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Thirteen-year-old Latif lives with his brother, sister and grandmother on the street near Egmore station in Chennai.
He doesn't remember the last time he had a full night's sleep, thanks to mosquitoes and depraved men trying to harass his sister. But he never misses school.
Latif was in Delhi along with 35 other slum and street children from Chennai, Delhi, Jaipur, Goa, Bangalore, Malda and Kolkata as ‘child journalists' to voice their opinion and showcase their talent in the form of short films, stories and articles.
topics
The topics ranged from alcoholic parents, child labour, peer pressure, attitude of teachers and better-off children, friends, poverty etc.
For Farah and Tanzeem from Jaipur, this was the first time they had stepped out of their homes on their own. “My mother was initially reluctant, she tried to dissuade me, but when she saw my confidence and happiness after the workshop, she let me go,” says Farah.
Workshops
The 34 children were selected from the 100 who participated in workshops held by World Vision India, a humanitarian organisation working for poor children and their families.
The theme ‘My Life is Story' aimed at making the children ‘narrate their own stories.' The summit included short films, photo exhibitions, theatre and other interactive sessions, some with privileged, urban school children.
“We mapped low-income and high-vulnerable areas and started our work among 1.5 million children in 164 districts of the country. Of course, all this is being done with help from the Ministry of Women's Empowerment, Planning Commission, civil society, the Church, the UN and the others,” said Dr Jayakumar Christian, National Director, World Vision.
“Our attempt is to empower children to voice their opinions and views on things they want to talk about,” he says.
And the fact that the children had a lot of tales to tell was evident in the films that they made and the stories they wrote.
For many, it was also a first-time exposure to modern tools of creativity — the camera or the computer — things that are already part of a privileged child's daily existence.
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