Inducting Children Into Democracy

Imagine a landscape painted in green and blue. While you stand on the edge of the cliff, the setting so serene that you can hear the cow on the opposite hill everytime her bell rings. And as you inch upwards, every curve of the road reveals an even more breathtaking view of the Devbhoomi. I was to reach Dhankot, a village of 3000 people, around 80 kms from Karnaprayag, Uttarakhand. Tucked away in absolute serenity to meet and interact with a bunch of little children aged 6 to 13. Sewa International’s first Bal Panchayat!

The Idea

Bal Panchayats or a children’s parliament is an idea initiated and supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). This model, which was tried in the Bishnupur block of West Bengal a few years ago, has been implemented with gusto by two districts of Rajasthan. The aim of being simple.

Let’s engage the future of the country in today’s decision-making process. A child who, for every adult out there has always been someone who has to be taken care of, taught and disciplined. Never ever, until recent times have we engaged children in a dialogue, a conversation as an equal, as a distinct individual. This leads to children turning into underconfident, suppressed adults who do what they do because that was expected of them. Because their parents said so.

Its aptly said ‘A child is the father of a man’, and so often it is the children who come forth with the deepest lessons in the most simplest ways. It’s the children whose minds are devoid of preconceived notions, of discrimination and inequality and hence it is them only who are the change makers.

The idea of Bal Panchayat is to provide a platform for children to raise a voice against issues surrounding them and affecting them both locally and nationally. A collective voice would help children to take their grievances to the adult duty bearers.

Volunteer

Sewa International invites volunteers to come forward and support various initiatives by volunteering with us.

Volunteer

1. With the children finally settling down, they were asked to write a letter to their grandfather talking about their day, their school etc. It was amusing to see these little kids trying hard to think of words and then subsequently even drifting to drawing pictures and patterns all over their sheets.
2. The next thing was an origami activity. From little one making boats and aeroplanes to the slightly elder ones experimenting with crafting frogs and birds, all of them dropped their creations before me in an expression of the triumph of their innovations.
3. We then engaged in a poetry and song recitation session with the kids. From popular Bollywood to some folk garhwali songs they outdid each other, partly for the applause received and partly for the candies I gave them after every performance. The confidence to speak in front of a crowd and more so to sing it out loud spoke volumes about how fearless and pure children are.

Music and all forms of art can help nurture and holistically enhance a person’s personality and creativity. In a world torn by war , strife and discrimination our only hope is children and it’s time we protect them against the madness of a competitive race, of feeding them our own skewed notions of religion, society, success and morality. To expose these young, inquisitive souls to art forms, to music, to literature of a qualitative nature and in that way give them a progressive thought process and an awakened intellect.

The forthcoming activities in this regard would include meditation sessions along with music listening sessions , poetry recitation and story telling sessions. From introducing them to different musical instruments to retelling them tales from our epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata, it is expected to open up a whole new sky of knowledge and imagination for these kids.

At last we sincerely urge all stakeholders, the parents , the teachers and every citizen reading this to come forward, with ideas, with resources to make this endeavour a success. For it is in our best interest to pass on the best to the future generations, to develop empathetic leadership which takes the country forward onto the peace and prosperity. Your suggestions and efforts would be appreciated and are welcomed.