BENGALURU: Focused on the migrant labourer communities, the Concerned for Working Children (CWC) and Bhima Sangha organised a Makkala Grama Sabha on Friday at Umadevi Samudaya Bhavan, Basavanagar.
The event was held to celebrate Child Labour Day which falls on April 30 as declared by Bhima Sangha.
The Sabha opens a platform for children to address the problems they face in their area. Fifty children out of 136 who belong to Annasandrapalya and Kaggdaspura of Vignana Nagar ward were present to talk about their problems and seek help from government officials. “We organise this event to help the children raise their concerns and hope that this will set an example for other areas to hold sabhas as well,” said Arjun Rajan who works with CWC.
Damodar Acharya, executive director at CWC said, “The issues of children need to be addressed. They should not be considered as citizens of tomorrow, but as citizens of today”. He engaged the children in a motivating Kannada song, promising them that their issues will be brought to light and dealt with.
The children prepared colourful posters and handouts, to explain the extent of their concern in detail. They talked about the water problems faced in their areas. They said that water tanks come only once in a week and if they need more water they have to walk for miles.
Addressing issues of sanitation, they spoke about lack of proper toilets available and added that this causes breading of mosquitoes that in turn cause various heath problems. The children also raised concerns over basic facilities such as electricity, garbage and dust. All these problems were identified and presented by the children themselves. They had also created a map that marked all the unsafe areas and clearly stated the cause of their problems.
S G Nagaraj, corporator of ward number 87 and Manjunath, corporator of ward number 87 listened to the children and addressed their grievances. Nagaraj, acknowledged their concerns of the children. “We are glad that you have brought to our attention these issues, we will do best to resolve them.” He urged all NGOs to work towards these issues,explore more and inform government officials avbout it. Although he showed concern and promised proper action, there were no concrete plans presented as to how these issues will be tackled.
The event commenced with members of the Bhima Sangham addressing the gathering and introducing the coporators and government officials.
This is the second time this event has been organised after the circular passed by the Government of Karnataka in 2006, mandating all Gram Panchayats in the state to carry out Makkala Gram Sabhas.
The first Sabha which was organised in 2015 had about 70 children present who raised a lot of issues such as lack of toilet facilities, open drainage, and water problems. The concerns were addressed to the corporator of the ward. Another important issue that was brought to light was the lack of Anganwadi (rural mother and childcare centre) in their area. This concern was taken up and an Anganwadi center was built by the department of Woman and Child Development. The other issues have not have been resolved and no action has been taken.