Amruta Lovekar
ANDHERI, JULY 31, 2008: With the new academic year well underway, Balprafulta, a Don Bosco Child Rights Organization, has re-launched its Community Initiatives Programme. This is a community based programme to create awar
eness and a platform for action, for empowering children and community groups towards child-centered community developmental processes. This programme works in and around slum communities and schools in Mumbai’s K-east ward which includes Parle (East), Andheri (East) and Jogeshwari (East). Through this programme, sessions on child rights are being conducted for children from Std. V to IX in the schools of K-east ward. Sessions will be held in a total of 13 schools, some of which are National Urdu School, Shree Samarth Vidya Mandir, Dyan Ganga School, Guru Nanak School, Swami Vivekananda Hindi School, Balvikas Vidya Mandir, Shramik Vidya Mandir and Young Indian School. These sessions are conducted for children in their own classes without disturbing the school schedule in any way. The programme, which has started in July, will carry on through the whole year. In the schools, the session begins with the trainer asking the students ‘who is a child’. Most of the children give very diverse answers saying that child is someone who is 3,4,10 or 15 years of age. The trainer then clarifies that according to the UN Convention on Child Rights and the Juvenile Justice 
Care and Protection Act, 2000 ‘a child is someone from 0-18 years of age. He then talks to them about the history of child rights which goes back to the time before the First World War. The major ‘charters’ that contain these rights are then presented. The trainer also explains the relation between needs, rights and responsibilities. The sessions are participative and the children are encouraged to share their views and their perspectives. These sessions are an important means, not just to reach out to children, but also a platform to treat them as individuals and to make them aware of their rights
eness and a platform for action, for empowering children and community groups towards child-centered community developmental processes. This programme works in and around slum communities and schools in Mumbai’s K-east ward which includes Parle (East), Andheri (East) and Jogeshwari (East). Through this programme, sessions on child rights are being conducted for children from Std. V to IX in the schools of K-east ward. Sessions will be held in a total of 13 schools, some of which are National Urdu School, Shree Samarth Vidya Mandir, Dyan Ganga School, Guru Nanak School, Swami Vivekananda Hindi School, Balvikas Vidya Mandir, Shramik Vidya Mandir and Young Indian School. These sessions are conducted for children in their own classes without disturbing the school schedule in any way. The programme, which has started in July, will carry on through the whole year. In the schools, the session begins with the trainer asking the students ‘who is a child’. Most of the children give very diverse answers saying that child is someone who is 3,4,10 or 15 years of age. The trainer then clarifies that according to the UN Convention on Child Rights and the Juvenile Justice 
Care and Protection Act, 2000 ‘a child is someone from 0-18 years of age. He then talks to them about the history of child rights which goes back to the time before the First World War. The major ‘charters’ that contain these rights are then presented. The trainer also explains the relation between needs, rights and responsibilities. The sessions are participative and the children are encouraged to share their views and their perspectives. These sessions are an important means, not just to reach out to children, but also a platform to treat them as individuals and to make them aware of their rights