Children of about 15 model villages of Krishna and Guntur districts participated in the ‘Bala Panchayat’ coordination programme, organised by Child Rights Advocacy Foundation (CRAF) here on Friday, to resolve issues at the village level.
“Bala Panchayats will sharpen the minds of children, develop leadership qualities and expose them to various societal issues,” said CRAF founder chairman Fr. Koshi, who attended the programme.
“A ninth-grade girl stopped coming to school all of a sudden. When we enquired about her absence, her classmates said that she was not coming to school due to family problems. We took the matter to the teacher’s notice, discussed it with her parents and resolved the issue,” said a Bala Panchayat leader, Sailaja. Another Bala Panchayat leader, Ankitha, of Kanasanipalli village of Krishna district, said that the students were told about the ill effects of excessive mobile usage.
State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) member, T. Adi Lakshmi, encouraged the children to discuss their problems in the Bala Panchayats.
“Bala Panchayat members discussed various case studies on school dropouts, cyber crimes, child marriage, sexual abuse, online frauds and civic issues in villages, during the programme,” said CRAF State programme coordinator P. Francis Thambi.
Child Welfare Committee (CWC) Chairperson K. Suvartha, Joint Commissioner of Labour A. Ganeshan, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) State coordinator Tirupati Rao and others participated.
