Children's Parliament

This programme uses face-to-face interaction to support working children's active involvement in the shaping of their own lives, educations, and communities.

The Children's Parliament draws on the Barefoot College's system of village night schools, which the organisation claims to have structured carefully to meet the needs and schedules of rural working children. These night schools strive to make children feel like - and become - equal and responsible society members, regardless of caste, gender, or economic status. To this end, the educational process is a tool for both exposing young people to other points of view and giving them an opportunity to debate. The premise of the initiative is that members of the Children's Parliament exercise real power; the aim is to enable children - both boys and girls - to become not passive learners or observers but, rather, to take active roles in learning about and participating in politics and the electoral process.

To detail the process, children from each of the night schools, which number about 2500 children ages 6 through 14, engage in elections to select the 17 members of the Parliament. The election process is taken very seriously: only children registered voters are allowed to vote or run for office; candidates must know how to read and write; and nomination forms may be accompanied by identification cards and sanction letters from parents and the village education committees that also monitor the elections. The minimum age for candidacy is 11 and 38% of seats are reserved for girls. The elected representatives select from among themselves Ministers: a Prime Minister, a Speaker and Minister for Transport, Education, Health, Women and the Environment. The group gathers every 2 months in a ruined fort. "With the adults functioning as civil servants addressing the various needs of the group, the meetings are vigorous and lively."

The duties of elected representatives are to:

• recruit children to enroll in the night schools
• take student and teacher attendance in the schools
• report on their visits to other night schools
• write to the proper Ministers and Secretaries when school problems come to their notice
• attend the meetings of their local village education committee
• keep informed about, and report on, the health conditions and drinking water in their village
• plan a budget and submit expenses for the running of the government
• discuss and decide on all issues taken up at State Assemblies and in parliament
• take disciplinary action against any Minister not attending meetings regularly
• see that elections are conducted in all schools that may have missed out on them.

Problems arising in the various villages are taken up in the Parliament. Each Minister is asked to visit every night school 5 times a month and to report on the quality of the teaching, attendance levels, the availability and suitability of the equipment, and whether records are being properly kept. The Ministers have the power to govern all schools in this district, and even to fire teachers who, on the basis of detailed investigation following a complaint, are not felt to be doing their jobs. The children apply pressure for further improvements in the village, such as solar power and water pumps. They also organise cultural activities such as children's festivals, which are designed to provide relief from their hard, everyday farm routine. Through the Parliament, children are encouraged to be actively involved in every aspect of their daily lives. They have their own magazine to keep the young people of the desert informed about local politics and their own rights.

The Children's Parliament emphasises children's power to guide and govern their own lives - and the responsibility that comes along with it. This philosophy is illustrated by the Prime Minister, whom, when asked whether the Parliament is strong enough to bring about social change, said, "What we decide is what happens. We want to see that our schools are well equipped and that all children are attending. And, if the school is well equipped but the children are not studying, then there is something wrong. Sometimes it is because the teacher is a tyrant and does not handle the children well, or even beats them. We report things like this to our Education Co-ordinator." One commentator has suggested that the Parliament "reverses the usual thrust of socialisation. Here it is from the children that the parents, relatives and other villagers learn about democratic practices and their importance."

Children, Political Development, Education, Rights, Girls.

Rajasthan, also known as "the land of drought and colour," is a semi-arid state in Northwest India. It is divided into 58 blocks, consisting of 37,890 villages, and it has a population of 44 million. Most people survive on subsistence farming and manual labour, with an illiteracy rate of approximately 45% among males and 80% among females. Schooling poses certain difficulties because children are needed to contribute to the family economy by working on the family farms. More than half of school-aged children do not attend school; the majority of non-attendees are girls. Realising this, the Barefoot College got together with groups of villagers and asked how they could educate the children while still respecting their family responsibilities. This process revealed that - as organisers see it - India's educational system is oriented towards the needs of the middle class; many rural children are marginalised and prevented from fully engaging in the educational process.

In response, Barefoot College developed night schools for working children using a curriculum specifically adapted to rural surroundings. In addition to a strong emphasis on environmental education, the subjects taught are Hindi, Arithmetic, Social Studies, Science, and Geography. As the children get older, vocational training is introduced. Classes emphasise learning by doing; use is made of local resources such as folklore, traditional songs, puppets, and drama. Night school teachers are local (often poor) residents who have been trained for 2 years, having been named by the village community as promising young candidates. The emphasis is on teachers learning alongside their students in a process that is designed to enable the beneficiaries to serve their communities rather than seek individual gain and prosperity.

Organisers explain that, initially, there was resistance to the Parliament based on a perceived lack of respect from the children; respect is a key feature binding people together in the hierarchy of Indian society. There was also considerable unease in the early days about educating girls. Traditionally, Indian children are contracted to be married when they are only a few years old, with girls going to live in the households of their father-in-laws when they are about 15. As a result, some villagers felt threatened by the idea of girls continuing their education and becoming involved in the political process. The Barefoot College supported young people and their families through this transition.

The Barefoot College was founded in 1972 under the name Social Work and Research Centre (SWRC). Originating in the village of Tilonia, SWRC's mission was to empower local villagers in the interests of rural sustainability. The founder's goal was to attract young urban professionals to come and work alongside local villagers in action-based research, aimed toward bringing about effective practices and lasting partnerships of mutual support with the poor. To help SWRC staff "de-school" (their university education was in direct conflict with what was happening in the field), a training system was set up - the Barefood College - to teach local villagers how to instruct other villagers in the skills needed to support the introduction of new technologies. Anyone, regardless of caste, class, or gender, was eligible for any staff position. It was also agreed that everyone would be equally involved in decision-making, as well as in planning and implementation.