Voices for Change: How children’s clubs in India stop child labour
In India, our Children’s Clubs are instrumental in winning the fight against child labour in mica mining. A Children’s Club or Balmanch comprises a group of children vulnerable to and previously engaged in child labour. The Balmanch as a collective force raises awareness, monitors and denounces violations against child rights, including taking children out of work and enrolling them in school. The Balmanch actively lobbies the government for systemic changes.
How does a Balmanch work?
As part of our efforts under the Mica project in India to address child labour in mica mining in Koderma and Giridih districts of the state Jharkhand, we have formed and nurtured 65 children’s clubs. We identified children who are vulnerable to and engaged in child labour and enrolled them in these clubs after parental consent. Each club comprises an average of 15 members (girls and boys), representing either a village or a district.
A Balmanch meets once a month, usually during the weekend. The leader plans the agenda of the meeting which covers child rights issues, enrolment status of children, problems in the surrounding areas, monitoring of child labour cases, and absenteeism among other topics relevant to exercising child rights.
Children discuss the problems and arrive at a solution collectively. The discussion is taken forward with our team on the field, who further link children to necessary mechanisms.
"After becoming a part of Balmanch, I received training, including life skills, knowledge about the Juvenile Justice and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Acts* and even child journalism. These experiences had a profound impact on my confidence and personal growth. One significant turning point was when I learned about child rights. It deeply influenced me, and I was determined to spread awareness", shared Muskaan Kumari (Balmanch Leader)
What have been the successful efforts under the Balmanch?
Since the inception of our initiative in 2016, the children from the Balmanch have been instrumental in ensuring that 4703 children were out of child labour.
Awareness raising has been a key Balmanch activity where children rally, showcase street plays and put up posters, to sensitise their community members on child rights issues. In 2023, 2,539 community members were sensitised with the support of the children’s clubs.
“After watching the play by the children I learnt that a girl should not get married early. A girl can even die from marrying early and she will not progress further”, said a community member from Koderma district after watching a street play staged by children. It is a common practice in the region for families to get their girl children married early, which takes them out of school and makes them vulnerable to child labour.
The Children’s Club members have also been successful lobbyists with government departments working closely towards the government’s mandate of the Child-Friendly Gram Panchayat (Child-Friendly local government), a central government initiative to make villages child-friendly. As a group, children have identified village-level issues contributing to child labour. They wrote letters to the local government departments and presented them to them.
Here are some notable achievements of the children-led lobby and advocacy efforts in the year 2023 :
- 7 early learning centres or anganwadis which were not fully functional were transformed into model preschool learning centres with facilities that encourage children from 3-6 to enrol into these centres. As the centres were earlier not functional, parents didn’t want to leave their children alone at home, so they were taken to the mines.
- The District administration and 3-tier Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) or local governing bodies created a safe and conducive learning environment in 6 Government Primary and Upper Primary schools by equipping these schools with learning materials, peripheral protection, safe drinking water and gender-segregated toilet facilities encouraging enrolment and regular attendance.
- The District Legal Services Authority provided technical support for the readmission of 26 adolescent girls in Government residential schools to continue their education in 9th standards.
"I have been witnessing the efforts of Terre des Hommes Netherlands to encourage mica-dependent families to prioritise the continuity of their children's education. In my Gram Panchayat (local government) area, I took the initiative to transform two anganwadi centres into model preschool learning spaces", shared Ms Parvati Devi, Gram Panchayat President
Children’s Clubs have been a wonderful example of creating positive and impactful change. We continue to place children at the centre of our efforts towards addressing child labour.