Child Rights: My Responsibility

Darjeeling district, which comes under North Bengal is famous for three “Ts”- Tea, Tourism and Timber. Amidst these three very progressive social milieu there also exist social evils like Human Trafficking, child labour, exploitation of tea garden community etc.

Kalimpong is one of the largest sub-division of the Darjeeling District. The Sub-division consists of Kalimpong I, Kalimpong II and Gorubathan development Blocks with its headquarters at Kalimpong Town. These three blocks contain 42 Gram Panchayats.

Caritas India has been implementing Child Rights programme with special focus to anti-child labour in collaboration with two local partners namely Anuglaya (DSSS) and Bal Suraksha Abhiyan (BSA) since 2013. The project area where the organisations are working are located in three different Blocks i.e. Kalimbong I & II & Gurupathan blocks and in 8 Gram Panchayats like Pedong, Sakyong in Kalimbong bloc I Pudung & Singdebong Gram Panchayat which is under Kalimpong Block II. Ahalay, Gorubathan, Nim and Dalim Gram Panchayats under Gorupathan Block.

Child Labour is rampant in the areas and Caritas India and local organizations wanted to address this burning issue through holistic convergence approach/model in collaboration with the above two organizations.

The low wages in the tea gardens, closure of tea garden in the recent past, poor agricultural products, lack of proper implementation and monitoring of the government flagship schemes has forced many poor families to engaged their children to work as laborers. Lack of sustainable alternative livelihood options has escalated various other problems including distressed unsafe migration, alcoholism, broken families and increase in school drop outs.

The project “Moving towards Child Labour Free Society” renamed as above title was formally initiated from the year 2013 with the objective to engage with Government administrations and advocate for child labour free society. This project began working with schools, gram panchayats and other state institutions by creating & strengthening community based child safety mechanisms and networking with NGOs and key stakeholders mobilizing their support for address the issue in a concerted manner. Technical support of PRATHAM Mumbai was also provided for enhancing quality impact of the programme.

During the last implementation phase, project team was capacitated on the components of the projects and issues related to child rights and its legal provisions.

At community level, 27 Vigilance Committees (VC) and 27 Children’s Clubs (CC) were formed in the intervention areas to promote and protect child rights. The children’ clubs have earned recognition and have been invited to participate in the District and Block Level programmes organized by the government. In the last 3 years more than 60 children have been rescued and rehabilitated, restored to families. Currently, more than 20 rescued children are rehabilitated in BSA’s children’s home.

A district level network have been formed with 26 organisations which is known as “Darjeeling District Child Rights NGO Network (DDCRN)”. In every meeting District Child Protection Officer (DCPO) and Child Welfare Committee (CWC), the key advisory members are playing an active role.

One child friendly space in Police station is established in Kalimpong Town police station. In total 10 villages and 3 wards have been declared Child labor free zones in the programme operational areas in Darjeeling districts of West Bengal.

In the current phase the effort with CCs, CVs and networking will be strengthen.