Role of children as volunteers for sustainable rural development
A.R.PATIL, Executive Director, BIRDS & Secretary, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore
Foundation, New Delhi
Farmers of Munnyan village in the Belgaum district of Karnataka are a worried
lot. The scanty rainfall in the last couple of months has taken away smiles from the
faces of poor farmers as they have lost hopes of getting enough food in the coming
months. A farmers’ meeting, organized by the children of Gokak Shishu Panchayat at
the Mynnyan village, on the eve of the World Food Day in October 2011 , concluded
that the it was high time to think of alternative cropping to deal with the food
insecurity in the village. Farmers, attending the meeting, confirmed that dependence
on a single crop and poor rainfall has led to a situation of food insecurity in the
village, coupled with rising prices. The meeting was attended by nearly 40 farmers big and small farmers.
Most participants agreed the food insecurity was one of the rootcause of their
proplems. Taking part in the discussion, Siddaram Chepalkatti, the headmaster of a
local school said because of lack of rainfall this year in the months of June to
Septemer, the main crop of the area, jowar would not grow.
Story on the initiative of Gokak Shishu Panchayat written by the group
members, Seema Basavraj Tadasanapar and Aishwarya Shirvanand Dupalamathi for
The Peace Gong, the children’s newspaper.
Children like Seema and Aishwarya who are part of the Gokak Shishu
Panchayat are taking the leadership in trying to bring together not only children of
their villages but even facilitating discussions amongst adults on critical concerns of
their village like on food security. When the children took the initiative to volunteer
to organize the interactions on the cause of food insecurity in the backdrop of poor
rainfall in the area, their efforts highlights the importance of encouraging young
people’s participation in the sustainable development process. The Gokak Shishu
Panchayat in Belgaum district of Karnataka is an initiative of Belgaum Integrated
Rural Development Society and Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore Foundation.
In fact as we are working together to develop a framework of youth
volunteer action and community volunteering for post 2015 development agenda,
the efforts of many children like that of Seema and Aishwarya need not only to be
recognized but also intertwined in the plan of action.
The UN Secretary General’s report, Realizing the Future we want for all
underscores, ‘sustainability implies inter-generational justice and a future world fit
for children. This entails safeguarding a sustainable future in which children will be
able to grow up healthy, well-nourished, resilient, well-educated, culturally sensitive
and protected from violence and neglect’.
What is critical is how to develop capacities of young people to not only
develop understanding of their local social concerns but also empower them to
contribute to a sustainable development process. Promoting child participation by
creating a favorable environment and space for them to volunteer is the key.
The State of the World Children 2003 pertinently points out that ‘promoting
meaningful and quality participation of children and adolescents is essential to
ensure their growth and development’. It further stresses, “A child whose active
engagement with the world has been encouraged from the outset will be a child with
the competencies to develop through early childhood, respond to educational
opportunities and move into adolescence with confidence, assertiveness and the
capacities to contribute to democratic dialogue and practices within the homes,
school, community and country.”
The report also states that the values of democracy such as respect for the
rights and dignity of all people, for their diversity and their right to participate in the
decisions that affect them, are first and best learned in childhood. “Authentic,
meaningful participation prepares children for their stake in the future. With all the
understanding it brings to the children involved, participation is the keystone of
cohesive societies, which in turn; are the keystone for peace in the world,” the
report further adds.
In the context of the efforts to analyse the role of youth and children as
volunteers for sustainable rural development, this paper while analysing the
intervention of the local shishu panchayat will offer argument on the need to
mainstream such initiatives in the development agenda. It will try to construct a
model of how shishu Panchayats could be important stakeholders in the post 2015
development agenda.
Goal 7 of the MDGs talks of ensuring environmental sustainability. One of the
global targets is to halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without
sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. As part of this goal,
the children of the Gokak Shishu Panchayat took the initiative with local gram
panchayat and the village sanitation committee to create awareness on safe drinking
water in Gokak in August-September, 2011. During these months, as a result of
heavy rainfall there was serious problem of sanitation and safe drinking water in the
villages of Gokak taluk. These led to the emergence of water borne diseases like
cholera and typhoid.
