Brief Report of the National Workshop on Child Participation: Re-thinking Interventions
Background and Objective of the workshop
The workshop on ‘Child participation: Re-thinking Interventions’ was organized and hosted on 4 – 5 July, 2011 by Committed Communities Development Trust (CCDT), Mumbai at St Pius College Campus, Goregaon (East) and supported by Plan India. It attempted to explore child participation as a concept, a method in realizing child rights and as a political tool to democratize space for silenced voices. The objective was to brainstorm and develop an understanding on practicing child participation in any intervention or programme that affects children directly or indirectly. More than 60 representatives from civil society organizations, academics and the government across different parts of India deliberated to share experiences relating to processes, insights, challenges and map the road ahead in CP-informed programming.
Content of the workshop
Sessions planned aimed to capture distinct child specific, community specific and theme based interventions in child participation. Subsequently, the role of the state and civil society organizations was discussed on day two followed by group activity and presentations on charting a course of action for implementation and advocacy.
The workshop started with questions to brainstorm in the following two days. The questions dealt with the structure of power distribution in society, the location of power in relief and rights based interventions, the need to perceive adults as an equal partner in the practice of child participation, the perils of under and over child participation and the range of practice in child participation from consultation to partnership and self advocacy.
The first session emphasized on the diversities of childhoods, children’s contexts and the need to change the perception regarding children from economically unproductive and vulnerable entities to children as equal citizens. The knowledge of the child may be different from an adult; it needs to be represented, rather than discounted. Empowerment of children does not necessarily lead to disempowerment of adults; rather, it is a process of power sharing which results in capacity building of children. It is a political process of democratization of power which requires change in the social structure.
The second session highlighted that child participation as a process should be encouraged, both in the urban and rural contexts where adults guide the information base of children. This leads to enhancing the capacities of children and their participation in the community. Conflict is an organic aspect in the entire process and can be reduced through sustained and continuous dialogue. The case of Urja Ghar provided an example of way in which participation leads to empowerment and self determination. It further brought to light differences in community interventions – those that could be scaled and localized intensive interventions.
The third session on community specific interventions attempted to differentiate between issues that affect children and adults, cautioning against children substituting adults in the process of community development. Approach to common issues of adults and children may differ in terms of processes involved for each of the categories. It located the socio-economic vulnerabilities of children in the larger context of social security of the family. The idea of mobilization towards incorporating the agenda of children in political manifestos was proposed. However, adults and children have to be equal partners in this process through training adults in child rights and child participation.
In the fourth session on thematic interventions, the case of Child Line was presented to demonstrate the way in which children played an active role in articulating their needs and as volunteers and peer educators. However, operationally, multiple challenges exist relating to child participation and securing the best interest of the child, cultural differences, diverse concerns due to varying age groups and the creation of safe spaces for children to express themselves. There is a danger of ad hoc participation as well as institutionalized participation. Government structures and institutions are not yet ready to incorporate the practice of child participation in its true spirit as it is not yet a cultural value but remains as an independent policy/programme.
The fifth session on day two pointed out to an enabling environment that is important to the practice of child participation. Respect for the child, equal partnership and adult consent is inherent to it. It is important to understand the personalities, characteristics of children and give them space to think, speak and articulate themselves. The State has a responsibility towards child participation as a part of child rights. Civil society has a role to play in terms of sustained dialogue with the state to
This was followed by a group activity where all participants divided themselves into groups to work on child specific, community specific and theme related interventions. The groups presented their thoughts which are summarized as follows,
- All opportunities for children to participate must be explored and they must have the space to do it;
- Power sharing needs strategic re-thinking;
- There needs to be a partnership between adults and children;
- Capacity building at the level of the community is important to develop skills in the practice of child participation;
- Civil society needs to engage with the state to ensure child participation as the way to realize child rights;
The participants, to conclude, came forward with a number of suggestions as to how to proceed from here. The following two of the suggestions were taken up as immediate tasks:
- CCDT to Consolidate children’s comments and recommendations on the National Child Policy collected and sent by all participating organizations and send it as a joint response on the Draft by the end of September 2011
Chitra of Chetna to share its Code of Conduct as a draft for all to use and work on developing a Child Participation policy document.