Deepalaya - Enabling Self-Reliance

News Letters

22nd August 2007

23rd August 2007

24th August 2007

The 18th ‘World Forum 2007’, an annual event of International Forum for Child Welfare (IFCW) hosted by Deepalaya, the largest operational NGO in New Delhi, successfully saw the participation of more than 350 delegates from across the world. For the first time India was chosen for the conference to take place. The event was co-hosted by Indian Alliance for Child Rights (IACR), a national organization working for the realization of the rights of children. The conference theme for this year was “Millennium Development Goals and their Implication for Children”.

The three days conference from 22 August to August 24, 2007 took place at Hotel Intercontinental located in the heart of the capital city of New Delhi. The International Conference attracted visitors from countries like USA, UK. Australia, England, South Africa, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan and many others. The World Forum 2007 saw active participation of political, governmental and intergovernmental leaders, scholars, researchers, foundation leaders, journalists and youth across the globe.

In the face of changing economic situations in the world, especially in developing countries and economies in transition, an international dialogue to promote and defend children’s entitlement is timely and important. The conference addressed contemporary issues and its positive and negative impacts on Government policies and civil society at large.

The first day of the 18th World Forum started with the lighting of the lamp and a prayer song presented by the students of Deepalaya. Mr T. K. Mathew, Secretary and Chief Executive, Deepalaya welcomed all and stressed the importance of the theme “Millennium Development Goals and their Implications for Children”.

Mr Bruce Rivers, President, IFCW gave a brief introduction of IFCW and declared the World Forum 2007 open.

Dr Shantha Sinha, Chairperson, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and winner of Magsaysay Award graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. In her key note she stressed that every child has to be free and histories of children in the world should become one history. Millennium Development Goals have to be embedded in the right based perspective of children and all children must be without hunger, ill-health and malnutrition. It is impractical for children to be hungry and not to go to school. Our democracy, she added, cannot be deepened without protection of children’s rights.

The students of Deepalaya ignited ecstasy in the hearts of all as they tuned in to some musical chords.

The three days conference was divided in two plenary sessions each day followed by two simultaneous panel discussions after each plenary.

The first Plenary Session moderated by Ms Elba Montalvo, Secretary, IFCW discussed on ‘Child Rights, Linkage with MDGs and Role of IFCW’. Speaking on the topic Ms Razia Ismail, Co-convener, IACR brought to light the fact that India has the largest child population in the world; and called for a reality check about MDG and child rights. The UN Convention on Child Rights, 1989, which were reiterated in 2000 at the Millennium summit, still remains as a list of rights. Ms Ismail ended her note by leaving an open question to all that, “If goals specified in the MDGs sufficiently covered all child rights and if we were doing well enough with these MDGs?”
Mr Bruce Rivers spoke about the rights of the children, the challenges and opportunities faced to achieve these rights, and delved on the rights to survival, protection and development. Speaking about the challenges, he cited the not so impressive economic and social indicators of the developed countries, and touched on the issues of sexual exploitation, child soldiers, HIV/AIDS, child labor and plight of girl children.

The two simultaneous panel discussions immediately after the plenary rendered thoughts on, ‘Child Rights issues of Child Development Universal Primary Education’ and ‘Child Rights and HIV/AIDS Awareness’. Moderated by Mr Alan Davis and Dr Lily Rilantono respectively, both Member-at-large, IFCW, the discussions gave a thought evoking process to the delegates.

Nearly 50,000 children do not have access to regular food in Australia came as an astonishing fact to all present at the conference. Dr Ray Cleary, Angolicare Victoria, strongly said “To invest in children is to invest in our future”. Dr. R Govinda, Prof. & Head of the Department of School & Non Formal Education, National University of Educational Planning and Administration and Dr Asha Singh, Professor, Lady Irwin College, New Delhi were among the other key speakers in one of the panel discussions.

Ms Jyotsna Rajvanshi, Child Line stressed that social justice must begin with children and emphasized the 3 Ps- Provision; Protection; and Participation.

The second plenary on day one of the conference was diced by renowned Swami Agnivesh. In his words education, is the only way that can reduce or remove child labor. Prof. T. K. Oommen, Retd. Professor from JNU exhorted that Social responsibility is partnering for child welfare and called for not just ideal but also equal partnership.

The other two panel discussions on ‘Global Partnership for Development’ and ‘Reduce Child Mortality and Improve Maternal Health’ deliberated on the need for partnerships for development of children and the importance of breast feeding to infants. Ms Elba Montalvo, also a Member-at-large, IFCW, and Executive Director, The Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, Inc. (CHCF) mentioned that the UNICEF was the only UN agency mandated to advocate for children’s rights through the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. It supports programs that provide education, counseling, and care to children and works in 158 countries and territories in partnership with governments, other UN agencies, and NGOs to provide health, education, nutrition, immunization, and protection for every child.

In the panel discussion on Reduce Child Mortality and Improve Maternal Health, Mr Subrata Dutta, stressed on the need to promote breast feeding as the exclusive feed for infants for the first 6 months as a means of combating 3 major killer diseases of infants Diarrhoea, Pneumonia and infections affecting the new born.

