Bringing these 27 out-of-school children back is a major win for our Intervention’s out-reach workers and the elected members of the Children’s Parliament.
By INDIA CSR Correspondent
Chintalayapalle Village, Nandyal District , Andhra Pradesh: Chintalayapalle is well on course to become an inclusive and Child Friendly Village. In fact it will be the first village in Nandyal District of Andhra Pradesh to get the coveted tag. Notably one of India’s oldest Credible Carbon Management Firms, Viviid Emissions Reductions Universal Private Limited had selected this village earlier this year for rolling out its Social Intervention on the theme of ‘Children’s Education and Empowerment’ in association with SAMATHA Society for Rural Education and Development.
A total of 252 children in the age-group 6-18 years have enrolled for After School Assistive Education Classes that are held six days a week in an endeavour to bridge their learning gaps that have become all the more conspicuous post pandemic. Highly qualified subject teachers have been entrusted with the responsibility of imparting Assistive Education to the children. When the ultimate objective is to render Chintalayapalle village Child Friendly, the entire focus gyrates around Children. The intervention hinges on how teachers, parents, government functionaries, other villagers treat children and most importantly how do the children assess their self-worth. Special emphasis is laid on making the children aware about their Constitutional Rights and the laws that protect their overall well-being. Children are also made aware of the social welfare schemes that they and their parents are entitled for. A child friendly village has zero tolerance for violation of child rights.
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Earlier in July the Children’s Parliament (Bal Panchayat) was elected through secret ballot where in all the 304 children of the village in the age-group 6-18 years voted their favourite contestants to power. Miss. Indu of Class 7 was unanimously elected as the Bal Sarpanch (President).
One of the demands that most of the children of Chintalayapalle village had raised through their elected representatives was to initiate sincere de-addiction efforts aimed at their parents. Majority of the village men are addicted to alcohol which more often than not leads to domestic violence mentally scarring children in the household for life. So much so that 27 boys in the age group 14-18 years have been identified to be consuming alcohol and tobacco. No prizes for guessing that their fathers and other adult male members of the family are compulsive drunkards.
These children have been truant being perpetually absent from school. Their academic performance has been abysmally poor. Until a month and a half ago all that these 27 children were doing was whiling their time away putting both their health and education at risk.
Elected members of Children’s Parliament being the pro-active lot they are, already knew the turmoil these children had been going through. With the help of outreach workers of the social intervention and the empathetic Lady Police Constable at Chintalayapalle, the elected child representatives counselled these 27 children and also met their parents to discuss the issues threadbare. The parents were counselled as well and were made to sign an undertaking to ensure that they maintain a congenial and cordial atmosphere at home.
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The parents of these 27 children also took a pledge that they will ensure their children’s attendance at school and shall also send them for Assistive Education Classes to cope up with the academic loss. All the 27 children have been regularly attending School and After-School Assistive Education Centre ever since. The elected members of the Children’s Parliament along with the out-reach workers of SAMATHA NGO are keeping a strict vigil on these children so that they do not fall through the cracks again. These children are also being attended to by a child psychologist.
Policy Advocacy Officer at SAMATHA has approached the Functionaries in the Public Health Department to enrol the fathers of these 27 children at the de-addition centre in the vicinity. This step will go a long way in restoring calm at home which in turn will benefit the affected children, their mothers and siblings.Speaking with our Correspondent over phone, Puneet Katyal, CEO of Viviid Emissions Reductions Universal Private Limited said that, “Bringing these 27 out-of-school children back is a major win for our Intervention’s out-reach workers and the elected members of the Children’s Parliament. They have lived up to the expectations of all the children of Chintalayapalle who had been looking at them with great expectations. It is heartening to note that the issue of alcoholism and concomitant domestic violence will also be quelled and we will have a demonstrable and replicable model in place to extend to other affected households too. While we work for climate change mitigation never do we lose focus on the rights of the people and the communities in the vicinity of the clean energy projects whose carbon portfolios we manage on behalf of our vast clientele! Zero is truly a magical number. While we are incessantly working and chasing the larger goal of Net Zero, at Chintalayapalle Village in Nandyal District of Andhra Pradesh we are also making strong headway towards Zero Tolerance against violation of Children’s Rights. The road ahead may be bumpy but I do see light at the end of the tunnel that keeps us surging ahead for People and Planet.”
