Consultation on

“Volunteering on Child Rights”

May 15, 2013

Kolkata

BACKDROP

This three hour deliberation brought a slice of citizen’s action on child rights within and beyond CRY by

inviting a few speakers who shared their work/ experiences. Another session was dedicated to hear out

responses, comments and views of some eminent role holders, which further enriched the discourse.

The purpose of this was to know what is happening around on Child Rights Volunteering in Kolkata (/

East India) and proved to be a stepping stone towards enhanced complementary efforts, and making

such work more popular and meaningful in the public domain.

DESIGN OF THE PROGRAMME

The programme was divided into a few clusters and had a mix of speakers and a commentator for each

set of presentations.. It took place at the Conference Hall, Academy of Fine Arts on May 15

(Wednesday) from 2.00 PM- 5.00 PM. The audience comprised of different volunteer involving NGOs/

CBOs, volunteers, media and some other likeminded groups and individuals.

FLOW OF CONSULTATION

The entire session was divided into three clusters and each of the cluster was followed by a question &

answer round.

SESSION FLOW SPEAKERS

Welcome and context setting CRY/ RD

CLUSTER I PRESENTATIONS

IndraniSinha

NirajAgarwal

PuskarPandey

Swati Bhattacharya

CLUSTER II PRESENTATIONS

Mahashweta(Save the Children)

ProbirGuha

Mechbahar Sheikh

CLUSTER III PRESENTATIONS

Malaya Padhan

Nilanjana Gupta

DipankarSinha

CONCLUDING REMARKS CRY

Welcome and Context Setting By Atindra Nath Das, Regional Director, CRY

He welcomed everyone on behalf of CRY. He believes that people of this country are

responsible enough and they do care. Whenever the need arises they come forward

to help. Different segments and diverse individuals of our society are engaged in

doing their bits on social issues in varied forms, and to our interest, for Child Rights.

Volunteering in India has been existing in different genre and manner and there is a

plethora of examples around to understand and realize the worth our fellow

citizens can bring into addressing Child Rights issues and touching so many young

lives in most meaningful ways. He told that the main objective of the panel

discussion was to know about various examples from the people themselves so that

it in a way inspires those set of people who are willing to work for this social cause.

Indrani Sinha, Secretary of Sanlaap,

a partner NGO of CRY working

extensively on Child Protection

issues shared her experience on

engaging and working with the youth

volunteers, and highlighted the role

played by Sanlaap as well as the

hurdles they faced and overcame in

this regard.

Indrani Sinha shared Sanlaap’s experience on volunteer engagement. She

started her speech discussing about several aspects of volunteerism saying

that it is considered to be an altruistic work. She spoke on the challenges as

well which an organization often faces in order to establish a balance

between what a volunteer wants/has/can offer and what the organization

needs in real.

She emphasized that it’s very important to establish a balance between what

is really required and what is there for help. She ended her speech by saying

that presently the scope of volunteerism is not limited to merely interfering

with others’ lives for the sake of one’s own satisfaction. Rather it’s something

which earns an individual respect amongst the other members of the society

and he’s considered to be an individual possessing a high charismatic

authority.

CLUSTER 1 PRESENTATION

Niraj Agarwal is a

consultant with PwC (a

professional services firm) .

He is also the Program

Coordinator (PC) for PwC

India Foundation, the CSR

wing of PwC India. As a

PC, he works with various

NGOs to understand their

work & capabilities. He

recommends projects,

coordinates various events

& awareness campaigns

for the NGO at his

workplace.

Niraj Agarwal talked about the increasing role of employees in the CSR space.

He shared 3 beautiful stories of volunteering depicting how an individual can

devote his time, how a physically challenged person can overcome his own

shortcomings & help others with similar disability and how the corporate

sector can use technology to work for child rights.

