BAL Panchayat Bhopal Exposure Visit CASP-Plan, New Delhi

On 26 Dec. 2010 evening the core committee members & facilitators of BAL Panchayat Bhopal departured for a 2 days Exposure visit to BAL Panchayat New Delhi & CASP-Plan Delhi in order to have an expertize on functioning of BAL Panchayat. The main focus was to have an experience sharing from the members of BAL Panchayat regarding their constitution & functioning over these past years. On 27 Dec. 2010 children had a dialogue with facilitators of BAL Panchayat who were once its members & presently developed themselves as facilitators. During the discussion we visualized that its was a remarkable Vision & Achievement of the organization to channelize the positive energy of the Youths who were members of BAL Panchayat & crossed the age bar of 18 Yrs. A group of children who had build up their leadership quality & were committed & felt as, their responsibility to work for the upliftment of their community, formed a group named "Youth for Social Change". Now these youth have constituted a wing named Child Resource & Information Center (CRIC). Now they are working with CASP-Plan as child facilitators coordinating projects on "Child Labour". In this project they primarily focus on mainstreaming out of school children engaged in Child Labour. For this 3 NFE Centers are functioning in slums where these children are provided a child friendly learning environment & Activity Based Learning (ABL) methodology is used as a medium of teaching. All the children who are regular in NFE Centers were enrolled in schools & the center is in a support role where they help these children to complete the daily activities given in school. In the discussion the children shared their experience how does they feel after going to school & recited some poems & stories they have learned in schools for us. It was a tremendous achievement of the organization to mainstream such children who were child labourers with cent percent retention. It was a major learning for us to replicate the same in our project areas at Bhopal. In second half we had visited BAL Panchayt members of Madanpur Khadar area. About 70 children were present in the meeting most of them were vocal & shared their experiences after becoming member of BAL Panchayat. Both the group members had fun & shared their views, queries & experience with each other & were happy getting an opportunity to make new friends & get to know information of a new place who face similar conditions like us.
The children also visited BAL Panchayat Studio where the members of the BAL Panchyat get an opportunity to enhance their skills through Voice Recording, Video Editing, Song Recording etc. that can be part of career in future. Our children also recorded issue based songs & poems & were very happy after the  visit & had a good leisure time in the evening. The participants who were part of Exposure Visit were Neelam Malviya, Arpit Thakur, Ravi Hirve, Priya Subramanium, Niharika Pansoriya, Mohan Patidaar, from Bal Panchayat Bhopal & Neelu &  Pragati  from Jabalpur, BAL Panchayt facilitators include Rahul Suryavanshi, Sonu Solanki, Basant Upadhayay, Swapnil Agrawal & Shiji Chacko.

BAL Panchayat Bhopal Oath Taking Ceremony

The very first Oath taking ceremony of core committee members of BAL Panchayat Bhopal was organized on 20 Nov. 2010 at Regional Science Center, Bhopal. The ceremony was organized on the auspicious occasion of 20 Nov. International Child Rights Day. The highlights of the event was, children were given oath by Hon. Justice Sheela Khanna (President, State Child Rights Protection Commission), other dignatories who marked their presence in this occasion were Mr. Mahesh Saxena (President, CWC), Mr. Prakash Disoriya (Secretary, Scout & Guide), Mrs. Archana Pandey (Corporater Ward. No. 49). in M.P. & shared her experience with children when she visited prisoners in jail . The condition of children who were with prisoners was heart breaking. She motivated all the children present there & requested them to fulfill their duties with at-most dedication & use their positions for preserving the rights of children who are in vulnerable situations. A discussion session was carried on in second half on "Role of Children's institutions in ensuring Child Rights" that was was facilitated by the newly elected Core Committee members of BAL Panchayat Bhopal. The issues raised during the session were:-
1) Status of implementation of RTE in schools 2) Problems faced by children who are engaged in Child Labour 3) Problems & abuses faced by children who are on the street & railway platforms. It was for first time when children got an opportunity to interact face to face with people who are the service providers whether they head Govt. Depts. or Civil Society Organizations. During the experience sharing children expressed their sincere dedication & concern towards issues that effects children dwelling especially in slums. It was a new experience in all where children were given a platform to ask for their rights.

