IN A unique effort to empower children, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Rajasthan has initiated and supported an interesting programme known as the Child Reporters Project in the Tonk district of the state.

In collaboration with the state government, UNICEF has undertaken the ’Gramshakti Project’ an integrated village-based planning strategy in Tonk district on a pilot basis. In this project, six non governmental organisation (NGOs) in the six blocks of the district facilitated the village planning process, where the community through participatory process, selected 50 village youths to work as child reporters. These children, in the age group of 11-18 years were trained on child rights, reporting, documentation and village planning.

The project that initially began as an experiment, has already become a success story. Accepting news coverage from these child reporters for the Community Radio, or ’Aapno Radio’ at Banasthali Vidyapeeth, an all women’s university at Niwai in Tonk district, is a glaring example. This FM Radio Banasthali on 90.4MHz covers 50 villages surrounding Banasthali covering a population of around 50,000 people. These reporters are helping to provide visibility to children’s issues, village planning and also building the accountability of village services delivery system in sectors such as health, education and public sanitation. The programmes they make are a mix of live and canned programmes based on the community preferences for formats, presentation styles and themes.

Village volunteers have also undergone training in radio programme production. The project is also proposing to form 50 radio listener clubs for small group-mediated discussions on the programmes being broadcast. The village volunteers will also initiate a discussion on the subject of the programme, an activity for which they are being trained.

Sulagna Roy, education consultant, UNICEF Rajasthan, said that in most societies children have a very feeble voice with very little say about their lives and what they need for themselves. This project therefore comes as a means to promote child reporters. “They deserve to have their voices heard on the issues that affect them,” emphasised Roy adding that this process was a successful experiment in this direction.

Shikha Wadhwa, programme manager of UNICEF Rajasthan said that the convention on the Rights of the Child has legitimised the participation of children in making decisions that affect them. This project has created a space for children’s meaningful participation in the development process and enabled them to play a constructive role in building their own community and society. She described these young child reporters as agents of change in a rural society.

The planning of the project also provided the opportunity to explore linkages with Nehru Yuva Kendra (NYK), Panchayati Raj institutions, NGOs as well as the media in implementing village planning, community and district administration.

via Merinews.com>