Children Speak Up

This article reports on the expansion of children's participation within local government in India. The Karnataka state government's panchayati raj ministry [Note: Panchayati Raj is a decentralised form of government where each village is responsible for its own affairs] issued an order in late 2007 making it mandatory for all panchayats [villages] to provide children a platform to put their concerns forward directly to elected representatives at special children’s "gram sabhas" [children's assemblies]. The order makes it mandatory for panchayats to report back to the ministry on action taken to address issues raised by the children.


Since 2004, the model of including children in local self-government has been in place in all 56 villages in Kundapura taluka, Udupi district, Karnataka. The article estimates that 20,000 of the 160,000 children in this region have participated actively in these gram sabha meetings, discussions, and surveys. Issues that have been brought to the fore by children include, for example, alcoholism and the violence and poverty that the children associated with it, lack of sanitation as a result of stray cattle, and flooding, which blocked the path to school. Children conducted surveys, collected data, and documented discussions between groups of children, women, and special groups - including both those marginalised by economic poverty and by disability - in support of the solutions they developed. Children developed solutions - a wall around the school to keep out stray cattle, a foot bridge over the flooded area - which included each community as a whole. Since 2007, the children's gram sabhas are beginning to generate impact on local self-governance. One village reported 19 initiatives rising out of the 2006 children's gram sabhas in their panchayat.

The Concerned for Working Children (CWC), an organisation that promotes and facilitates children's participation and has facilitated this particular process, notes that "Replicating the successful model of these special children's gram sabhas throughout the state will involve a high degree of commitment and cooperation among all the involved parties. The unique socio-economic factors and polity of each village pose challenges.... Each problem will have to be tackled with patience and imagination to arrive at equitable solutions that are acceptable to the entire community."


Their recommendations include publicity of the meetings that is disseminated widely enough to reach all children, including children out of school, migrant children, and children with special needs. The meeting facilitation needs to be lively and engaging, as well as non-judgemental and safe. The gram sabhas model needs to extend from the rural villages into urban environments.


The article suggests that the role of adult gram panchayat members and government officials involved in enabling the special children’s gram sabhas goes beyond awareness of the value of children's participation. It extends to enabling results from their participation through providing inputs regarding children’s rights and addressing violations of these rights. This mandate for increasing children's participation increases the accountability of adults through not only including children in planning processes and programme implementation, but also following up with mandatory reporting on actions addressing the issues raised by children.