Our Program Partner

Humara Bachpan

“HumaraBachpan” is a national campaign on living conditions for young children in urban poverty. The campaign calls for inclusion of child friendly components in the urban renewable policies such as Rajiv Awash Yojana (RAY).

HumaraBachpan Campaign Aims To:

• Facilitate children forums, network with organisations working with children to advocate for a safe physical environment for children.
• Understand how young children understand and use their physical environment.
• Create opportunities for children and teenagers’ participation and leadership through an empowering process.
• Respect young children’s creative thinking and capacities to advocate for change.
• Educate policy makers, practitioners and the civil society about research outcomes and processes onimportance of safe and healthy physical space in the development of young children.
• Ensure change in urban renewal and related urban development programs and policies such as JNNURM and RAY. And lobby for inclusion of a separate chapter on children’s participation to make it more child friendly.

Children need a safe and healthy environment for their proper development. Special planning and design of the outdoor and indoor spaces enables a child to play, learn and explore.It is through the physical environment and neighbourhood that children acquire social, cognitive, and physical skills. Restricting these may slow-down the holistic developmental process of young children. The following components have a major role in a child’s development and therefore every child should have access to them.

• Safe water
• All weather housing
• Public space to play
• Proper sanitation
• Healthy air to breath
• Electricity with safety measures
• Better transportation
• Soil free from contamination

What are the rights of children living in urban poverty based on ‘CRC’?

• Influence decisions about their living area
• Express their opinion on the living area they want
• Have participation in family and community level
• Have access to basic services such as health care and education
• Drink safe water and have access to proper sanitation
• Walk safely on the roads of their slum and outside
• Meet friends and play in their neighbourhood
• Have green spaces for healthy air and recreation
• Live in an unpolluted environment
• Participate in cultural and social events
• Be an equal citizen with access to every service regardless of ethnic origin, religion, income, gender or disability.

CRY

Indifferent adolescents become change agents & establish their rights
Location: 46 slums (23 in Jamshedpur, 8 in Dhanbad, 6 in Ranchi and 6 in Bokaro),

Nature of Initiative: Implementing
Project holder: Ms. PrabhaJaiswal
CRY support since: 1998

Change Enabled

• 6495 children enrolled in schools
• 4436 children immunised
• 507 birth registrations provided
• 45 children collectives formed

WHAT CHANGED

The slums in Jamshedpur are situated on the periphery of the planned city. This sudden outgrowth was mainly because the brick kilns – where migrants work – were located on the outskirts of the city. Although hutments are now semi-permanent, there is no recognition of these residents in larger urban development planning programmes.

Children are mainly engaged in child labour either in hotels, as domestic workers or as rag pickers. The high level of legal insecurity has also led to police atrocities. This is a situation often seen in slums in other cities and urban fringe areas too.

From creating a non-formal school, to working to ensure child rights, ASES has come long way to strengthen a community

AdarshSevaSansthan (ASES) started working in the slums by starting a non-formal school with 45 children. Now ASES work in the slums mainly aiming at ensuring child rights through a strengthened community. The organisation has come up with four focus areas of intervention – birth registration, child labour and drop out, basic amenities and housing rights.

ASES has been able to mobilise the basti committee and women and children groups to address issues in the slums. The committee and the women groups are active in bringing basic facilities to the slum. The children groups – BalSangathans – are engaged in enrolment drives. They have also been working on the slum rehabilitation policy at the ground level with basti committees.