CHILD PARTICIPATION

Vidiyal strongly believes that children are present and they are too citizen’s of this country. As young citizens children have every right to participate in every decision affecting them right from the family to the governance of this country. This belief led Vidiyal in the direction of sharing authority with the children who are the primary stakeholders in its operation. Vidiyal has moved a long way from ‘deciding for children’ to deciding with children in the development paradigm. Adults tend to decide for children claiming that it is done in the ‘best interest of the child’. In contrary to this Vidiyal believes that the concept of best interest sprouts just from ‘listening to the voices’ of children and we strongly believe that ‘informed choices’ and ‘informed decisions’ are part of such process while engaging with children.

At Vidiyal ‘Child Participation’ is never a project but is always a cross cutting theme in our initiatives. Children are capacitated to build a structure for them through a participatory process with adequate information, training and resources. Adults engaged in the process were enabled to overcome their anxieties over power sharing with appropriate training programmes and were made to see the opportunities in ‘listening to children’.

Today the Vidiyal Child Rights Movement asserts its status as a child led organization and the children in leadership are able to interact at par with the adults in the organization while deciding any matters concerning children. Though Vidiyal and its children are inseparable we consciously enable children to gain separate identity to their organisation so that they attempt newer initiatives and own it. We do have joint initiatives which are designed and monitored jointly. While engaging in this process we are conscious of not burdening children with adult responsibilities and make sure that children enjoy their childhood.

Asserting their right to participation, children have been actively involved in the process of decision making at various levels. The families are enabled to understand the child’s innate capacity to participate in matters concerning him or her. Children do act as whistle blowers when they encounter an issue in the family, community or school. Networking with other children’s organizations has taken them to greater heights including participation in the United Nations Committee on Convention on the Rights of the Child.