"Every Child want that he should study, should wear nice clothes, should stay happy, should be able to live a good life, does not want to go through miseries wants to live in opulence. Also that he should be aware of his/her rights and should be able to avail all services. These responsibilities lie with the Family, Society & the Government collectively". These ideas came out at the Bal Sammelan held at the CUTS-Centre for Human Development, Senti, Chittorgarh on 28 & 29 December 2004.

During the two day function organized by CUTS Chittorgarh in due cooperation with Save the Children U.K. the children expressed their ideas through Plays, Songs and Paintings. The main objectives of the program were awareness generation in the community regarding child rights and providing the children with a platform to come out with their skills.

Among the dignitaries present were Parshad Mr. Ramesh Nath Yogi & Senior Advocate Mr. Bhanwar Lal Sisodia. Addressing the participants Mr. Yogi expressed his good wishes towards the program and emphasized upon a need for the community awareness towards child rights and also laid importance upon such programs that act as a platform to bring the community forward and make them participate in such awareness generation processes. Mr. Sisodia reiterated that it is education, good health and moral values that bring forward a good future and asked the children to attain good education and shine like a star.

In his inaugural speech the Centre In-charge Mr. Dhanna Singh Rawat welcomed the participants and guests and briefly spoke about the attempts that have been made by Centre for Human Development, Chittorgarh in concerned areas. He also talked about the objective behind such inaugurations elucidating that CUTS has been a fore-runner in child right activism and has been acting in a collaborative manner with government and other agencies to make this possible. On personal front CUTS has been undertaking programs and activities like holding of Bal panchayats and formation of Social Justice and Empowerment Committees in order to bring up the issues such as these and encouraging the participation of children in such programs. CUTS has also been working to prevent atrocities against children in the rural areas and their exploitations in other forms.

In the inaugural session, Senior Forest Officer Mr. Shivraj Puri informed the children about the importance of environment and natural resource management. Mrs. Shahshi Prabha from CUTS gave the vote of thanks.

On the first day of this gathering, children were made aware of issues like Exploitation, AIDS, Girl-Education, Development of the children at the earlier stages etc. through group discussions. Also, through puppet show they were informed about child-rights, health, education and child cooperation in such issues. About 400 children from various Bal Panchayats from the districts of Chittorgarh, Bhilwara And Ajmer and other organizations participated in this gathering.

On the second day i.e 29th of December, many cultural programs related to child development were staged and various sports activities were organized for the children. It was also conceptualized that the children themselves would design the strategies for their respective areas so that they can play a participative role in their own development.

For more detail contact to:

Mr. Dhanna Singh Rawat
Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS)
Centre for Human Development (CHD)
Rawala, Senti Chittorgarh - 312025 (Rajasthan, India)
Tel.: 91.1472.241472 Fax: 91.1472.240072
Email: chd@cuts.org; cutschd@sancharnet.in
Web: www.cuts-international.org