#Vote4Children

Well, just like any other day when i was scrolling over 'Youth Ki Awaaz's Blog',i saw this.An initiative by Save The Children to aware people about the pathetic conditions of children in India. Around 140 lack children here remain out of school and over 120 lakh  children are child labourers. I stared at those figures in incredulity. Though, I appreciate the mere fact that the initiative has given voice to that section of society which contribute around 31.2% to India's population and are deprived from right to vote.

And this is when I decided to write my experience at CRY since last year. I have always wanted to contribute to the society from my part. But, the thing which finally took me there after much procrastination is my love for children, the experiences I have and their conversations which really inspires me. I have understood the meaning of leadership in its truest sense .And, I believe that team work is at the heart of the leadership and this is what I had experienced last year in summer when I joined CRY.

Just after I joined, CRY in collaboration with the HINDUSTAN TIMES’s theme of ‘You Read, They Learn’, organized a campaign of “Enroll a child” which began after a brainstorming session with people at Indian Habitat Center, Delhi. 

For this, I have had mentored a team of volunteers (from the general public) who willingly stepped up for the cause. Mentoring involves teaching them how to interact with children and parents, tackling the critical situations. The campaign was aimed at looking for those children who didn't go to schools in slums either because of money constraints or other reasons.

We tried our level best to rectify these problems either by providing counseling to parents or by encouraging them emotionally. Finally, we succeeded in enrolling some of those children in schools under the Right To Education Act (under age 14).

That was surely one of the best things that had happened to me in summer last year since I can still remember those words from a father which were like “ Beta, please meri Beti ka admission krado,bhagwan tumhara bhala krega.”( means “child,please enroll my girl in a school and god will bless you ).That appealing expression he had on his face made me felt ashamed about the fact that I live in a country where access to basic education isn't that easy. Well, the good thing to see was that there were people from all the age groups and (surprisingly!) even some 60 year old ladies were there to contribute.
People joined and put up their best and performed all the tasks keenly from moving in unhygienic slum areas, guiding poor people about the importance of education to creating the database of all details. The campaign lasted for two and a half weeks long and we successfully ended the campaign by enrolling almost 400 children from the slum areas in and around Delhi and NCR.

Best Experience Indeed.

This post is a part of the #Vote4Children Blog-a-thon on Youth Ki Awaaz. Find out more at: http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/vote4children