He said that the term social now comes up with a tag ‘RESPONSIBILITY’. He

further went on to tellabout CSR- Corporate Social Responsibility. He stated

that a lot many people in the corporate sector want to add meaning to their

life. He ended with a lovely quote,“The right time to plant a tree was 20 years

back and the second right time isnow.” “The first right time to fight for child

rights was 50 years back and the second right time is now.”

Puskar Pandey, a Computer

Engineering grad from Jadavpur

University and a young professional,

related his experience of working

with underprivileged children in

some parts of Kolkata as an active

volunteer associated with CRY.

Currently working in four KMC wards,

Puskar highlighted their work on

monitoring RTE implementation

status in several Govt. schools in

those localities

Puskar Pandey spoke on the Geo PAG initiative by CRY Volunteers which aims to

bring about positive change in the education scenario of the area. He told that this

initiative is youth driven, youth is filled with energy & this transforms into action.

He talked about the field visits of CRY volunteers to Dhakuria, Pyarabagan

&Rajabazar. He told about the various problems that the schools in these areas

faced and how the volunteers preserved to bring a change. He remarked that the

communities should be made aware of their own rights so that they can guard their

own rights. He emphasized that even volunteers have a lot to gain. You learn

patience. When you are working in field you learn to persevere which can

otherwise come with age.

Swati Bhattacharjee is Chief Reporter-District, Ananda Bazar Patrika, Kolkata. She has an MA in Philosophy from Jadavpur University and an MSc in Media Research from University of Stirling, UK. She has received several prestigious fellowships, most recently the Fulbright Fellowship, 2010-2011, for the tenure of which she was a Visiting Scholar at MIT.

She first of all congratulated CRY for getting a good panel. She said that the

problems we have today can persist years after because the system is

faulty. We want change. We need to plan for risk for bringing change. She

also emphasized about role of volunteers that they can bridge the gap

between the state and the people. She also drew attention to the

challenges of volunteering that it is not always necessary that the skills of

the volunteer fit in the need. Also it is difficult to get consistency from the

volunteers. She then talked about some great movements which are solely

initiated by volunteers like the Blood Donation and Body Donation in West

Bengal.

CLUSTER 2 PRESENTATION

Mahasweta works for SAVE THE

CHILDREN.

Mahasweta talked about Save the Children’s work on “Peer Education

Model”, under which students from schools & colleges come to teach slum

children. She remarked that first the parents were reluctant to send their

children to teach the slum children but then “Save the Children” made them

realize its worth.

Probir Guha, a noted playwright and director of ‘The Living Theatre’ focused on the role of volunteers in taking theatre to the masses and engaging people from the community to address human rights and child rights issues through non-proscenium theatre.

This noted playwright/ Director shared his perspectives and “Living

Theatre” experiences on citizen’s engagement.

When he started off with this work, he thought that he can bring some

revolutionary change very easily but then he gradually realized that it’s

always easily said than done. He said that theatre is not merely an

instrument for entertainment. With the help of theatre it was much easier

for him to connect with people especially with the children. He initiated this

process in Kharda. He used to ask children to depict their own lifestyles with

the help of which he & his other friends who worked towards the same

objective got a chance to penetrate into the lives of children. He shared a

story of the children of Kashmir as well. He said that when those kids were

asked to depict their lives and paintwhatever they feel & paint their

surroundings, they made it all red. He said that it’s been an ongoing “Trial &

Method” process which has made them what they are today.

Mechbahar Sheikh is

presently serving as

Consultant , UNICEF

posted at School

Education Deptt.

Government of West

Bengal (2012---

), Formerly , 1. State

Consultant, Paschim

Banga Rajya Shishu

Shiksha Mission under

Panchayat and Rural

Development Dept, Govt of

West Bengal (2003 -

23012). Heading RTE

division of WB.

He appreciated the work of the speakers in the panel & remarked that

West Bengal has manpower, resources, finance but we are not being able

to stop the flow of deprivation. There should be a linkage between the

resources and availability with one who are actually in need of this. He

then talked about the 1990 Literacy movement, it started a revolution for

knowledge and literacy amongst the marginalized and deprived citizens

of West Bengal. He focused the use of interactive schemes and methods to

infuse vocational education as well as personality development in

children. He quoted the example of Bangladesh’s government supporting

the NGOs there. He went on saying that there should be a change in

attitude.

