Mujhey Mera bachpan Lauta Do, AAj ki Yatra ( Today’s Journey), Sacha Mitra ( A true Friend).
After three adventurous days, all the children went to Bal Ashram in Viratnagar to start with the Bal Mitra Mahapanchayat. .
On 9th May they reached Bal Ashram Virat Nagar and shared there experience of excursion trip with other Bal Ashram Children.
Next day,10th May 2007 all the children were divided into groups according to their region; and were given an opportunity to discuss there learning experience with others child activists. After a 1 hour discussion they made presentation on the work done by their children parliament and the problem that they faced or are facing to accomplish their task to make the village child friendly.
The enthusiasm and their determination to bring change not only motivated Bal Ashram children but it also brought new energy level in the adults present there. All the young leaders of BBA participated in discussions gave their viewpoints which were taken very seriously by other activists too. Kaiash ji founder of Bachpan Bachao Andolan made all the children understand what is the concept of Bal Mitra Gram why it is important and explained the five main objectives of Bal Mitra Gram which are-
- To Bring children out of wok
- To enroll every child in school
- To give facilities in school like water, toilets etc
- Free education
- To pressurize government to fulfill our demands.
On 11th the elections took place, for proper working of this event an election committee was formed in which three Bal Ashram children Amar Lal, OM Prakash and Deepak were included. The young leaders who wanted to stand for the different post gave their names to the election committee.
Now it was time to collect votes, these children were not only good at their work but also good in speeches. All the candidates one by on came on stage to put their point of views and every leader would enchant the slogal “ bal mazdoori khatam karo , shikhsa ka prabhandh karo “ as loudly as he\she can.
8 children were selected. Neha Rawat – Sarpanch, Razia Sultan – Aup Sarpanch, Chandan Kumar - Mahasachiv, Mohammad Ansari- Rashtriya Sachiv, Rajkumari, Dhara Singh, Rajesh Prajapat, Qamil.
Kailash ji on congratulating the elected members said that these children are the true activists and the future leaders of BBA. They are the true heroes who are working hard to bring change in their school, in their community and in their village. Now they have to work very hard and take a pledge that they will eliminate child labour from their country.
Chaurasiya ji, Chairperson of BBA congratulated all the elected members and said that the enthusiasm should be maintained and they have to make an effort to keep all children out of work so that their future is bright.
After the elections a declaration was made by the elected members and new strategy was planned for the future action of Bal Mitra Mahapanchayat.
Many esteemed guests came to talk to children. One of them was Mr. Ramesh Gupta, who is not only a renowned lawyer but also president of BBA.
During the informal conversation with the children he explained the process of becoming a lawyer, supreme-court lawyer and then a judge. He also said that if in the near future any of children will require his guidance for pursuing law as their profession then he would always be present for them.
Its time to DISCO
The days in the Ashram were full of discussions, speeches and planning but what the children did during the night????? In the night there were lot of cultural events planned by the children which included songs, regional dance, skits and jokes.
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