Tag Archives: people’s action for rural awakening

Empowerment of Divyangs: Teachers’ MLC Declares his Commitment

To empower Divyangs, People’s Action for Rural Awakening organised a Parents’ Meeting at PARA, Ravulapalem on June 28, 2019. The chief guest for the programme was East and West Godavari Districts MLC Illa Venkateshwar Rao.

Introducing the newly elected Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) from the Teachers’ Constituency to the participants, DAPC and Liliane Fonds Coordinator, B Subbayamma, appreciated his simplicity. She said that the council member does not haveany police escort and travels by RTC services.

The DAPC underlined that the vital role of the government in the empowerment and development of Divyangs. As per “The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill – 2016”there are 21 types of disabilities compared to the 7 listed in the 1995 Act. The Act speaks of equal opportunities, protection of rights and full participation of Divyangs.

DAPC committee members submitted a memorandum demanding: 1) Facilities like ramps and washrooms convenient to disabled people at schools and colleges, 2) Multiple disabled option be included in the Sadaram certificate, 3) Allowing earlier students with comparatively lesser marks to be eligible for Group-4 exams and 4) Withdrawal of the A single pension for a single ration card policy and support of each Divyang regardless of the number of Divyangs in a family.

Addressing the gathering, Mr Venkateswar Rao said that he neither belongs to ruling nor opposition parties, I belong to “people’s party” and work for the development of people. He added that he would speak for disabled people in Legislative Council and if need be he would “fight” outside the council. The council member asked the participants to give a written representation of their demands. He later distributed books and bags to disabled children and a sewing machine to the parents as part of Income Generating Programme (IGP).

PARA Director Fr Ignatius said that it was a joy to be able to work with the Divyangs and appreciated the families who cared for them with great commitment.

‘Government needs to implement HRE in all schools’

Telangana Human Rights Education team of PARA conducted an interactive meeting for old HRC leaders with NGOs on following a Human Rights-based approach. The meeting was held on May 26, 2019 at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram, Hyderabad. The meeting was organised to create a platform for the leaders of Human Rights Clubs who have passed out of school to share their ideas, and to plan their continued involvement in Human Rights activities. Around 30 HRC leaders and representatives from NGOs participated.

Thanking people who work with and represent children, the Hyderabad Child Welfare Committee Chairperson, Mrs Shyamala Devi, expressed happiness over seeing old HRC leaders coming back to take the initiative of Human Rights culture forward. Saying Human Rights are really a call to live more fully as human beings, she asked the leaders to meet regularly and discuss possibilities in their new environments. She encouraged them to use the resources provided by People’s Action for Rural Awakening, Amnesty International and others. She felt that she was understanding more about rights through her interaction with children.

Cautioning that their enthusiasm should not end here with the meeting, she asked the HRC leaders to see that no Human Rights’ violations take place in their specific contexts. She invited them not allow any rights violation go unchallenged. It is everybody’s right to live peacefully. Anyone does not letting others live peacefully is violation human rights. She added that all present should work towards getting the rights of all respected.

Telangana HRE Coordinator S. Ambedkar pointed out that more and more people, busy with electronic gadgets, were forgetting that they are social beings.The Telangana State Coordinator expressed his unhappinessthat many schools in Telangana were not having Human Rights clubs. Sharing a recent experience, he said even Group-II aspirants were not aware of Sustainable Development Goals. The old club members could make people, including their parents and neighbours, aware of these goals.

Saying rights are linked tobasic needs, Mr. Gowtham from Mahita organisation added that, even after 71 years of Independence, people still had fight to get their rights to be recognised. He wanted all NGOs, government officials, teachers, children and parents should practice and respect all rights.

Old HRC leader, and currently a college student, Sowmya Lal Howdekar said that the Human Rights Club members had wanted to stop the marriage of her friend who was still a minor. They were been discouraged by the attitude of management of the school and the parents of the girl. Their efforts along with their class teacher and other students during their visit to the parents of the minor girl were in vain. Though they did not succeed in stopping the marriage, they were at least were successful in bringing the girl back to school.

Sahith Lal Howdekar, another leader, said that there was still so much gender discrimination. Even if girls top the schools, many of them are forced to stop their education after Class-X and are limited to remain in the kitchen.; boys are allowed to continue education even after they fail. Even with all the advancement in technology, when it comes to Human Rights, only few know about them. Sahith Lal said we need to create greater awareness of all rights.

Sharing his experience as a HRC leader, Shiva spoke about the mid-day meal issue at his school. He said his team was turned down several times by the management of the school. However, they persisted and were able to solve the issue. He also said that they also had a water issue. The HRC members solved the issue with the money pooled in the club meetings.

Pooja said that they group was the first and last group of HRC members. Recently they had come to know that a Class-VIII student became a subject to child marriage. On the occasion, she asked the Telangana HRE Coordinator to make the clubs at her school. This was the occasion to revive the Human Rights club in the school.

Saying Child Marriage is an offence, K Sumathi, a resource person, suggested that the leaders to dial 1098 as soon as they hear about a child marriage being planned and to file a complaint. When one cannot handle cases alone, there is the need to explore ways to involve others to find a solution. In anything related to children, anyone could always call 1098 and remain anonymous. Talking about Sustainable Developmental Goals, she said that development should not be done at the cost of others. She took a session on what children could do with regard to the Sustainable Development goals.

In the post lunch a session, the young leaders shared their expectations from the NGOs and the Government. The HRC leaders said that NGOs need to create awareness on Human Rights among children, especially children from the street and promote a human rights culture. To reach masses, cultural teams need to be made active and approach people creatively. They added that the Government need to implement Human Rights Education and Clubs in all schools.

