Child Protection chief of Unicef-India visited Child Friendly Constituency-Khandapada to learn the idea of ‘child friendly constituency’, the process, results achieved and the possibilities for its replication various parts of Odisha. Mr. Aguilar Javier, Chief, Child Protection Program, UNICEF India along with Child Protection Specialist Mr. Laxmi Narayan Nanda visited Dhanchangada gram panchayat and interacted with child leaders, change makers GPRPs (gram panchayat resource person) and various other stakeholders like parents, youth groups, service providers and local elected representatives of Khandapada.
They tried to understand how this initiative has been different from other development programme where elected officials take leadership to protect the rights of the children and children able to interact with them with their plan of action and agenda at gram panchayat level.
Team Youth for Social Development who implemented the initiative with the support from Unicef has narrated how tools such as fact sheet, planning, score card, constituency profile analysis have helped to identify ad prioritise children’s issues and present those before the officials and elected representatives at the highest decision making body i.e. in Gram Sabha of the lowest tire of government in India. On the other hand they learned how the convergence and coordination mechanism created at GP, block and district level to improve services in the five flagship programmes focused on children’s development and protection. They impressed with the programmes design, information gathered through participatory tools and the formal mechanism for children’s participation in gram sabha, bloc k and district level meetings. He also happy with the active participation of children and their parents in this initiative.
This will help them to understand the current situation of child protection and participation in Odisha to design a robust programme for the protection of children. Team YSD consists of Ratneswar Sahu, Subhasis, Bibhuti, Bikash, Chandan and Abhiram along with secretary, Bibhu Prasad Sahu and team members from AASHA, local supporting NGO were present in this occasion and facilitate the process.
