Transform the Lives of Children in Gujarat, India

Balsena:

Balsena is a children’s collective and a manifesto for children to acknowledge and practice their rights which are right to education, right to an abuse-free living and right to stop labouring.

In the four months when the whole country was suffering from 2^nd wave of corona, Shaishav’s team and Balsena had been engaged to assist people and organize sessions and webinars for children and trainers to aid during the pandemic.

Precautions during 2^nd wave of Corona:

• On 1^st April, 2021, complete group of Shaishav has taken the primary doze of vaccination.
• Online work has been started such as training to facilitators, interaction with Balsena members over WhatsApp.

Because of the 2^nd wave of corona, it wasn’t feasible to do field visits and interaction with the children so Shaishav’s and Balsena team did the planning for activities to be done from home. The team of Shaishav had commenced to listing down the activities of 10 life skills of WHO (World Health Organization), did planning’s about training, Balmela and Sports. Shaishav’s team additionally contacted the children through calls to send them activities and to recognize the actual situations in their households along with that to recognize whether or not the child is being involved in abuse, child labour etc., to make certain that the children’s life should no longer get affected because of covid-19.

WhatsApp broadcast group has been created for children and all of the GCERT syllabus, activities and stories are being sent to the children for the duration of the lockdown. Shaishav and Balsena team made modules on life skills.

After the covid cases went down then all the teams of Shaishav had been requested to return back to the workplace for work with masks, social distancing and proper sanitation.

Capacity Building Sessions to Facilitators:

The sessions were being done for the trainers on how to teach children Life skills in a distinctive way. It is of three days session on science toys, paper crafts, puzzles, creative pictures etc. for the holistic development of children.

Identified children who were left an orphan due to covid-19:

Team of Shaishav took the information of death notes from local newspaper. They liaison with DCPU (District Child Protection Unit) to make them understand that what number of children underneath 18 years have emerge as orphan. Childline & Balsena team did the home visits and accumulated relevant information (children below 18 years of age, deceased person had govt. or private job, death reason, death certificate, how the households are strolling their livelihood, what number of participants are there withinside the family, is a child handicapped etc.). Team made total 409 calls, 144 families were identified where 281 children were left orphan, out of 281 children, 195 youngsters have lost their father, 72 kids have lost their mother and 14 children have lost both father and mother. Their parents died due to uncertain circumstances such as accident or heart attack but major deaths were happened due to corona.  Childline and Balsena team helped orphan children to get benefits from the government schemes and ensuring that they have been completely supported to their rights.

Baseline:

Balsena facilitators visited homes, met with the parents, conducted meetings to prepare the list of children who will continue in Shaishav with the team of Balsena, along with their age, their grade, whether they are continuing school or going into labour, their school’s name, etc. Baseline data helps facilitators design program for children. Balsena facilitators also follow up with children who go into labour and try to convince them and their parents to join the school again.

Activities with Balsena:

Balsena facilitators conducted the on-field activities with Balsena children after cases went down in our state. They only gathered children in group of 5-6 at their door step while ensuring protocols such as masks and distancing.  Activities focused on life skills play, cooperative games, creativity, science experiments, sports to the Balsena children on life skills, Play for Peace, Paper Craft, creative images etc.

We also distributed second part of activity kit with children. The activity book had more than 100 activities on themes such as creativity, connecting to nature, Let’s play Gandhi-Gandhi, critical thinking, plastic and not using single use plastic, games especially local and old games, making working models of different systems in human body etc. We distributed 130 activity books amongst Balsena children.

International Child Labour Day:

Shaishav is part of the national network -Campaign against Child labour (CACL). CACL organized a special event this year. They organized nation wide consultation with child labours, to find out what their challenges are especially how their lives have been impacted due to the pandemic. On the day of Internation child labour day, they organized a webinar where these children shared their stories, their challenges and their wishes from the government. 

One of Balsena child who goes to school as well as child labour, joined this webinar. He shared about his experience as child labour, difficulties that he faces and what his wishes are from the government. 

Child Rights in Action:

Child Rights in Action (CRIA) is an international organization which is based in Paris. CRIA organized an international Web-conference with children. 5 Balsena children participated in this conference. Theme of the conference was gender and bringing gender equality.

Partnership with Goonj for ration kit distribution:

The second wave of Corona hit hard. Many children lost one or both their parents. People’s economic condition also deteriorated. Together with Goonj, a pan India organization, Shaishav distributed ration kits to 400 families. Families include children who lost one or both their parents in COVID, and people who lost their livelihoods, widowed women and other needy families in the communities where Shaishav works.  

BalGhar:

Sampara is an area where families who used to stay on the street are rehabilitated. It was found in our work of child line that children who are involved in begging in various parts of the city come from Sampara. Many children do not go to school and many are enrolled but are not regular in school. We, at Shaishav understand that merely rescuing children from begging and labour won’t work because they will start doing it again. But we have to provide them a space where they can come and learn, enjoy the learning, play , learn about life skills. To explore possibilities of opening such Balghar in Sampara, Balsena team did a baseline survey in the area where they covered 1085 homes. They also did group discussions and meeting with parents. Analysis of this survey is under process.