On 14th of November 2015,
Swadhina was invited to make a presentation on the issue of Hope in the social
context. 14th November being Children’s Day in India, the theme was
on Children. 9 members from Swadhina team, including 3 children gave a
wonderful presentation on the theme of ‘Children and the message of Hope’. The
presentation included reading presentations, interspersed with rendering of songs.
The programme was highly appreciated.
Here is the print of the presentation
that we did that day:
Introduction: Children are the gift of God to mankind. It is
through children that we pass on our heritage; it is through children that we
build our future. But it is equally distressing is the fact that today children
are perhaps the most vulnerable community. Be it war, poverty, hunger or
trafficking – it is children who are the prime victims.
Speaker
1: One of the biggest and shameful
menace that exists today is the issue of Child Labour. Just consider these
facts:
An estimated 246
million children are engaged in child labour. Nearly 70 per cent (171 million)
of these children work in hazardous conditions – including working in mines,
working with chemicals and pesticides in agriculture or with dangerous
machinery.
Nearly 1.2 million
children are trafficked, 5.7 million children are forced into debt bondage or
other forms of slavery and 1.8 million children are forced into prostitution
and/or pornography .
The Asia and
Pacific region harbours the largest number of child workers in the 5 to 14 age
group, 127.3 million in total.
(Song
1 : Talapini re)
Speaker
1: The song you just heard is the
message of hope that the angels imparted to the shepherds about the birth of
Chirst. Like God has always sent a message of hope during the times of
distress, there is always a ray of silver lining too.
* Governments all
over the world has been proactive about Child Labour laws. In India too we have
strong Child Labour laws which makes it an offence to employ children below 14
years.
* There was once a
tendency of employing small children as domestic help. That tendency is
declining. We are now conscious of the fact that employing children for
domestic work is a punishable offence.
* There have been a
number of activists and organisations relentlessly working to bring forward the
issue of child labour and championing their cause. Activists like Kailash
Satyarthi have been successful in bringing out the distress of children
involved in various industries.
* But we still have
a long way to go. It is not just enough to have laws, there is a need to have a
strong monitoring system to ensure that the laws are properly implemented.
Especially the issue of child trafficking needs adequate attention and action.
* We, as common
citizens can be messengers of hope as well. We need to be alert and aware. If
ever we find children wrongfully employed, we have to be practive and report to
the respective authorities.
Speaker
2: Whenever we speak about children, the
first thing that comes to our mind is school. We cannot think of children
without school but the reality is harsh.
One in five
children, about 120 to 125 million children, are not enrolled in school. Of
those who do receive an education, mostly in the developing world, one in five
do not make it past the fifth grade.
In India, the
Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), shows that even though the number of
rural students attending schools is rising, but more than half of the students
in fifth grade are unable to read a second grade text book and are
not able to solve simple mathematical problems.
In the developing
countries, most of the schools do not have the basic infrastructure. Most of
the classes are held in open, under the trees or in inadequate rooms.
(Song
2 : Jeevan Roopi mor donga)
Speaker
2: When the times are bad, the sea is
rough, we close our eyes and depend on God. We believe that he will take us to
the right direction where we may find hope. In the same way, we need to be
totally disheartened. There are many positive steps that are being taken to
ensure that our citizens of tomorrow are not left without education.
* The Right to
Education Act in India for example is a landmark act, to ensure that all the
children below the age of fourteen is ensured free and compulsory education.
This act has also ensured that the children from economically impoverished
families too get a chance to study in good schools.
* In India there
are many schemes aimed at improving the infrastructure of rural schools. As a
result many schools now have new buildings including computers.
* Many schemes are
also introduced whereby scholarships are offered to high school students from
socio-economically backward classes. This has enabled many worthy children to
go in for higher education.
* Young girls like
Malala Yousufzai have stood up to guns and violence, just to prove the point
that eduation is the right of every child. In India too we have noticed the
trend of girls resisting forced marriages to continue their education.
* As citizens, we
too have our responsibilities. If we find a poor child going to school, we can
offer to buy her books, we can provide free tuitions to them. We can also
support and sponsor schools run by different NGOs for poor children. We can
visit rural or slum schools and offer to teach the children.
Speaker
1: As we bite into good food
today, let us not forget the millions of children who go to bed hungry. There
are children who fight their daily battles with hunger and poverty. Think about
this:
* Poor nutrition
causes nearly half (45%) of deaths in children under five – 3.1 million
children each year. That is 8,500 children per day.
* 66 million
primary school-age children attend classes hungry across the developing world.
* Every 10 seconds,
a child dies from hunger-related diseases.
* Some 300 million
children go to bed hungry every day.
(
Song 3 : Shepherd of my soul)
Speaker 1: Children are innocent souls. They depend on God
whole-heartedly. Similarly they depend on us for their basic needs. Food is
their basic need. It is upto us to provide them hope, to provide them their
basic needs.
* The mid-day meal
scheme, inspite of different criticisms, have been able to provide food to
thousands of little children of impoverished families in India. It has ensured
that the children have atleast one nutritious meal a day, other than their
regular meal.
* Health
programmes, both by the government and different NGOs have helped track severe
cases of malnutrition among children and take adequate measures. Many NGOs,
Government have made nutritious food supplements to address the need of
malnutrition.
* As citizens we
have a huge responsibility too. For one, we must stop wastage of food. There is
a global campaign across the world about this issue. And we have to be active
as well. Curbing extra expenditure for food during celebrations, we can offer
food to the poor children instead. The huge wedding expenses on different
cuisines of food can easily be replaced by a simple menu, in remembrance of
millions of children who go to bed hungry.
Speaker
2: This is just tip of the ice-berg.
There are many, many problems and issues. And there are solutions as well. How
we approach to solve the problems is upto us. On behalf of Swadhina, we have
tried to look into the problems and find solutions in our own little ways. We
have carried out campaigns against child labour and the different violence and
violations faced by children over the years. “I am not well” has been one such
campaign booklet that we have sent across to raise awareness on the issue.
We struggled
relentlessly on the issue of children’s education for past 29 years. From NFE
centres to interesting primers, we have put in our bit. Currently we have held
out hope for the children of rural, tribal areas in the form of pre-primary
schools called ‘Good Hope Schools”.
Food security and
nutrition have been one of our thrust areas. Our workers have developed the low
cost alternative to health drinks in the form of ‘ Nutrimix” – made of cheap,
locally available ingredients. This food supplement have successfully provided
nutrition to many poor children.
These are just
examples of how we can all contribute to the ray of hope. You, me, us – we have
all been sent to this world with a purpose. We have all been blessed with
different abilities. It is upto us as to how we can use the blessings of God,
and our talents to usher in the message of Hope for all – especially the
children of the world.
(Song
4 – Final Song: Stuti Aradhana)
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