Day 1

Delegates were still arriving on the 17th morning. After registering, each of us received a kit which included a beautiful bag decorated with pressed flowers, folders, note pads, pens, crayons and paints, biscuits and toffees, and a copy of "Rights of the Child," which came out of the United Nations convention on the rights of the child.

The day started with a "dhol-dhamau" (traditonal drums of Uttranchal) and "Bhaunkara" (trumpet) played by kids from Anjanisain, Tehri Garhwal. You could feel the rhythm move in your body and reverberate your soul. We also lit a "diya" (oil lamp) to illuminate this journey. The drums and the diya are traditional rites to give an auspicious beginning to important events.

Then Cyrilji, the executive director of RACHNA and the person who first dreamed the ICMC dream, told us about how the whole world knew about what we were doing here in Dehradun, through our website and because the BBC had covered it. He said 50 percent of the population were under the age of 18. He also stressed that all this could remain on paper, a dream, unless WE take this forward. This is not a meeting, it is an "andolan" (a movement).

This was a big day for Uttarakhand. Delegates from each of the 14 childrens secretariats in the 13 districts of the state gathered to form the Uttranchal State Children's Secretariat. We met and talked about the issues that our secretariats had identified, established the rules and structure of these bodies, and came up with a declaration of issues we would like to address together with the state government.

We presented our declaration of issues to Dr. R. S. Tolia, Principal Secretary, Uttarakhand, who received it on behalf of the Uttarakhand government at an official ceremony. He promised that this government would do whatever it could to be involved with and support our intiatives in Uttranchal. but he also said that anyone can come up with problems and urged us to look for solutions.

While Uttarakhand delegates were meeting, the delegates from Orissa, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh spent time getting to know one another, singing and playing games. Then they decided to take off for some sightseeing in Mussoorie, a beautiful colonial hill station with views of the Himalaya.

In the afternoon, delegates from the North East trooped in. They represent the seven sisters states (Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh).

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