BAL Dhamaal 2010

On the occasion of 14 Nov. Children's Day a sports event "BAL Dhamaal 2010" was organized for children residing in 30 slums of Bhopal in collaboration with Old Campaign Govt. School Arera Colony Bhopal. In this programme about 350 children participated in different sports events organized Viz. 100 Mtr. race for Boys/Girls separately. Needle race, Jilabi Race, Baloon Race, Sack Race etc. All the children participated in the programme were divided in the age group between 8-12 Yrs & 13-16 Yrs. The process of selection of children were carried on by the members of cluster level Bal Panchayat & CDG group. About 50 children from old campaign school have also participated in the programme & won prizes as well. The behind organizing such a vast event was all the children have the right to play & participate in recreational activities as per UNCRC. As the slums located in cities are densely populated with minimum accessibility of basic amenities of life . Most of the children residing in slums do have adequate space i.e. play ground or children's park etc. where they can play with other children & share the daily activities done by them during entire day. So in order to provide a platform for such children such a programme was organized on the occasion of Children's Day because ultimately NIWCYD-Bachpan as an institution working for ensuring Child Rights we believe that its our prime duty to provide a platform for children where they can groom & develop their skills & become an empowered citizen of the country in near future.

BAL Panchayat Bhopal Core Committee Election

On 10/10/10 election of core committee members of BAL Panchayat Bhopal was conducted at AICUF Ashram Bhopal. The election was held through democratic process & all 48 members of BAL Panchayat Bhopal has casted votes to their favorite contestants. The contestants who were in the race for president-ship were Neelam Malviya from Baghmugalia, Mohan Patidaar from Laxman Nagar & Pankaj Sharma from Balvir Nagar. After counting of the votes Neelam Malviya from Baghmugalia was declared elected with 21 members in her support.
After the election all the 6 members of the core committee i.e. Neelam Malviya from Baghmugalia President, Arpit Thakur from Karond Vice President, Ravi Hirve from Indira Nagar Secretary, Priya Subaramaniam from Baghsevania vice Secretary, Niharika Pansoriya from Jyotiba Fule Nagar Treasurer & Mohan Patidaar from Lakshman Nagar was elected as speaker of BAL Panchayat Bhopal.
After the election all the elected members of BAL Panchayat were welcomed by the Staff of NIWCYD Bachpan.

Shiksha Sankalp Rally on RTE Act, 2009

Shiksha Sankalp Rally was organized by Bal Panchayat Bhopal with the support of NIWCYD- Bachpan from Gandhi Bhawan to Kamla Nehru Park, Bhopal on 27 July, 2010 from 4.00 p.m. onwards to protest against Non- implementation of Right to Education Act 2009 which was enforced from 1 April, 2010 it was also added in Fundamental Rights. Even after 4 months of enforcement of the act the state is giving irresponsible reasons of inadequate budget & insufficient cadre of staff. The school environment is same still the children were asked for fees, T.C. & Mark- sheet for getting admission in schools. Situations didn't changed. In order to highlight the present situation about 250 Do/ Nb children residing in 30 marginalized slums of Bhopal area participated in rally organized by Bal Panchayat to highlight the issues faced by them at ground level & request Govt. to take necessary action to ensure the right of education to these children.

Enrollment Rally at I cluster

To link the Do/Nb children with mainstream education & create sensitization among slum dwellers & motivate them to send their children to school an enrollment rally was organized by Bal Panchayat members to propagate the message of importance of education. Children have discussed with the parents of Do/Nb children & motivated them to understand the importance of education & how it effects the life of a child in near future.

Enrollment Rally at Baghmugalia

Bal Panchayat of Baghmugalia area has organized enrollment rally on 28 June, 2010 in which about 150 children children who were out of mainstream education along with the members of our Bal Panchayat & children's group actively participated. They have prepared slogans on RTE , importance of education, school environment etc & recited it loudly so that they can convey their message to the parents whose children are out of school, so that they get motivated from the efforts made by children. Apart from this they have held discussion with their parents & motivated them to send their children to school & step them towards bright future.

Bal Panchayat Training at AICUF Ashram, Bhopal

A two days residential training program for the members of Bal Panchayat was organized from 21-22 June 2010 at AICUF Ashram, Bhopal on Corporal punishment & sexual abuse. About 40 representatives of our Panchayat covering 30 slums of Bhopal actively participated in the program. Ms. Sushma from MP education campaign served as resource person for the training.The main objective of the program was to impart information to the participants about pros & cons of punishment given in most of the schools & how it hampers the physical & mental growth & development of the child were explained to the children. In focused group discussion most of the children accepted that majority of children are dropped out from school because of intense corporal punishment & discrimination. The second days session focused on child sexual abuse & how children are affected by it were discussed Ms. Pragya served as resource for the session. Initially the children were not openly participating but gradually through GD & presentations they showed more involvement. Children also prepared Role plays on types of Physical, Mental & Sexual abuse faced by children at home, community & society.