Suman (name changed), a class XI student from a slum in Ranchi is passionately chasing her dream of becoming Police Officer while advocating for girls’ education in her community. In 2019, when Suman was 13 years old her parents fixed her marriage at their native village. They were in hurry to solemnize it; hence, her mother approached Self Help Groups in the locality for loan. Suman was member of an adolescent group in the slum, which was formed by CINI as an effort to build agency of adolescents to make them aware about their rights, enable them to raise their voices, build their capacities to improve negotiation skills and institutionalise their participations at different levels. She used to go regularly to the ‘Safe Space’ established by the Child in Need Institute (CINI) here. Suman was shattered by the discontinuation of her studies and shared this with her peers. The group decided to support Suman and approached her parents and requested them to delay her marriage. Parents refused to listen to the girls. The group approached the Child Protection Committee in Mausibari, Ranchi and apprised them of the matter. The Slum Level Child Protection Committee and Adolescent Group collectively approached the family. After rigorous efforts, they finally succeeded in convincing them and Suman was allowed to continue her education.
This is the story highlights CINI’s work to protect children from all harm, violence, neglect and abuse. We have many stories of change where we have observed that our engagement with adolescents, life skill sessions and discussions on the issues affecting their lives has shown remarkable change in their knowledge, attitude and practice. They are not only protecting themselves but are also raising their voices for their peers who are growing in adversities. Building agencies for adolescents helped them make better choices, improve negotiation skills, connect with each other and thrive.
While working with the children in different settlements it has been felt that children in rural and urban slums are denied basics, which not only adversely impacts their present but suppresses their future too. To protect their rights and prevent them from being harmed, CINI introduced the concept of safe spaces, which is a community place accessible to children without any discrimination where they can come, share their concerns, learn and develop sense of belongingness towards the society. The children are provided academic support to bridge their learning gap to reduce the chances of dropout. Apart from that, many child engagement activities like sessions on life skills, awareness on health, nutrition, child rights, child protection, gender-based violence, observation of significant days etc. make these spaces vibrant and attract children for meaningful engagement. During years of implementation, safe spaces has shown some encouraging outcomes like reduction in school drop-out, better negotiation and decision-making skills, children raising their voices on the decisions affecting their rights and most importantly it helped children in uniting and standing by each other and fighting against odds collectively.
With the largest youth population in the world, India has 66% population below 35 years of age and 25% population are below 14 years of the age. This is a great opportunity to invest in the coming generation and ensure availability of opportunities to enable them to utilise their full potential and grow into a responsible citizen of the country. Hence, many such efforts are needed in the country to bring them forward and unite them to demand their rights and opportunities to develop holistically as well as collectively. Children in our country have full rights to grow with compassion.
About the Author:
Anita Sinha, Thematic Lead, Child Protection, CINI, Jharkhand Unit is a social sector professional with 22 years of extensive experience on the issues of adolescent, women empowerment and child protection in Jharkhand. She has prominent experience working with the Department of Women, Child Development and Social Security, Govt. of Jharkhand.