In an effort to promote child participation, Children’s Parliament was started by Karnataka Child Rights Observatory. This is an attempt to give opportunity for children to speak out freely on various issues concerning them. Every year in the months of October and November the Children’s Parliament are organized at the Taluk level and District level in all the Districts of Karnataka which would culminate at State level Children’s Parliament in Bangalore in the presence of elected Legislators in Karnataka.
This year, PMSR had the opportunity of organizing the Block level Children’s Parliament at Kollegal and Yelandur Blocks, thanks to the support of STdH Foundation.
The Kollegal Block level event was held on October 20, 2022 at the Rotary Bhavan in Kollegal. Twenty-seven children studying in various schools in Kollegal Block attended. Four Block Level Resource Persons and eight School Teachers took part in this programme. All the twenty-seven children were given few minutes each to speak. They spoke about the problems faced by children in their villages and in their schools. At the end three girls (Anita, Aishwarya and Megashree) and three boys (Karthik, Prajan and Venugopal) were selected for the district level Children’s Parliament.
The Yelandur Block Level Children’s Parliament was held on October 21, 2022 at the BRP Centre in Yelandur. Twenty-two children from villages studying in Yelandur Town and in other big villages took part in this programme. The Block Education Officer inaugurated the programme and two Block Resource Persons and five School Teachers attended the meeting. All the children were divided in four groups to discuss on various issues of children and based on the group discussion the children were given to speak for few minutes. At the end three boys (Varadharaj, Aakash and Mohammed Salaudhin) and three girls (Preethi, Manasa and Pavana) were selected for the District level event.
On October 27, 2022 the PMSR Staff gathered the selected children at Kollegal and Yelandur respectively and provided an opportunity for the children to discuss various issues faced by children in their Blocks and decided on the various crucial issues to present at the District level Children’s Parliament.
The District level Children’s Parliament was held at the Rotary Club Auditorium in Chamarajanagar on October 28, 2022. Thirty-four selected children from Chamarajanagar, Gundelpet, Kollegal, Yelandur and Hanur Blocks took part in this programme. The Director and Child Rights Officers from the District Department of Women and Child Welfare and other NGOs participated in this event. The children from each Block were first given various topics to discuss and make group presentation at the end. Finally two children, Megashree from Kollegal Block and Sai Chinmaya were selected to represent the children of Chamarajnagar at the State Level Children’s Parliament scheduled to be held on Nov. 18th and 19th at Bangalore.
