Xmas

A Gift for all Children

A Gift for all Children

Nobel Peace Prize for 2014 has been awarded to Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai for their great efforts against the exploitation of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.

Showing enormous personal bravery, Kailash Satyarthi, maintaining Gandhi's tradition, has headed various forms of protests and demonstrations, all peaceful, focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain. He has also contributed to the development of important international conventions on children's rights. Despite her youth, Malala Yousafzai has already fought for many years for the girl children’s right to education.

Children must go to school and not be financially exploited. In the poor countries of the world, 60% of the present population is under 25 years of age. It is a prerequisite for peaceful global development that the rights of children and young people be respected. In conflict-ridden areas in particular, the violation of children leads to the continuation of violence from generation to generation.

The Nobel Committee regards it as an important point for a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle for education and against extremism. Many other individuals and institutions in the international community have also contributed. It has been calculated that there are 168 million child labourers around the world today. In 2000 the figure was 78 million higher. The world is uniting againt the goal of eliminating child labour though there is much more to be done.

A child is a person not a sub-person. It is heartening to see that such a great honour has been awarded to those who work for child rights. In spite of constant exploitation of children, the whole world has been opened up to act in favour of children through this recognition being awarded to Mr. Kailash Satyarthi and Miss. Malala Yousafzai and both of them are from places where there are world’s largest child population exist.

We need to make earnest efforts and join the fight for child rights, for they are the future of our nation and humanity.

Girls not Brides

Girls not Brides

Kerala, the state which achieved 100 per cent literacy for women, is now finding it hard to deal with an ever-increasing number of teenage girls being forced into early marriage. Don Bosco is happy and proud that we were able to save more than 6 children from child marriage in the month of November 2014.

UNICEF considers Child marriage (marriage before 18 years) as a violation of human rights. Recently, a UNICEF survey had revealed that child marriages are on the rise in Kerala, ironically the most literate state in the country.  Dora Giusti, Unicef's child protection specialist in India, says "in the southern part of India we have a relatively better gender balance which explains lower rates of child marriage. Nevertheless, recent studies have shown a rising rate in Kerala”. 

The numbers in the records of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) are also finding new highs in violations of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2006. Out of the 220 cases reported in the country last year, 11 are from Kerala. The NCRB data also indicates that the state is rising up in the rate- from 0.06 per cent in 2012 to 0.12 per cent in 2013.

According to NFHS-III survey 47.3% of women aged 20-24 were married by age 18. Of these, 2.6 percent were married before they turned 13, 22.6 percent were married before they were 16, and 44.5 percent were married when they were between 16 and 17. Child marriage in Kerala is at 15.4%.

Even though we have sufficient laws and machineries to prevent child marriage, the number of cases is going up this year compared to 2013. As per the data published on the official website of the Kerala Police, 15 cases have been registered under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act till September this year. But we have had many more reported to CHILDLINE.

Through many years of awareness of 1098 – toll free child helpline phone number, children are mustering courage to report such cases to CHILDLINE. We try to get the assistance of police to rescue children in certain cases. There are many cases in which the families end it without the case reaching to police stations. This means that there are more cases than the official statistics.

We need to be vigilant to child marriages because it is still rampant in our contemporary times though we claim to be ‘literate’. This leads our attention to why child marriage is wide spread in Kerala despite of the debates that followed the controversial marriage of a 17-year-old girl with a UAE national, the Arabikalyanam incident, in Kozhikode last year.

There are lots of reasons behind the child marriage like,

·        Economic necessity,

·        Male protection for one’s daughters,

·        Child bearing,

·        Fulfilling the wish of the family members.

·        Oppressive traditional values and norms.

·        Certain religious traditions

·        Girl children getting into early relations without knowledge of parents.

Consequences of child marriages are very harmful. Viz.,

·        Segregation from family and friends,

·        Limiting the child's interactions with the community and peers,

·         Lack of opportunities for education, 

·        Girl children often face situations of bonded labour, enslavement,

·        Commercial sexual exploitation and violence,

·        Serious health risks for mother and child

·        Early pregnancy, and various STDs especially HIV/AIDS,

·        Maternal death etc.

The graphs are growing to new highs which indicate that our state has to have responsible evaluation and improvements in the existing machineries and laws. The mistakes are basic and if corrected, things can be kept under control with timely interventions. In our complex caste and religious social structure, the laws may face limitations but progressive social lessons and awareness can play a major part than mere laws.

Don Bosco Trivandrum feels proud to say that we could prevent number of children from the danger of child marriage in the year 2014 and many have continued with their studies and look towards a brighter future instead of early burden on their tiny shoulders. 

Child Sexual Abuse

Sexual Abuse – Some Thoughts

Last month Don Bosco-Childline came across a number of cases related to child sexual abuse. Children were abused either by close relatives or by neighbors. Child sexual abuse or child molestation is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. The global prevalence of child sexual abuse has been estimated at 19.7% for females and 7.9% for males, according to a study published in Clinical Psychology Review.

Child sexual abuse laws in India have been enacted as part of the nation's child protection policies. The Parliament of India passed the 'Protection of Children against Sexual Offences act, 2012' in order to control child sexual abuse on November 14, 2012. The rules formulated by the government in accordance with the law have also been notified. Though India has enacted laws to prevent child sexual abuse, reported cases are going up. Why do people sexually use or abuse children? We cannot have a simple answer to this question. We can make some thoughtful reflections on this sensitive issue. Sexual abusers broadly can be classified under the following categories.

·        Children or teenagers who are sexually curious or experimenting

·        Who has an ongoing sex drive directed towards children

·        Who has an anti-social personality disorder

·        Who is addicted to alcohol and other substances

·        Who has medical or mental problem

Why the increasing abuse of innocent children?

