Campaign Story
About the project
Based in Khunti and Dhanbad districts, Jharkhand, CRA and its partners seek to foster a community-led approach to child protection practice that includes the participation of children themselves. The project’s Inter Agency Group (IAG) comprises CINI, Chetna Vikas, Plan India, Praxis, and CRA as the grant-holder and coordinating body. The IAG promotes a model that integrates community-led child protection (CLCP) with panchayat (village government) support for children. CRA and partners envision vibrant, civic child protection processes that support government efforts in Jharkhand and nationally.
This Project is fully funded by the Oak foundation.
Making a difference
Broadly, CRA seeks to scale up its ongoing activities in expanding, developing, and documenting community-led child protection initiatives. Men, women and children who attended public meetings held in the two intervention districts had identified child marriage and school dropout as the two most important harms to children. These meetings provided community clearinghouses for information about programs and services available to girls and families in need. More women began speaking up at the village meetings, eventually becoming more influential in the Gram Sabha (village-level public forum). CRA supported these same communities during the project’s second phase in developing and implementing participatory child protection plans. Partners identified and trained leaders from each village, and assisted communities in forming village-level task forces charged with coordinating the monitoring of and response to incidents of abuse and violence toward children. Aligning its interventions with Mission Vatsalya, a child rights framework recently adopted by the Government of India, is a priority for CRA from 2022 onward.
The way forward
● Initiate dialogue with panchayat members on how to interconnect the panchayat model with Mission Vatsalya.
● Organize district-level discussions with key child protection functionaries and stakeholders.
● Organize an alliance meeting with civil society organizations for discussion of messaging and processes in support of Mission Vatsalya.
● Conduct Mission Vatsalya National Roundtable on CLCP involving block, district and state-level government stakeholders.
● Organize capacity-building sessions for leaders and communities toward further implementation of CLCP.
● Expand, develop, and document community-led child protection initiatives
● Influence practitioners, UNICEF, Government, and donor stakeholders to increasingly use and support community-led child protection
The way forward
● Orienting Anganwadi teachers on Early Childhood Education (ECE) programme components.
● Strengthening parents monitoring committee
● Conducting awareness programmes on child labor at the community level
● Implementing Life Skills Modules in child collectives to inculcate self-esteem and self confidence
● Transact life skills modules on sexual and reproductive health in adolescent girls collectives
Project Impact
38
Natural leaders trained on social mapping (for identifying vulnerable children), and planning and monitoring of community-protection mechanisms.
Regular meetings held with 150 adolescent girls and 100 adolescent boys on education, menstruation, and girls’ rights.
One-day workshop organized for the PRI members on community engagement and participation vis-a-vis Mission Vatsalya.
Block-level convergence meeting organized involving the natural leaders and adolescent members, where they presented on the significance of CLCP.
Held consultation with UNICEF on the CLCP model, and developed a paper on CLCP and adolescent participation.
Last Year’s Grant Disbursed: $146,869
Current Year’s Approved Grant – $149,401
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