The Hindu Business Line : Friends in high places

Twenty-five years of work in the region has proved to the Shri Bhuvneshwari Mahila Ashram (SBMA), a Garhwal-based voluntary organisation in Uttarakhand, that it pays to tap the energy and idealism of children. In an effort to change the way the world perceives and works with children, SBMA organised the first-ever International Conference of Mountain Children in May 2002. This, in turn, launched the Mountain Children's Forum (MCF) that connects all mountain children. The founding members of the forum are young people from India and Nepal. Its ever-expanding membership includes mountain children from across the world.

Aditi P. Kaur is the President and Chief Functionary, MCF. As President, she is responsible for planning and implanting projects and activities, managing board relations, ensuring compliance with financial and government requirements, raising funds, running the office and building staff capacity to handle the forum's growth and new projects.

The forum started with 300 children and is about 7,000-strong today, thanks to the increased activities and funding by the SBMA. However, the children do not get direct financial support. "We give them ideas, so that they can have a better future and means of livelihood," says Aditi, adding that children form around 47.3 per cent of Uttarakhand's population. "There is no age limit to join this forum. However, we prefer children between 10 and 18 years to get associated with us," she says.

How the MCF works

The MCF provides a platform for the mountain children to raise issues that affect them directly or indirectly, and share those concerns in local and global arenas. The forum functions at two levels — the network and grassroots. Through the network, children have the opportunity to build relationships, share concern and learn new ideas and methods; while at the grassroots, they translate these ideas into action that can impact and improve their lives, and the network-building ideas.

The MCF aims to identify issues relevant to children in mountain communities; keep up with international events with a focus on children; interact with children across the world; help children identify the issues they want addressed; discover ways to get involved in developmental processes within mountain communities; and solicit feedback and input from experts in the field; create a global lobby with a focus on children and development in mountain regions; support the need for children to represent themselves in the development arena; promote the inclusion of children in development processes in mountain communities; and advocate global action on issues identified by its members.

Working with children

Aditi, the brain behind this movement, started her career as an assistant manager of a private guest house near Nainital in 1994 and set up and developed the housekeeping department for Hotel Amer Palace, Bhopal. She joined SBMA as a Senior Facilitator, Human Resources Department.

Subsequently she founded the MCF and organised a children's conference. Her cousin and many of her friends work with her as volunteers. "For instance," said Aditi, "my colleague Sudhir has dedicated himself for the cause of these children. We have training programmes for children and later they work with us. You have to guide them in using their abundant energy in creative pursuits. Since we want to concentrate on children, we decided to have workshops and publish a children's magazine `Parvatiye Bal Manch (PABAM)'." The idea is to impart information about the forum's activities such as Bal Panchyats, sports events and story-telling sessions on great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi.

"These children have formed their own forum in Pithoragarh and have created a library in Ghorsali village. There was one incident when a man was dying of cancer, and these children got wood to make him feel warm, and gave him tea. Children spontaneously support such activities to help needy people in the villages," says Aditi.

These mountain children also generate funds by renting out a music system for a baarat, take care of the baraatis and do a few chores at weddings. One of them, Laxman Negi, participated in the 1988 UN children's conference and raised issues connected to development and security rights.

Aditi says that even though mountain children do not have access to Internet, and many other facilities that urban children enjoy, "We give them confidence to face the world and handle different situations."

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