Bhopal: October 11 is International Day of Girl Child and online meet was organised by Child Rights Observatory, State Commission for Protection of Child Rights and UNICEF, wherein adolescent girls from Singrauli, Datia, Harda, Shivpuri, Indore and Tikamgarh shared their stories of efforts by them for making a change during COVID19 times. Titled as ChalkTalk this was online meet to share stories by adolescent girls.
Mahima Singh, from SIngrauli along with her teacher runs a library on the wheels, on their scooter and they shared the same with children of their village during COVID19 when schools were closed, online study was happening, but children used to ‘run’ for the books which are part of their library. Her teacher Usha Dubey was present at the meet and both of them shared the story. Friends of Mahima joined in the meet and also made posters on girl child day which were shared with all the participants of the meet.
Brijjunwar Panchal, an adolescent from Datia shared how she with her friends spread awareness on use of facemasks, handwashing with soap, and social distancing. When team for COVID19 testing from Health Department came to their village, all were scared to get tested and we went in for first and motivated others to go in for testing of COVID19.
Jyoti Srivastava from Datia shared that they joined in the movement to make their help reduce polythene garbage from their village.
Radhika from Shivpuri shared that they were learning online but many children who were not linked online, we as group of friends started teaching them once a week and helped children around their homes, especially poor to link them to education. We used to use facemask, social distancing and practice handwashing with soap and also taught them these practices to fight Corona.
Palak Rajput from Harda had learned about constitutional rights and spoke about the efforts to increase awareness on gender equality and say no to dowry. KrantiKevat from Tikamgarh spoke about how they supported awareness on use of facemask. social distancing and handwashing and supported migrant workers in their district.
Bharti Khandekar, from Indore shared her story how she was living life in a small place on a roadside, scored good marks and how she was given a home and mobile by Indore Municipal Corporation after SCPCR Member intervened.
Listening to these stories was Member State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Brajesh Chouhan, who saluted these girls for their effort and said that SCPCR will support these initiatives, recognise them and also in case they have any challenge SCPCR is with them. He shared about role of SCPCR. Nirmala Buch, President Child Rights Observatory said that it was indeed powerful to listen to these stories and how they can influence the work being done on children. CRO stands with adolescent to support to strengthen these efforts and advocate for adolescents and challenges being faced by them. Anil Gulati, Communication Specialist, UNICEF, Madhya Pradesh facilitated this interaction and said it is important that chalktalk are indeed useful and give space to adolescents and is role of State and CSOs working with children and adolescents. Around 55 participants listened to these stories from across the State.