Some reasons from our experience of dealing with many such cases:

Ø Easy availability of sexually explicit materials from young age and exposure to the same

Ø Movies which have sexual overtones and watching the same from young age without proper guidance of adults

Ø Children like physical closeness  and often this arouses adult sexual feelings

Ø Alcoholism and substance abuse

Ø Lack of systems to identify and provide early interventions to children who have disorders and they grow into persons with perversions.

Ø Step parents who often do not are unable to see the child as own children.

Ø Lack of private space in poor homes.

Ø Influence of other cultures which causes degradation of traditional values and inability of older generation to catch up.

It is important to concentrate on the present generation of children and provide them wholesome education with all round formation and make urgent changes in the educational system for the same and adopt new laws provide controlled and age appropriate access to information. This will result in a healthier future generation.

CHILDLINE Se Dosti Week

CHILDLINE Se Dosti, (Friends for CHILDLINE) a week-long nationwide campaign aims at creating friends for CHILDLINE and is envisaged as warm and inviting initiatives to create awareness about the helpline - 1098. The event is celebrated all over the country with unmatched dynamism and enthusiasm. Reaching out to the old and young from all walks of life and bring together children with their protectors in the form of police officials, allied systems, educational institutions, the youth, working adults and many more. CHILDLINE Se Dosti is not just another campaign but a medium to strengthen the rights of children in India. 

Dosti week is synonymous with fun, excitement plus driving change at a local and national level and spreading knowledge about child rights and child protection. This week is loaded with numerous activities that CHILDLINE’s across cities and towns organize in their respective area. A myriad of programs are arranged during this period from signature campaign to rail yathras, from street play to rallies, from games for children to competitions for them and many more.

CHILDLINE Se Dosti week campaign of CHILDLINE Trivandrum was bagged with many of programmes from 7 to 14 November 2014. The programme was flagged off by Fr. Philip Parakatt, member, Child Rights Commission at Pallithura HSSS in the presence of Fr. Lenin, Director, TSSS, Mr Chandran, Sub Inspector of Police, Pallithura and the staff of CHILDLINE. We started with the signature campaign followed by outreach, and awareness of CHILDLINE and Child Rights class to both students and parents. At the same time, Fr. Thomas Anchukandam, the Provincial of Bangalore Province of Don Bosco inaugurated the Dosti week at Don Bosco Nivas, by tying the Dosti band on a street child rescued in the morning of the same day.   A drawing competition was conducted in a School at Kanjiramkulam. Two teams went on train awareness from Trivandrum to Varkala and Trivandrum to Parasala respectively. Exhibition at railway rescue booth - to encourage passengers to call 1098 if they saw a child in distress, was another attraction of the campaign. The rescue booth was colored with 10 different themes on child rights, paper cuttings on recent child issues, Dosti bands, Posters, placards etc. Number of people came forward and tied dosthi band and promised to be friends of CHILDLINE. DB Tech students came in and promised their support to the campaign.

CHILDLINE Se Dosti campaign involves citizens who wish to bring a positive change in the lives of millions of children and make them informed individuals. This annual campaign strives to enable people to become an important resource person in order to spread CHILDLINE’s message of promoting a child friendly society. It intends to influence and mobilize many people to think and act in favour of children to protect their rights and build a child friendly society. 

Saamoohyapaadam

Teacher – The Change Maker

Teacher – The Change Maker

As per news paper reports and issues being reported to our helpline there is increased number of physical violence inflicted by teachers on their students. There have been cases of cruel punishments meted out by teachers to students for miss behavior and children have been hospitalized. Latest in the line is the sad demise of a first standard child whose head was smashed on the wall by the teacher in Nalgonda district in Telangana for not doing homework.

Many of our teachers sadly try to be authoritarian instead of being authoritative. Being authoritarian means wielding power unilaterally to control someone, demanding obedience without giving any explanation for why one's orders are important. Being authoritative on the other hand means demonstrating control, but doing so relationally through listening and explaining. Unfortunately our teaching techniques are shrinking to make fear on students to get control over them. They always bring into play ‘stick’ as a mean to craft fear on students.

 Together with increased cruelty we can also note a lack of ability among teachers in handling newly rising up issues among children. It is either cruel punishments or total neglect of children due to fear of legal actions for physical punishments. The teachers are simply unaware and incompetent to deal with children’s problems. They fail in eliciting discipline and respect from children. In the current scenario there is an increasing need for wholesome educators who can address not only the intellectual but also the psychological, emotional, physical needs and ensure wholesome development of the child. The teacher needs to be a parent also.

 The classroom runs on interactions between and among participants: the relationship between the student and the teacher and the relationships of students with one another. These relationships and their value emotionally, instrumentally, and psychologically are fundamental supports to the value of their experience in the classroom setting for furthering development.

Here are some suggestions for teachers:

•     Remember the position you are in because you are the one who has something to teach the student, not the other way around.
•     Be respectful of your student while you also remember that your student needs you to remain in the teacher role.
•    Allow yourself to be a mentor.
• Develop a relationship with every child and note the behavioral changes and intervene timely to help children.
• Your presence with the children during intervals and lunch break can clearly avoid lots of ‘bad elements’
• Seek out creative ways of eliciting discipline and respect instead of the old ‘fear is the key ‘concept.
• Become aware of your verbal and non-verbal communication.
• Get to know the family background of the children and intervene with the family with suggestions to improve the child’s growth as you are more with the child on week days than their parents.

 There is an urgent need to improve the system of teacher training and also educational system which still caters to the child’s intellectual needs and nothing else.