Bala Panchayat leaders discuss child marriages, dropouts

Members of Bala Panchayat discussed child rights issues at interface programme organised by CRAF. 300 children participated & discussed case studies, drug abuse, school dropouts, child marriages, minors in crimes & kitchen gardens. SCPCR member asked children to know Acts related to child rights. CWC chairperson praised children for stopping child marriages. Labour AC asked Bala Panchayat to create awareness against child labour & importance of sending children to school.

Members of the Bala Panchayat have discussed various issues concerning children and child rights at the interface programme organised by an NGO, Child Rights Advocacy Foundation (CRAF).

More than 300 children, who were members of the Bala Panchayats participated in the programme. They discussed on some case studies, which they solved at the village level.

The Bala Panchayat members discussed pressing issues like drug abuse among children, school dropouts, child marriages, involvement of minors in crimes, developing kitchen gardens and other issues in the programme, said CRAF State programme director, P. Francis Thambi.

State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) member T. Adi Lakshmi has asked the children to have knowledge on Acts related to child rights.

Appreciating CRAF for forming Bala Panchayats, which were aimed at enlightening children on the problems at school-level, Ms. Adi Lakshmi suggested that Bala Panchayats be constituted in all districts in the State.

Krishna district Child Welfare Committee (CWC) chairperson K. Suvartha, who interacted with the children, praised them for stopping many child marriages.

Machilipatnam Assistant Commissioner of Labour, S. Govind has asked the Bala Panchayat members to create awareness among the villagers against child labour on importance of sending their children to schools.