Mountain Children’s Foundation
Changing the way the world perceives and works with children

Uttarkashi |Workshops

Strengthening of baal panchayats

Partner Organisation : HENSR
               District: Uttarkashi

          Supported by : Give2Asia

Follow-Up Workshop Report

July 25th, 2010

MCF conducted a one day follow-up workshop on strengthening the baal panchayat in the village  of Nagan with their partner organization HENSR and with the support of Give2Asia. 75 participants attended the workshop which included children, parents and grand-parents.The main aim of the workshop was to enhance the level of interaction amongst the village children and the elders of the village and also focus on how the children’s group could help spread awareness amongst other children of the village.

The children had arranged a meeting of their Bal Panchayat  on 20th June, 2010. They named their Bal Panchyat Shree Jamdagni Rishi Bal Panchayat, after the deity of their village. They also said that they had talked to their grandparents and learned lots of things about custom and traditions of their village. Seema, one of the bal panchayat memebers, said that she heard a story from her grandparents about Jamdagni Rishi (the village diety).

Mr. Yogesh Badhani, Block coordinator, HENSR told the older generation in their local language about the program and what was proposed with the children's group in this village. The main emphasis of the program was to connect the children with their grandparents so they could learn something from them and also share their experience with them. Some of the old ladies complained that the children did not listen to their parents and grandparents. All the older participants admired Deepshikha Chauhan as she was a sincere girl and looked after her grandmother and listened to her. On this the entire Bal Panchayat clapped specially for Deepshikha.

The children participated in a role play in which they tried to show how the children behave with the old people in the village.  They also went on the show how the Bal Panchayat children could help the older generation in their village and how the children could gather lots of information about their village, their customs and traditions from their grand parents.

When the older generation was asked about how they liked the play, they all agreed that it was well performed and they would like the younger generation to listen to them. There was one old lady of the village Smt Patam Devi Chauhan who was all alone, the children of the bal panchayat promised to look after her.

This program was greatly appreciated in the village. It was felt that continued effort from the Bal Panchayt would ensure a better relationship between the generations. Nagan Gaon is a distant village and this was the first program ever held with the children. They were very excited and so was their community. This was a very promising beginning....

The Mountain Children's Foundation,63-A Vyom Prasth, G.M.S Road,Dehradun, Uttarakhand 248001, India
Phone: 91-135-6532937 Email: mcfglobal @ mymountains.org