“Listening to understand” – Establishing children’s committees in India

Overview

This podcast is the first episode on the topic of International Approaches to Child Participation. Children’s right to participation is protected in the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that children have the right to freely express their views on all matters and decisions that affect them, and to have those views taken into account at all levels of society. But, the right to participation is not only a right in itself; it is also a prerequisite for the exercise of all other rights within families, schools and the larger community context. While a huge diversity of initiatives to amplify children’s voices exists around the world, we know that, in order to have the best chance of being effective, participation approaches must be meaningful and adapted to the local context.

In this podcast, Amanda Griffith CEO of Family for Every Child speaks to Deep Purkayastha, Director of Praajak, based in Kolkata, India. Established in 1997, “Praajak” means charioteer, the one who guides and mentors. With a focus on child protection issues such as unsafe migration, child trafficking, child sexual abuse, early and forced marriages and child labour, Praajak uses a rights-based approach to support young people and the communities they live in to forge their own paths to empowerment.

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