Consultation on Child Rights and Panchayats

PRIA in collaboration with UNICEF has prepared a training manual on Roles of Panchayats in Protecting Rights of Children to disseminate critical and vital information regarding child rights. The manual’s primary objective is to strengthen the capacities of panchayats in protecting and establishing child rights. The primary  audience of the manual includes panchayat members, officials and trainers of panchayati raj institutions. The manual has been divided into two parts.  Part I (divided in 5 modules) is a source book with relevant information on child rights and Part II outlines how to conduct participatory trainings. Case studies (from different states) have also been included in the document.

PRIA has planned a series of consultations to solicit feedback to improve the manual. After the first two consultations at NIRD and  TISPARD in Hyderabad on 12 January 2016,  the third consultation was organised at Patna on 18 January 2016. Participants from Bihar State Child Labour Commission, Bachapan Bachao Andolan and other NGOs, and activists working on the issue of child rights in the state attended.

The consultation started with a brief overview of the project detailing the rationale of the manual followed by a presentation on the draft manual. This was followed by an open session where participants shared their views on the content of the manual, flow of information, ease of reading, and gave suggestions to make the manual more useful such as including a list of state schemes for children and its current status (as annexures). Specifically in the context of Bihar, it was suggested that as the panchayat system consists of two sets institutions, i.e., gram panchayat and gram kutchery, a chapter on child protection laws and role of gram kutchery could be added.  The participants also suggested that PRIA should organise some trainings in the states on a pilot basis to give hands-on field experience on how to use the manual in order to increase its effectiveness.

The participants appreciated the efforts put in by PRIA and described the manual as a comprehensive source book on child rights which would be of great help to panchayat representatives, officials, NGO workers and other stakeholders  in ensuring child rights in the state.