Bal Mitra GramBuilding a child friendly society

• 317 villages• 28,812 children withdrawn from work and

enrolled in school• More than 300,000 children empowered• Approx. 800,000 people in 317 villages reached

• Welcome to the world of BMGs• A world where children walk shoulder to

shoulder with adults

What is a BMG?• Bal Mitra Gram or child friendly village is a

model to tackle child labour through education and empowerment of children – Withdrawal from work – Enrollment in school– Formation of Bal Panchayat- elected body of child

representatives– Recognition by the Gram Panchayat

Why BMGs?• Villages- the biggest source of child labour• BMG prevents children from entering the labour

force right at the source• Provides opportunities for growth of village

through development of children • Community ownership through participation- Bal

Panchayat, youth groups, women’s groups

Spread of BMGs

Where are the BMGsMultiple facets and manifestations of child labour rendered ineffective through BMGs in various states•Child labour intensive states where children are engaged in traditional forms of work- agriculture, domestic labour in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh

– Tackling gender discrimination in Rajasthan

– Addressing communal differences in UP

•Preventing trafficking to other states through BMGs in Bihar•Assisting mining community through corporate social responsibility model in BMGs in Jharkhand•Environment sustainability through education of

child labourers in Karnataka

How does the BMG work?

Voice of the children

• Bal Panchayat is a forum of children to express their needs to Gram Panchayat

• Bal Panchayat meets regularly to discuss the needs for better education, health and other needs

• Presents its needs to the Gram Panchayat (the elected Village Parliament)

• Gram Panchayat solves them or forwards them to block and district officials. Bal Panchayats keep a track of progress

Small steps to giant strides• Bal Panchayat of Dwarapur, led by Om Prakash

succeeded in making education completely free (no tuition fee, or additional fee)– Panchayat did not heed; children wrote to the State

Human Rights Commission (SHRC) which acted promptly and abolished fee across the State

• Schools of Thanagazi block of Alwar district directed by the Block Education Officer to have school enrolment drive like in BMGs to ensure 100% enrolment

Small steps to giant strides• Hemlata from BMG Jagatsinghpura, Alwar was married

off at a young age. She overcame the gender bias in her family and village to continue education – Later she went to the USA as a girls representative at the

World Day Against Child Labour in 2008

• The entire village of Bamanbas Chaugan was filthy due to lack of a sewer, led to many diseases– Bal Panchayat demanded a sewer and better road

– Now, the village has better sanitation and children are healthy

Replication

• World Vision International: Adopted the BMG model in their work in Haryana

• Backward Society Education, Nepal is replicating the model with the technical help of BBA in 240 villages in Nepal

Recognition for the model• Winrock International selected it as one of the holistic

models to end child labour through education. Their partners in Ghana are implementing the project currently

• Oxfam India considers the BMG model as one where community is putting as much effort as the Government in growth of villages

• ILO and UN agencies recognize it as a good practice model at the village level to prevent child labour

Monitoring

An in-house database software that captures and stores information of BMGs on a monthly basis

Future plan• Income generation plan in BMGs for women and youth for

self-employment– Strategy being finalised, pilot in progress in Karnataka

• International conference on BMGs: A conference with International NGOs, UN agencies and other partners mooted to increase replication of BMGs in India and other countries

• Training of local organizations: BBA has already done some trainings in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. This will be further extended.