The conference saw the active participation of political, governmental and intergovernmental leaders, scholars, researchers, foundation leaders, journalists and youth from across the globe. After the day long discreet discussions it was time for a cultural celebration. Internationally renowned Odissi dancer Ms Sharon Lowen enchanted the audience to her performance at the cultural evening.

More than 150 NGOs participated in the World forum 2007 this year. The conference provided a strong platform for networking among the representatives from different countries working for the same cause.

In East Asia, South-East Asia and the Pacific sub-region where literacy has reached a high level of 91.7 percent, disparities between countries and the gender gap remain.

The second day plenary session on ‘Market forces and their Impact on Child Rights’ was chaired by Mr Shankar Venkateshwaran, Executive Director, American India Foundation. He mentioned that the negative impact of market forces was valueless education. The session revolved around the concern of quality education and how the different stakeholders as in the government and the private players play a crucial role in making education available to the marginalized sections of the society.

In the panel discussion on ‘Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger’ Ms Amrita Jain, Consultant, Mobile Creches emphasized that the cycle of poverty can be broken only by early intervention. She said the major challenge is how to influence the government and care about global partnerships. Ms Coleen Clare, a representative of the Domestic Violence Programmes for children in Australia, exclaimed that research work showed that women are especially affected by poverty, also facing problems of alcohol and drug-abuse. She emphasized that the collaboration of organizations and governmental institutions such as police, court and family services were essential to take necessary steps against poverty and violence. The moderator of the discussion, Ms Ismail said that there are 600 districts in India while only 17 of them have inclusive education program. India has just signed the convention on the Rights to Education of Children with Disability but it is yet to be ratified.

The participants from different nations had a privilege to register themselves under membership exchange of IFCW. This would enhance and strengthen networking and sharing of thought process and plans between developed and developing countries.

The fourth plenary session on ‘Government Facilitation towards achievement of the MDGs Political Will’ started with key points from Dr Rajshekaran, Vice Chancellor, and IGNOU. He mentioned that MDGs can be achieved if quality of life is improved for all countries. He added that basic issues of nutrition and education are important. Only 9% of those who finish school in India get the chance to enter College. The figure is 40% in OECD countries. When we integrate technology in education we should not forget the human factor; for technology cannot teach, only a teacher can teach. Dr Parth J. Shah President, Centre for Civil Society stressed the importance of creating political will for MDGs. An alternative to the Top-Down approach is the Bottom-Up approach. We have the same old battles to fight to motivate the government to care of rights. The Govt. teachers in India have the highest salaries for teachers in the world. There is a movement from Right to Education to Right to Education of choice. He suggested the following points for school reforms - financial and pedagogical autonomy; convert financing to per child basis; link teacher’s salary, increments to performance and independent learning evaluation.

The delegates were delighted to be a part of such a winsome conference and learning discussions. Finally the panel discussion on Promotion of Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women’ featured a presentation by Ms Tina Oliya, Director, Holy Angel School. She strongly put forward her thoughts that it is time to reorganize our school system with new values and that teachers should be the fountain of knowledge. Mr M. O. Peter, Director, Special Programmes, Deepalaya, in his presentation drew the attention of the participants to the specific target set for the Millennium Development Goal 3, namely, Elimination of Gender Disparity in Primary and Secondary Education preferably by 2005 and at all levels by 2015. He illustrated facts and figures relating to the economic, social and educational progress of women in India since independence.
Referring to the achievement of the target spelt out for the MDG 3, he pointed out that although there has been significant increase in the percentage of girls’ enrollment from 1950-51 to 2004-05. More than half of the females in the age group of 15 to 19 years in India are still illiterate, compared to less than 10% in China. Dr. Shradha Kapoor, Reader Lady Irwin College, Delhi talked on the “Issues of Globalization Policy and Empowerment of women” and dealt with gender preferences in any Indian family, which is governed by hierarchy, patriarchy, pluralism and exclusion

Amid all veterans and experienced intelligence, was a group of college students, all geared up to make a significant mark in their own small way for the development of the society. In a panel discussion on ‘Youth Participation in Development and their relevance to MDGs’, the audience was left spellbound during the session and the session already exceeded the allotted time it seemed as if the questions would never stop.

The discussion started with an enlightening speech by Ms Poonam, a student of Deepalaya School. She shared her small but inspiring experiences on ‘Importance of Education’. Later, volunteers from Pravah shared experiences of their working under an initiative named, ‘Students Mobilization Initiative of Learning through Exposure’ (SMILE), which focuses on ‘Development for all’.

During their initiative they faced some very pressing questions like, ‘What is meant by development?’ ‘Is the rise in GDP, movement from rural to urban or from developing to the developed can be called as development?

If this is not development then what does development really mean?
The discussion was further facilitated by two documentary films which the team had made with a special call and message.

Students of Deepalaya vibrantly beautified the evening by showcasing the different dances from the varied cultures of India. The performance enthralled one and all present at the conference. Last but not the least the melodious notes of National Anthem put the annual event to an end for this year.

The delegates had a choice to visit any of the Deepalaya’s project locations in New Delhi. Buses were plied on different routes early morning and members from Deepalaya accompanied guests to their visits.

Deepalaya takes the special privilege as it hosted the World Forum 2007 and hopes the deliberations at the event work at their level best for transforming the society.