There should be action to make child participation robust & sustained institutional process
Photo: Ashok Kumar Nayak The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC 1989) sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. Every member of the United Nations has ratified this, except the United States of America.
A child is any human being under the age of eighteen. UNCRC comprises four pillars - the right to survival, the right to protection, the right to development and the right to participation.
The convention has 54 articles that cover all aspects of a child’s life. Article 12 of UNCRC focuses on child participation defined in two paragraphs:
Participation is making associations and expressing opinions and is embedded in the human rights framework. The outcome is an inclusive decision-making process that empowers children by sharing information, creating enabling platforms, providing spaces and promoting sensible citizens.
The discourse has underlying elements of civil and political engagements, and is more complex in the case of children. But in a changing world, adolescent leaders like Greta Thunberg, Thandiwe Abdullah, Bana Alabed, Malala Yousafzai and others have been successful in expressing their voice on contemporary issues of the world. This changing scenario deserves to be expanded to civic and political participation.
The Constitution of India guarantees Fundamental Rights to all children and requires the State to make special provisions. The National Plan of Action for Children, 2016 mentioned, “State has the primary responsibility to ensure that children are made aware of their rights, and provided with an enabling environment, opportunities and support to develop skills, to form aspirations and express their views in accordance with their age, level of maturity and evolving capacities, so as to enable them to be actively involved in their own development and in all matters concerning and affecting them. The State shall engage all stakeholders in developing mechanisms; monitor effective implementation of children’s participation through monitorable indicators; develop different models of child participation; and undertake research and documentation of best practices.”
The discourse of participation is to interact with existing power structures, who take the decisions on behalf of children. Careful nurturing of child participation is helping children be responsible and decisive.
The spirit is not tokenism but recognising children as contributors to an inclusive, democratic decision-making process and equal and political citizens.
Effective child participation is challenging because our traditional societal construction of childhood is embedded in intergenerational power relationships. The notion is that a child needs care, protection and support to understand the world around them. Normally it is considered a child is inadequate to make sensible and appropriate decisions.
Child participation practice normally is more in the shape of school-based groups such as Child Parliament, Bal Panchayats, different Children Collectives with paternalistic approach and self-limiting actions.
It is a question of societal mindset. But there has been progress.
In 2022, West Bengal initiated an adolescent cell for planning and operationalisation of district action plan for ending child marriage. But this cell is just a convergence of different district officials and has lost perspective to bring adolescent representative to this cell.
There are efforts to create institutionalised spaces, adolescent representatives are members in different child protection committees in West Bengal, Rajasthan, Odisha and Bihar.
There are initiatives of vibrant civic engagements facilitated by civil society organisations. Bal Raksha Bharat, for instance, is a programme rooted in the belief that every child has the potential to change the world and they will better reflect their needs.
Odisha Balya Bibaha Pratirodh Manch is a platform that encourages youth and adolescents to become agents of change by connecting them with relevant stakeholders to stop child marriage.
The Child Friendly Village Campaign over the last three years in West Bengal was led by adolescents on advocacy to Panchayats to include activities and budget in the annual Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP).
“It has been a wonderful experience for with the Child Friendly Village Campaign for last three years. We enjoyed meeting officials, our Panchayat leaders and the police. We also participated in village planning meeting and shared our appeal. I am happy that our Panchayat has been sensible to keeping provision for child protection activities under GPDP. The campaign was truly empowering,” said Laboni Barman, a class 10 student at Manmath Nagar High School in Gosaba.
With the changing demand of time, there should be action to make child participation robust and a sustained institutional process.
Sustained institutional structure, investment for leadership development, perspective building of stakeholders are some of the immediate needs to take forward the discourse more progressively.
Now, adolescent leadership should go beyond the school campus, creating sustainable institutional structure with level playing space to share their aspirations, opinions, views and arguments.
The structures could be representative of adolescent leaders at different levels of local self-governance (from Gram Panchayat to district).
There are many schemes focusing on promoting self-awareness and life skills which expand decisive understanding of adolescents. They need to be oriented on current system / policies, their rights and entitlements to understand and articulate their rights.
Child rearing in India is still set in a very patriarchal and patronising jacket, where the child learns to cope with drowning its voice. The stakeholders related to the child rights system, policy makers, child rights and protection service providers, state non-state actors and parents need to be oriented on their understanding, attitude and behavior towards children. The ‘home‘ has to be a place where you nurture a child to thrive.
Social media has been used to express their dissenting views for collective action, with children sharing their ideas and aspirations to draw public attention. Responsible use of social media may be encouraged and provide many possibilities for digital activism.
The trajectory of child participation demands respectful intergenerational relationships. The transition of perception of the child from a passive receiver of protection services to active rights holder to assert their rights with dignity needs to come now.
Ashok Kumar Nayak is a development professional, his work includes child rights-based research and advocacy based in Kolkata.
Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.
We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together.
.png)
Comments are moderated and will be published only after the site moderator’s approval. Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name. Selected comments may also be used in the ‘Letters’ section of the Down To Earth print edition.