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| Rippan Kapur CRY Fellowship: Quarterly Review Period From Oct. '98 - March '99 |
| 01. Fellowship Title |
| 02. Name and Address of the organisation |
| 03. Objective |
| 04. Brief Background of the Fellow |
| 05. Activities Report |
| 06. Overall Review |
| 01. Fellowship Title: |
| Rippan Kapur CRY Fellowship |
| MR. MAHENDRA PARIDA
CRY - Fellow B/L - 111, V. S. S. Nagar, Bhubaneswar - 751 004 Orissa |
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03. Objective: |
| Eradication of child
labour engaged in bidi rolling and construction
work in Botolama block and Bhubaneswar respectively. The program is very focussed and encompasses field level implementation, advocacy and lobbying. Also, restoration of child rights in the state by mobilizing collective efforts is another focus area. |
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04. Brief Background of the Fellow: |
| Mr. Parida is basically
an activist who has been working towards the
eradication of child labour. He possesses an experience of co-ordinating the Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL) in Orissa for about six years. He is well experienced to address the issue. He is also capable of networking. And through using his capability he has been able to have good rapport with Govt. departments in the state and other NGOs working with the similar issue. |
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05. Activities Report: |
| Over a period of last
six months i.e. from October'98 to March'99,Mahendra has given most of
his time to FACE ( Forum Against Child Exploitation ) as the convenor to
this forum. He has been undertaking visit to 18 districts of Orissa to
strengthen the district
level groups with the help of CRY Partners and non financial partners. In this process of district level meetings efforts have been made to develop strategies to strengthen district level groups and to undertake series of campaigns and field based activities to activate people to take responsibility for restoring the rights of the children wherever and whenever it is denied. State level and district level workshops have been organized for the district level groups to develop perspective on child related issues. Also, these workshops have dealt with components like how to involve the reference groups, panchayati raj institutions and local government officials in the process. Mahendra has organized many of these workshops and in the rest he has participated in capacity of a resource person. Out of 30 districts in Orissa, FACE has been able to establish its substantial credibility in more than 15 districts. Over a period of last six months Mahendra has met the state Education Minister, Labour Minister and child and women welfare minister with other CRY partners (FACE Core group members) to make them understand about the situation of deprived children in the state and to motivate them to make pro-child legislations. Mahendra along with CCWD has brought to the limelight two covert cases of child sexual abuse in Bhubaneswar. At present, these cases are under the consideration of Bhubaneswar court. From a period of Januaruy'99 to March'99, Mahendra had conducted five parents - counselling programmes for the parents of child workers at the construction sites in order to sensitize them on (I) how to provide education facilities to their children, (ii) not to encourage their children further to work in construction sites and (iii) to initiate dialogues with women groups for saving for the future of their children. Regular visits to the formal schools
have been done by Mahendra to ensure the retention of the children those
have been enrolled by him. Around ten children were working in Swosti Plaza
construction site in Bhubaneswar migrating from Mayurbhanj. Taking a serious
note of this, Mahendra had written letters to labour commissioner
and the labour Secretary of the state and had a discussion with the manager
of Swosti Plaza. As a result, the children were not allowed any more to
work at that construction site and in return these children were provided
with the educational materials by the same farm to continue with their
study. In the last week of March'99, an interview of Mahendra had been
telecast by OTV in regard to the problems of child labour in
construction sector.
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| Mahendra has proved
himself capable of convening FACE. In addition
to that, media advocacy has been strengthened because of the rigorous efforts put in by Mahendra. Due to this, CRY has a substantial visibility in the state of Orissa. |
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