Indrani Sinha Sanlaap ----------------------------------------------------------------- I am primarily interested raising a few questions. Several organizations are working with children on rights both to establish them and provide services. Some of them are doing good work. Sanlaap is doing both to children at risk which is the focus of this conference. Many chidlren are at risk at various levels. This is not a small group. Who are these children? They are survivors of trafficking, incest, orphans, armed/natural conflicts, post marriage abuse etc. Many organizations work on rescuing and supporting these children. The emphasis should be on quality support. Personal experience shows that many focus on rescue from streets/brothel/labor etc. but what after that? What are doing with these children? They need to go to school, have parents, should meet their family; Putting the child in an institution gets them safety but not a normal life. Several children in our homes said that they dont like the discipline, washing, food, etc. The need of each child is different. We cant do everything but children dont always understand. They want rice, chilli, pyaz, (particular kind of food) etc. When we think we are doing good, we dont always make the children happy. We have to communicate with the child. Can we come to a middle path? The child's participation in the well being should be encouraged. Dont do rescue if we cannot provide the followup. Rescue is not good enough. We need to understand differ stages of care. They come with a load within themselves. There are lots of issues that they havent been able to talk about. The child is not a child who is like our children who are taken care of. These are children who have difficult lives. The kind of communication systems that we use is very important. We come to know the problems only when the children run away. We need to have training to understand the child. Caregivers also have personal issues. If they cant resolve their problems, that comes out. The choice of words and actions important, e.g., caregiver crying in front of kids. Staff may be harming the child in the process. We also carry a lot of baggage. Reintegration - we keed using this word (husband, family etc.). Family is the first and most important platform. We have to plan very well regarding the tools that we give to the child to handle the situation that made the child leave the home in the first place. What kind of tools are we giving them? When we care for them, how are we coaching them? making them strong? The child has to be convinced that caregivers are open. If they have to be on their own, what should they do? What should they do if and when they meet the trafficker? Traffickers tend to be out on bail. He/she may live in the same place and threaten the girl. It is also a sense of failure for the girl: "I suffered but he is still in the same place, married again" etc. She has to be prepared and the reintegration has to be planned very well. We have to have a followup mechanism. How do we go about it? We cant make the child return. The child may not want to go back. "Everybody over there knows that I have been to Kamatipura for 6 months." We cant say our job is done. She might say that she is not prepared to go back. For example, we had the case of a girl from Bihar/Nepal border. She was 17yrs old and had a 1.5 years child. She was no happy to return. With 10-15 days, she wrote back saying she had a lot of visibility in the media and her family said that she brought shame to her family. Everybody in the village knows about her. She said that she wants to come back but never came back. We dont know what happened. Going back may be dangerous. They may not have a sensible family to back to. They may need continuous physical, mental and psychological care. Where do they go back to? The child is very vulnerable. The various options today are foster care, HWH (Half Way Home), shelters run by local government, back to prostitution, independent family or marriage, special care, or to the original family. For all these places does he/she want to go the place/take up that option? The participation of the child is important. What does the child have to say? Does she want that situation? If not, what options can we give her? Institutions themselves may have constraints and may not want them. There are some things that we can do to prepare the child. We have to give the message to the child that they have space in the organization, they can participate, and that organization will listen. Each child has immense potential, only some of which we identify from outside. We need to find out what they want rather than what we can give. The child misses the regular life. He/she had difficult life but atleast free to go and had friends. He/she misses that. The legalities exist but child is missing her brother and sister. We have to try and find out what they dream about. We cannot blame that child if he/she is not responding. We have to identify their positive skills. We have to understand the gap (in the childhood) that develops when she gets sent to domestic labor/brothel. We have to find out there had been a gap. We had the case of a girl yearning to go the formal school. We then started a formal school within shelter home with help from local school. This 17yrs old said that she wants to continue to the school beyond 10:40AM and not come back to the vocational training. We didnt listen to her for a while. This girl would tell me about the school each visit. We have to help them make their own decisions. At the end of day, we want them to independent. It happens in different ways. They have to be given responsibility - individual and group decisions. Some sanlaap girls are staff with various capabilities. We had to invite, encourage and provide support so that they can get into the decision making process. They almost run the place now. After 5 years whole sanlaap these girls will be the decision makers, running the shelter homes. We have to go take the staff in confidence. Counselors didnt think the girls are ready or necessary. They say that you have been giving them too much "bhaav" (importance). We have to work with our staff. We must facilitate continuous dialogue with the child and family, and with other institution where the child will be going. We must promote frequent visit to the family. Most of them goback to their family - 75% or more - whatever the family is like. We have to understand their problems in reintegration. We should develop a community. The community should be aware that the family is vulnerable. Wasnt the community partly responsible? Why should, for example, a 12yr old girl go to domestic labor? Responsiblity of the panchayat/local govt. If they have come to power, they should watch what is happening with the children and mothers. They come to institutions like ours after a long time. While Working with the child, you have to love them unconditionally. We have to have to ask ourselves all these questions and take this within our organization. Resource persons will talk about their own experiences but will also give us directions. What gaps exist in our organizations? We have to learn from each other. We have to take up 2-3 actions that we will do in the next year. On Feb 2nd, there is a meeting in Delhi - domestic labor and prostituion. The problem is interior bihar from where one agent/traffickers brings many children/fewer older women/men. These traffickers identify places from where the children can be brought. Some of the children are sent by family. The panchayat doesnt want to find out. The poor economic condition of the family and illiteracy means people dont file FIRs. Police does not cooperate. There are more than 1000 such agencies in just two localities of Delhi. Many of these girls who were brought to Delhi are missing. Many girls from Jharkand were forced into prostitution. It is hard to file cases. The traffickers say that "mothers sent the child." The participants include police, Department of Women and Children, trade unions, agencies, and the discussion involves case studies. One woman who was rescued is also going to be there. This is a very big group of children facing continous risk and activity is not considered to be trafficking. In 6 yrs, we got to know 600 children. We can use different kinds of platforms. We have use the schools, ICDS, balvihar. We have to work with the police and panchayat. There are lots of things to be done. Think of the Children at Risk - what do we do and where do we go from here.