Malaya Padhan joined as a Pathmakers volunteer in 2005 and as a team member in April 2007. Malaya our researcher with a smile on his face is extremely passionate about socio cultural issues. Coming from Khulia village, he completed his master in Sociology (having specialization in Rural Sociology) from Sambalpur University in 2007. He is associated with Patang, a CRY Partner having rich volunteer

engagement programme

CLUSTER 3 PRESENTATION

Malaya talked about volunteering approach and child rights issues

under the Squirrel Programme which is an innovative model

implemented by CRY partner Patang. He took the aid of audio visuals

to talk about volunteerism as an instrument of change and

volunteering as a youth development process. He told about Patang’s

youth development approach to volunteering. He told that like the

squirrel contributed in a small way in making the Rama Setu similarly

every individual can contribute in their own small way towards the

deprived children He emphasized that Patang would not have brought

the changes which it has ,without its volunteers.

Nilanjana Gupta, a faculty

of Jadavpur University

Deptt. Of English and the

Convener of Community

Radio JU, shared her

experiences on engaging

volunteers and the role of

Community Radio in

promoting volunteering for

child rights.

Nilanjana Gupta is the convenor the Community Radio, JU where Child Rights has

been one of their focuses from the beginning. It has been active since 5 years,

everything is prepared by the volunteers themselves which is inclusive of the tasks

of recording and editing. She said that before they used to invite people for

recordings but now because of the increasing number of people who have become

increasingly enthusiastic about it, specific timelines and schedules are provided to

the children beforehand. If a particular individual is provided a particular time slot

for recording, his recorded music is played after months. They have a diverse set of

people inclusive of retired people as well. They have programme like Sishu Sahitya

and Para Diaries because they strongly felt the need of having some programmes

which addresses issues like children’s’ right to express and right to be heard. She

ended her speech by saying, “Tradition of being selfless and that of helping others

is something which should always be retained in the Indian society.”

Dipankar Sinha is

Professor and Head of

Political Science, Calcutta

University. He is also

Honorary Visiting

Professor at the Institute of

Development Studies

Kolkata, Honorary

Associate of the Centre for

Media History, Macquarie

University, Sydney,

Australia, and Nominated

Member, Association of

Third World Studies, USA.

He was the commentator of Cluster III presentations. Apart from making observations on

the views shared , he focused specifically on ‘problematising voluntarism’. He started his

speech by saying that it is essential to have balance between being professional and being

passionate about something. There is a thin line of difference between both of them. But

this difference should not be avoided as it forms an essential aspect behind the functioning

of any organisation. He discussed about civil society by saying that it is a common aspect

which one would find in all the related areas of discussions. He said that instead of only

imagining ”Civil society” as a whole ,we should work individually within different civil

spheres. But then we need to make sure that there is a commonality of scope, objective

and purpose which is required to be fulfilled so that each of them works in the desired

direction

He appreciated the efforts of CRY for planning and executing such

an interactive session to promote volunteerism and citizen’s

action for Child Rights. He appreciated the efforts of several

volunteers & of those organisations which involves volunteers

who have pledged their strength to bring about lasting change for

children. He remarked that the day registered a fruitful discussion

since it involved the presence of eminent academics, journalists,

theatre personalities, Govt. officials, professionals and young

activists in a single interactive forum which resulted in the session

being full of shared experiences and insights that brought forth a

multi-dimensional mosaic of citizens’ action for Child Rights.

CONCLUDING REMARKS BY SATYA GOPAL DEY , ASSOCIATE GENERAL MANAGER,CRY

Media Coverage… Counting….

Venue: Conference Hall,

Academy of Fine Arts

Date: May 15

(Wednesday)

Time: 2.00 PM- 5.00 PM