300 PANCHAYATS DECLARED CHILD FRIENDLY

Hand in Hand has succeeded in creating 300 "Child Friendly Panchayats" in Kancheepuram district. These 300 Panchayats were honoured in a special ceremony on 13 February 2009.

There are 12,600 Panchayats (village clusters) in Tamil Nadu and our vision is to reach at least 10% and make them child-friendly. We have extended our work to 780 Panchayats so far. Of these, we are proud to declare that 300 Panchayats have achieved "Child Friendly" status.

In these 300 Panchayats, all children in the 6-14 age group attend fulltime school, all government schools function effectively, teacher-student ratio is maintained, there is an empowered community that willingly and effectively protects child rights through child right protection committees, children attend regular health camps, and all children are tracked so that they do not lapse into labour or malnutrition.

This work would not have been possible without the help and cooperation of district administration, Panchayat presidents, school teachers, youth, self help groups, and parents.

On the occasion, the Chief Guest Shantha Sinha, Chairperson, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, spoke about the need to be vigilant about protecting child rights. She pointed out that it was the Panchayat-level volunteers, workers, teachers and Panchayat officials who worked with children directly and not with just statistics. This was what made their work the most important and had the most impact.

Dr. T. Prabhakara Rao, Principal Secretary, TN, Labour & Employment; also spoke. He congratulated the 300 Panchayats on their great achievement, and said that work at the grassroots level was the best work.

Hand in Hand believes strongly that a child's right to education is non-negotiable. Our work is to bring every child out of labour and into school.