Civil societies committed to child-friendly city

During the first leg of the Child-Friendly Cities Initiatives, some civil societies in the city were not very enthusiastic about the initiative. In fact, few NGOs never turned back. After making several attempts to clarify the concept of CFCI, they started to develop more interest in the emerging possibilities for children.

The CFCI team called several organisations working for children and human rights to a seminar on the concept of Child-Friendly Cities Initiative. Some participants showed interest in the idea. Others seemed to be interested in the possible funding connected to the initiative. However, the team members continued to pursue with the CSOs as they were aware that without them the CFCI initiative could not be sustained.

While the efforts to pull the civil societies on the board were on full-swing, the crime rate was also increasing in the country and also in the city. In the month of January, 2019, a stepfather who was intoxicated had burned the thighs of a 7-year-old girl child. Last year, a 6-month-old girl was raped by a man. Issues like these changed the mind of people. People realised that there was the urgent need to have a system which could help children from any kind of violence. And they started to show interest in the concept of CFCI and started joining in the conversation on assuming their share of responsibility in protecting the children in the city. Moreover, they started to conduct meetings voluntarily involving various other NGOs in the city. We can happily say that the Child Friendly Cities Initiative, Rajamahendravaram has taken off at last.

VCPC members stopped two child marriages

Sussane, the team member of Don Bosco Mondo, paid a visit to the panchayat office of Venkatapuram village and interacted with the members of Village Child Rights’ Committee (VCPC) on 28.11.2018. All the members of the committee, except for members of Human Rights’ Clubs, were present on the day. The students, HRC members, could not make it to the meeting as they had an examination.

The session started with Fr. Ignatius addressing the meeting and briefing about PARA and its projects and the purpose of visiting the village. He also introduced Susanne to the gathering.

On coming to know about the problems in the village, Susanne asked if they were facing any challenges working with the people. The members of the VCPC said that since they were familiar in the village, people generally listen to them. With regard to VCPC, Susanne asked if any exchanges between the members of VCPCs of Venkatapuram and VCPCs of other villages have taken place so far. To this, VCPC members said that nothing as such had happened as the committee was just three weeks old.

The team member of Don Bosco Mondo asked the VCPC what were child-related issues in the village. Answering the question, the members of the committee said that they were spreading awareness in the village about trafficking of children on the pretext of job. To this measure, we are seeing that no girl goes out of the village for job with an unknown person, they added.

Talking about her 2-year-old child, who is in Germany, Susanne asked how children are being treated. The VCPC members said there was a bad influence of television on parents and added that these days parents, instead of giving time to children, were stuck to watching TV serials. A member of the committee said that parents were just cooking food for children and leaving them on their own. There was no exchange between parents and children.

They said they were ensuring that there were no cases of child marriages in the village. They also added that they were sensitising the parents about the complications related to early marriages, early pregnancy, challenges in raising children, and so on.

Susanne asked the committee members if they needed more training programmes on Human Rights. Nodding their heads, they said it this would help them get more familiarise with child rights. And when the session was open for ‘question and answer’, they asked Susanne what made her travel such a long way, leaving the 2-year-old at home. The team member of DBM said that though her job was to sit at her desk and report to BMZ, she wanted to know the conditions of children of other countries apart from her own.

Sharing her personal life, she said that she was a student scout and was passionate about helping others. This made me work with the needy. She added that her husband was into business.

Later, she visited the nearby Anganwadi centre which was about 200 meters away from the panchayat office. She enquired about the nutrition and medication given to pregnant women and children. She also she spent some time with kids who were of her child’s age.

From there, the district coordinator of Krishna, T Madhusudan Rao, led the visiting team to another panchayat office in Pedhaprolu village where the VCPC meetings generally take place. Even here both the parties, visiting team and VCPC members, introduced themselves to each other and Fr Ignatius walked them through the works of PARA and explained the agenda of the visit.

The guide teacher asked Susanne and Fr Ignatius why they were sensitising people on Human Rights. Fr Ignatius and Susanne said it was important to make the children aware of their rights like participation, protection, education, and survival of that children have a better future.

Talking about Human Rights, the members of VCPC asked for printed materials like fliers, books, hoardings, etc, on the rights to reach more and more people in the village. They added that there was no point in conducting or discussing about human rights within the four walls if they don’t reach the masses.

When asked if there were any problems in the village, the village secretaryaffirmed that there were no problems as the district collector was closely following up. He said that for this reason there were no NGOs in the area.

Susanne asked the meeting if there were any child marriage cases in the village. For which, all said no. However, as the discussion went on, they said there might be few child marriages carried out outside the village which were not coming to their notice. However, they said that parents were taking the children to faraway places like temples to conduct the child marriages.

The VCPC members added that they stopped two child marriages in the village that they came across and counselled the parents about the problems related to early marriages. They also sensitised them on rights. One of the VCPC members said that might the reason why parents were taking children to remote areas to conduct child marriages.

Discussing about the health of pregnant women and children, the gathering said the village had established a nutri-garden, where all the required fruits and vegetable were grown. To a question on how their children were treated, they said now-a-days children were not listening to parents. They were either busy with their mobiles when at home or go out with friends and return only late in the night.

To this, Fr Ignatius said that the current generation was fast and “quick learners”. He added that parents should give them time and listen to their ideas and opinions instead of downplaying their views. Otherwise, once they realise that you are not listening to them,they stop telling you anything to the parents or elders, even if anything major incident takes place. He ended the session by asking them to have quality time with children and make them aware of their rights.