SCHOOL JAO ABHIYAAN A CHILD LABOUR PROJECT BY THE EXPERIMENTALTHEATREFOUNDATION   BACK

THEATRE AS DIRECT MEDIUM OF DEVELOPMENT UNDERSTANDING, STRATEGY & APPROACH INTRODUCTION “When children are deprived from their basic right -Education – The result is child labour.” “Relevant meaningful Education is a tool to survive in the competitive world”



Child Labour is a social evil and harsh reality of our society all over India. Children are treated as malleable objects – without caring the softness and sensitivity of the up growing causing a block in physical and mental growth i.e. BLOCK THE EXPRESSION OF CHILDREN. There are number of factors involved or responsible for child labour i.e. unemployment of adult, underpaid, illiterate adults, irregular earnings, displaced communities, marginalised non supportive rural-urban environments, like in price of basic necessities etc, “OVER ALL ONE IMPORTANT FACTOR RESPONSIBLE FOR CHILD LABOUR IS THAT WE ADULT-CITIZEN OF INDIA ARE ACCEPTING THIS PRACTICE”. Don’t panic – this is the truth. Let’s face it, own the responsibility and struggle to revive the lost childhood of child labour and safeguard childhood of India, collectively as our social, moral responsibility towards – Tomorrow’s citizens! 1250 child labourers left labour joined formal school, 500 are in progress of joining formal school. How it happened allow us to explain. Process A. Understanding – the issue – child labour and children. B. Resolving myths about child labour. C. Dialogue with parents, employer and B.M.C. schools. D. Participation of sensitive citizens. A. ETF Interacted with different research and training institutions, campaigns, individuals and grassroots NGOs working on child labour issue at national and international levels. ETF discovered: · Child is not allowed to express! · Myth governs the society about child labour. · Attitudinal problems: Attitude towards children. After these findings, ETF performed street play “Mera Bachpan” covering all the points, in Mumbai and project area Charkop, Kandivali. Mobilised the children, assured and allowed them to participate in the play – as demanded by children who witnessed performance, restored the faith of children in adult and system. Allowed them to express themselves: CHILDREN THEATRE GROUP EMERGED. B) Myth: poverty the main reason of child labour ETF don’t believe that poverty is the reason – poverty itself is caused by number of factors – i.e. Education is the key factor to both poverty and child labour and focussed on Education. We find common understanding: children who want to go to school and theatre animators who want to help these children to go to school. QUESTION: WHAT ABOUT PARENTS, EMPLOYERS AND SCHOOLS? C) PET: Parents, employers and formal schoolteachers’ forum. Our children theatre group helped us to have a dialogue with PET by performing in front of them asking several questions about their children for example – why they send their children to work? What is education and its importance? Why you employ a child? Why are you pushing these children out of school? ETF animators facilitated the process and allowed PET to reflect on their childhood, Desires, expectations and aspirations about their children to be? Invited parents to see the performance of the children, which provided them an opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate the potential of the children. One parent said that, yes I want to send my child to school, another said yes … in this way parents allowed the children to school. Employer: We followed Ideological finding, “ Every Human being wants a child to be Educated,” and channelized the employer’s sensitivity toward children over the benefits he draws from children. One garage owner allowed us to conduct theatre workshops and functional literacy class in his garage and stopped employing children below 14 years. We repeated the example with other employers and they are joining us gradually. Question: Will BMC school system accepts? Yes, with the help of strong and sensitive individuals, institution and their co-ordination with BMC school authorities and staff helped us in accepting the children are school. Question: Will children remain in school? Yes, ETF is following up all the promoted children – with sanskar warg, abhivyakti manch, and exposure visit and children theatre repertory who are performing on different issues. STRANGE! ISN’T IT! No, we struggled a lot, still struggling, but one thing we want to convey to you is “It is possible to stop child labour”, and education as an alternative to child labour. You can do it, you can make a difference – just try. Join hands with us. OUR PHILOSOPHY DERIVED FROM EXPERIENCE: “EXPRESSION IS A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT. ALLOW CHILDREN TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES.”

MISSION To educate people (Child labour, Deprived children and marginalised sections of society) to eliminate child labour through THEATRE MEDIA. STRATEGY EDUCATION MOBILISATION EMPOWERMENT

· EDUCATION PROGRAMME ACTIVITIES

Awareness/ Sensitization 1) Street Plays3) Poster Exhibition5) Street Theatre Workshop for Youth 2) Film Shows4) Street Theatre Campaigns by children NON – FORMAL EDUCATION 6) Non – Formal/ Literacy Classes8) Exposure Visit 7) Abhivyakti Visit9) Motivational Camp FORMAL EDUCATION 10) Sanskar Warg12) Exposure Visit14) Bal Natya Utsav 11) Follow up Camp13) Children Theatre Workshop · MOBILISATION 15) Children Street Theatre Repertory17) PET Workshop19) Networking.. CACL, FACSE, NLI, CRY etc., 16) Children Rally18) Crisis Intervention20) National Events 21) Sports · EMPOWERMENT 22) PET24) Youth Group 23) Children’s Self Help Group    BACK