A Stronger Bill is the Need of the Hour!

When people from different walks of life and different perspectives but, with a similar goal meet and share their ideas and brainstorm,we end up getting great solutions even to the most difficult problems.And,this is what happened at the National Consultation organized by CRY(Child Rights and You) on the topic Way Forward-Child Labour(Prohibition and Regulation)Act(Amendment)Bill, 2012 on 10th June,2014. From passionate Cry volunteers, some another NGO executives to representatives from ILO and UNICEF,almost everybody were present there.

Do you know that every sixth child in the world lives in India(MoSPI,2012)? And,with the country's population in billions, you can't even imagine the number of child labourers here.The figures are pathetic.The consultation was focused around the updations required in the CLPRA Act and concentrated on how the word 'regulation' needs to be removed from the Act. The major topics of discussion were :

• Prohibition of children involved in labour should be extended upto 18 years
• Steps required to debar children from family-extended labour.
• Refining the definition of hazardous and non-hazardous activities in the context of Child Rights and Protection.
• Consistency among the CLPRA Act and other acts like RTE,Juvenile Justice Act ,UNCRC Act and others.
• Provisions required for rehabilitation and its implementation and many others.

The event began by a presentation on CLPRA Amendment Bill,2012 followed by presentations given by Ms. Shireen Khan,ILO and Ms. Vandana Khandari, UNICEF. It even included the experiences regarding field work shared by Ms.Mamta Borgoyary,CEO(FXB India Suraksha) and Vikas Sawant from CARE and some volunteers from CRY's branches at Mumbai and other locations.

One of the session was regarding Role of Youth in eliminating Child labour which was addressed by delhi volunteers Divyanshu,Latika and Nidhi.They talked  about the role that volunteers play in this initiative. Anshul Tiwari (Founder,Youth ki Awaaz) and Vicky Roy (RANG) were even there to share their opinions about the same.

The event ended on a high note.I got acquainted with a lot of people who are passionate volunteers and acquired a knowledge of various policies which seem to be more in favour than in against of child labour.With this, I would like to end this with a thought that i read somewhere that "Time is money in this world and it takes a lot to volunteer to do things.But, there is nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer".

When your small contribution made a bigger difference. :D

Well, I am kind of a fluid person. So,since I begin writing after much procrastination(which I don't know why the hell I am mentioning again), I am gonna write one more.
And in continuation, it is about awesome experience I had with CRY.
Well, I got really happy when i was going through my Facebook feeds and i saw this.

That indeed was a happy moment.But this boring newspaper clipping surely can't describe you the awesomeness about the campaign,the fun we had and obviously about the amazing people I have met there.

Well, let me take you through that!

The campaign went really long and i didn't know when it was actually started. From arranging EAC stall in college, taking it to office or stopping people in metro and convincing them to put their signature for the campaign, people had put a lot of effort. And a few of them have taken it so seriously that they took it to their family functions as well, birthday parties and offices.Being a part of it ,even though at a later stage, made me happy.

#Music #Dance #Bikes 

Awesome Bunch Of People. 

Harley Davidson's Bike Rally By Flying Tigers.

Performance By World Of Talent Group's Drummers. 

And Yes! The Flash-mob.

Amazing Day!  The event missed nothing. 

The successful event held at Cyber Hub,Gurgaon on 30th March,2014 was indeed one of the best day of this year so far.The event had a perfect amalgam of thrill,excitement,emotions and fun. And three big activities were held.

Beginning with Bike Rally by the #FlyingTigers in the morning ,it was really awesome as hell. Those people were so charismatic."When they stand, They were Stud and when they talk, they were Gentlemen." is a perfect one liner to describe them. Well, just to mention,Flying tigers are a bunch of awesome bikers who ride Harley Davidson only and who contributed to the event with much enthusiasm and made the event a huge success.It was so much fun to meet these guys.

Such Studness In Single Frame.

The other was performance by Drummers from  World Of Talent (WOT) Group. They actually made us dance to their beats even without the lyrics. And it was so much fun to have them.We danced and enjoyed. .Music adds the missing charm at all times and the event had its excitement on with the WOT Group.

Lastly we had our Flash-mob event. It was such thrill and fun to see people flock around you and cheering you up and then finally joining you.With all the awesome mix of songs,we danced till our last breath, gave four-five performances happily.

I have never thought that an EAC(Election Advocacy Campaign) event would end up like that. That we would have this much fun to organize such an event and that I got to meet so awesome people.

Well,Volunteering Has Its Own Perks!! ;)

#Vote4Children

Well, just like any other day when i was scrolling over 'Youth Ki Awaaz's Blog',i saw this.An initiative by Save The Children to aware people about the pathetic conditions of children in India. Around 140 lack children here remain out of school and over 120 lakh  children are child labourers. I stared at those figures in incredulity. Though, I appreciate the mere fact that the initiative has given voice to that section of society which contribute around 31.2% to India's population and are deprived from right to vote.

And this is when I decided to write my experience at CRY since last year. I have always wanted to contribute to the society from my part. But, the thing which finally took me there after much procrastination is my love for children, the experiences I have and their conversations which really inspires me. I have understood the meaning of leadership in its truest sense .And, I believe that team work is at the heart of the leadership and this is what I had experienced last year in summer when I joined CRY.

Just after I joined, CRY in collaboration with the HINDUSTAN TIMES’s theme of ‘You Read, They Learn’, organized a campaign of “Enroll a child” which began after a brainstorming session with people at Indian Habitat Center, Delhi. 

For this, I have had mentored a team of volunteers (from the general public) who willingly stepped up for the cause. Mentoring involves teaching them how to interact with children and parents, tackling the critical situations. The campaign was aimed at looking for those children who didn't go to schools in slums either because of money constraints or other reasons.

We tried our level best to rectify these problems either by providing counseling to parents or by encouraging them emotionally. Finally, we succeeded in enrolling some of those children in schools under the Right To Education Act (under age 14).

That was surely one of the best things that had happened to me in summer last year since I can still remember those words from a father which were like “ Beta, please meri Beti ka admission krado,bhagwan tumhara bhala krega.”( means “child,please enroll my girl in a school and god will bless you ).That appealing expression he had on his face made me felt ashamed about the fact that I live in a country where access to basic education isn't that easy. Well, the good thing to see was that there were people from all the age groups and (surprisingly!) even some 60 year old ladies were there to contribute.
People joined and put up their best and performed all the tasks keenly from moving in unhygienic slum areas, guiding poor people about the importance of education to creating the database of all details. The campaign lasted for two and a half weeks long and we successfully ended the campaign by enrolling almost 400 children from the slum areas in and around Delhi and NCR.

Best Experience Indeed.

This post is a part of the #Vote4Children Blog-a-thon on Youth Ki Awaaz. Find out more at: http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/vote4children