As many of them and their family members were affected, the shishu
panchayat along with the local village sanitation committee and gram panchayat
embarked upon an awareness campaign. The children were trained on how to filter
water using local traditional methods. Low cost technology was used as it was to
cater to poor people of the area. Later the children of the shishu panchayat along
with the members of the village sanitation committee went from house to house to
explain the techniques and the importance of safe drinking water.
Earlier in October-November 2009, the area was affected by dengue and
malaria. It was a serious situation. There again the Shishu Panchayat took the lead
and raised money from local sources and got a fogging machine. This machine was
handed over to the local village, Naganur Raksha Samiti. Significantly, now this
machine is used by adjoining villages too. This effort by the members of the shishu
panchayat reiterates the importance of why it is important to ensure that children
and adolescents too needs to be an integral part of any community volunteering
efforts for sustainable development.
Another contribution of the Gokak Shishu Panchayat to the sustainable
development process is the school nutrition and herbal garden initiative. In Gokak
Tehsil, the children for the past two years have taken the lead in 10 schools in
creating the nutrition and herbal gardens. Organic vegetables are grown in these
gardens and these products are used in the school mid-day meals. Again this is a
powerful example how children through their volunteer efforts are instrumental in
promoting organic food which are consumed by them in the school itself.
As the children of the Gokak Shishu Panchayat continue to be trained to
volunteer for sustainable rural development, it would be pertinent to showcase their
efforts as a model of child volunteer participation. The whole process in which they
are trained, the leadership they take for critical social concerns of their areas and
their concerns for environmental sustainability helps us to capture the dimensions of
young people’s contribution for community building if they are given the right
training and opportunity. Also what is important to learn from such initiatives is how
children are being prepared to take up the leadership in years to come. Surely,
children like Seema or Aishwarya would be better leaders at the grassroots if they
wish to take part in the democratic process. They would have developed broad
perspectives on the issues of their community and possible solutions when they are
in a position to take policy decisions.
While we critically look at the different dimensions of initiatives Gokak Shishu
Panchayat is taking up, it would be pertinent to outline the aims and objectives of
the Shishu Panchayat initiative which has been initiated to further Mahatma Gandhi’s
Gram Swaraj. These are:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
Promoting active and responsible citizenship.
Contributing to the democratic process
Inculcating and practicing positive values.
Training in peace, non-violence and conflict resolution
Develop critical thinking abilities and facilitate use of communications for
social change.
Strengthen communicative skills and better understanding of the media.
Developing skills to organize and manage.
Taking part in decision-making process
Acquiring leadership skills and learning to work as a team
10)Innovation and creativity
11)Developing knowledge base on different issues of the society
12)Knowledge about child rights issues
13)Sensitivity to issues of concern of the society
Developing capacities, understanding diversities, knowledge of how to use
communications for social change, development of critical thinking abilities and
becoming active to fight social problems are all essential to evolve a good citizenry.
The initiative to promote child participation through Shishu Panchayats is aimed to
not only to promote active and responsible citizenship but above all to make the
participants better human beings who are bound to all other human beings by ties of
recognition and concern. It is in this backdrop the very foundation of the initiative is
to inculcate prosocial values amongst the young people.
The UN Secretary General’s report underlines the MDG framework should be
reorganized along four key dimensions. These include inclusive social development,
inclusive economic development, environmental sustainability and peace and
security. In the light of these dimensions and the key challenges pointed out in the
report, we could look at how Shishu Panchayats could be an integral part of the
framework of action to encourage young people’s participation in enhancement of
human development, peace and conflict resolution and sustainable development
through volunteer action.
We should try to develop methods and action plans on how to promote Shishu
Panchayats in villages of India so that we start sensitizing children on grassroots
democratic processes and the sustainable development approaches. The National
Policy on Education 2005 advocates on developing an education system which helps
children to connect to knowledge even outside their school curriculum. Also
education for sustainable development provides the values, skills and knowledge
needed for shaping new attitudes and consumption and production patterns
conducive to sustainable development. As learnt through the initiatives of Gokak
Shishu Panchayat, if we can promote shishu Panchayats and facilitate them with
training in sustainable development, we can have a huge cadre of young volunteers
who would be committed to work for sustainable rural development.