Scribbling some figures on the net and in certain reports of Indian Economic Survey, UNICEF, UNDP, etc. a not so much usual fact came forward and that was the child population in India, the number of deprived or underprivileged children in India, the number of street children in India, the number of child deaths in India, and the number of children who dropout from schools every year in India.
India, a country with largest child population, largest child deaths, largest street children and largest malnourished children in the world, put our minds and thoughts in a thinking-hat mode. For once, we felt apprehensive about building India for the future. It was sure, government, NGOs, corporates alone cannot bring this problem to a solution and common masses need to align and join on such national missions.
This is where we decided to spread the message of "Khushi" - Care for the Underprivileged Children. The message that 50% of India's child population needs nutrition, education and good health. Without the involvement of similar minds, India would never be able to make it. We also decided to make KHUSHI a 100% non-funding campaign that would only encourage people to take individual steps and initiatives towards the cause.
Where the blog, www.khushi-creatinghappiness.blogspot.in, became a platform for encouraging people by uploading success stories, articles and statistics; the facebook became a platform for on-line discussions and spreading awareness.
The "KHUSHI" team also decided to develop the social media campaign in-house without involving any expenditure. On course of the campaign, many members have come forward with donations but KHUSHI encouraged them to take direct steps. This has brought belongingness towards the campaign.
Further, to understand the problems relating to street children, “KHUSHI” has been interacting with street children. Workshops have also been organized to motivate them to join formal schools. The children we met were of mixed nature. Some were keen to go to school and some had never been to school. Their parents were also involved for counseling and motivating their children for education.
Now, KHUSHI members in cities like Patna, Lucknow, Delhi, to name a few, are planning to organize workshops for motivating street children to join schools while addressing the problem of child labour, begging and vocational training. Schools are getting associated and they are also encouraging their students to be engaged in such campaign.
Today, after a year of launch of “KHUSHI”, the facebook group of “KHUSHI” has over 28,000 members, www.facebook.com/groups/vedantakhushi, and the blog is nearing 70,000 page views. With time, journalists, professors, engineers, social workers, bureaucrats, students, doctors, management graduates, entrepreneurs, schools etc. have joined the campaign and taking the initiative forward. Recently, the ace athlete Padam Shri Krishna Poonia also joined the campaign.
One thing, we could bring forward through "Khushi" has been “change in the behaviour of people towards poor children”."Be polite with the poor children as they are not deprived by choice but by chance". The thought-full online discussions and debates on education and infrastructure development in rural schools, nutrition & education to street children, problem of children involved in making crackers, increasing drop-outs rate in rural schools, teachers problem, menace of beggary, child labour, vocational training etc. have brought out ideas on how as an individual we are capable to contribute and work towards the solutions, if not eradication.
Many members went ahead and took some strong decisions. Some of them are sponsoring education of children of the people who work in their house, some members have employed parents of children who beg on the streets or traffic-lights, some have gone ahead for adoption, some are teaching street children on regular basis, some are engaged in organizing creative workshops for them, and some are collectively taking extra classes in rural schools. The members have pledged not to allow child labour or encourage child beggary. The campaign is gaining momentum.
Rotary International - Udaipur Mewar, honoured "KHUSHI" campaign with “Rotary Community Service Award – 2012” and acknowledged the efforts being taken to spread awareness towards the deprived and underprivileged children.
As for Vedanta’s contribution, we have made a small beginning by partnering with the Government in over 14,000 Anganwadi Centres and have reached out to 500,000 children since 2008 towards improving the nutrition, health and primary education in deprived children.
It is true, individual efforts are what the country requires today. Spread awareness and motivate others is what "Khushi" says.
No comments:
Post a Comment