22/11/2015
A case Story From Field
Mittai Gram Sabha Bal Panchayat abolished evil from their GP
Bal Panchayats are slowly becoming more active and started raising many questions in the society. Around 17 Bal Panchayat members of Mittai Gram Sabha are regularly and actively participating in various meetings and activities & are more active may be the reason that majority of them are girls. During the meetings regularly many issues related to rights and social evils were raised and due to continuous inputs slowly they developed understanding about how to identify problems in the society and what role they can play in rectifying it.
In one of the meeting of Bal Panchayat during the month of April 2015, some members (Jeshan, Shaniya, Sakiya, Neelam, Arti and Shiva) raised the issue that few boys are involve in playing cards whole day whereas other boys also gather to enjoy and learn this evil. Because of this they also bunk their college and had started stealing money from their homes. The issue was problematic which was spoiling innocent students in the society. All the BP members decided to stop this nuisance, but the question was how? They started discussing all the consequences which may arise after their action. Finally they decided to involve some adults who always favor them.
In the next meeting Shiva called her mother Mrs. Sarla Devi and AWW Mrs. Nazma Bano who were always supportive to them. Again the issue was discussed and BP members asked both of them that how they can proceed further to abolish this evil from their Gram Sabha. They suggested that the delegation of BP members should first meet the parents of boys who are involve in playing cards and inform them about their wards’ anti-social activities. It was also decided to contact those boys and ask them not to indulge in such things as it would not only spoil their lives but also other children may get such infections. Although the task was not easy but they decided to take-up this challenge, because they had support of two adults. This raised their confidence level many fold as they were sure that other community members would also support them.
As a plan ‘A’ they started contacting the involved boys and informed them that all the active BP members had decided that no boy would play cards in our GP and if caught next time they may face some serious action against them. At the same time as a plan ‘B’ BP members also informed the parents of the involved child and asked them to take care of their wards activities. During this exercise they faced number of problems as few boys just ignored them while few parents also did not take them seriously. Mrs. Sarla & Mrs. Nazma Bano also contacted few boys and few parents and tried to convince them.
After this action, they got some achievement as 3-4 boys realized and promised not to get involved in these activities while 2-3 parents also took serious note of it. Although the start was good but still the game continued in some hidden places. Again in next meeting all the aspects were discussed along with the impact of action taken. Till now few more adults came forward to support them. This also raised their confidence level. Now the next course of action was decided with everyone’s consent that one application should be given to police station narrating all the facts.
Application was drafted and all the BP members signed it along with the supporting adults. And finally this was delivered by a delegation of BP members who also told the whole story to the police station in-charge. But before leaving the police station the delegation took one promise from the in-charge that he would only threaten the boys involved and give them chance to correct themselves.
Next day the in-charge called upon all the boys who were involved in the game and gave them serious warning. The boys realized and promised not to repeat it again. They also promised that they would join BP and attend all its activities and promote others to join the ‘good army’. This was one of the biggest achievement for the Mittai Gram Panchayats’ BP Members. Now there are active 30 members in Mittai BP and they all are willing to contribute to best of their efforts.
One of the active members of Mittai BP Ms. Sajiya is student of class 10th and she is providing corrective classes to 10 weaker students residing near to her house. Under the able leadership of Ms. Arti Yadav, (Pradhan of Mittai BP) student of class 10th , BP took initiative to encourage 15 children to get enrolled in different classes who had left the school.
