Five years ago, H&M launched the “All for Children” collection to mark the start of a collaboration with Unicef. The Integrated Child Protection Project (ICPP) works to protect the rights of children in cotton seed and cotton farming communities in Tamil Nadu, located at the southern tip of India.
All goals have been reached and examples of child friendly villages where families and communities take collective action for protection and development of children are now in place in the Dharmapuri and Salem districts of Tamil Nadu.
Unicef’s overall vision is to create a protective environment where boys and girls are free from violence, exploitation and unnecessary separation from their families. The strategic goal of the H&M funded collaboration was to ensure that children aged six to 14 in the Dharmapuri and Salem districts should be in school, and have access to health and nutrition , as opposed to working in the cotton and cotton seed fields.
The Dharmapuri and Salem districts are home to five million people, many of whom are socially deprived. Apart from sumangali (child labour), other common violations to children’s rights were child marriage - 43% of the girls in this area were married before the age of 18 - and child abuse. Hygiene, health and education were also addressed in order for the project to be holistic and sustainable.
ICPP has collaborated with the government, organisations and institutions, as well as the media to achieve their goals and the success has been significant. As much as 70% of the rescued and rehabilitated children have entered into colleges. Some have even been admitted into professional institutions like engineering, pharmacology and medical colleges. ICPP also works with children and adolescent groups in these communities to make them aware of their own rights and responsibilities.
Transforming communities through communication
Harmful practices like child marriage and discrimination towards girls were addressed through communication and cultural programmes, such as puppet shows and street theatre, reaching over 100,000 children and adults. The Song and Drama Division, a media unit with the Indian government’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting provided support to Unicef to orient them and draft scripts specifically on concerns related to children. Unicef has also helped produce videos on concerns related to child protection – child marriage, education and gender equity.
Addressing child marriage
Over 70,000 people including children were oriented and trained to motivate the community against child marriage, and more than 250 adolescent groups were trained in selected villages to resist exploitation and abuse. Around 1,000 child marriages have been stopped due to the intervention of the project.
One example is 15-year-old Kavitha, whose mother had chosen a groom for her and had made all the wedding arrangements. On her way to the wedding Kavitha summoned up all her courage, dialed the child helpline number and her marriage was stopped at the last minute. Kavitha now lives with her mother, 15 minutes away from the high school she attends. ICPP has also arranged a bank loan for Kavitha’s mother to start a vegetable vending business to support her daughter and herself.
Ensuring a high degree of health
With respect to health and nutrition, de-worming and vitamin A distribution to children under six years of age was carried out, as well as improvement of water and sanitation facilities in schools.
Children’s parliaments involving 6,372 children in 322 units were organised in the two districts, where children’s participation was encouraged through art and other creative forms. Children were empowered to become change agents, communicating messages through images and films on the topics of child marriage, education and girls’ discrimination. Three films were produced by the children themselves.
Policy changes during the course of the project included a national ban on child labour up until the age of 14. The legal age to work is now from the age of 14. In 2009, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act was enacted, making universal education mandatory until 14 years of age for all children.
Vidyasagar Ramamurthy, a child protection specialist who has been deeply involved in the project said: “The All for Children project has provided a second chance for many children who were slated to slog in hard labour at the cost of their childhood. It has transformed the lives of thousands of children through the creation of a protective environment. The shackles of illiteracy have been broken and this will have a long-term intergenerational impact on learning and development.
“Across the target population, children now have the space to express their views on matters concerning their lives and are empowered to intervene in participatory development processes. Evidence generated from the project area indicates the value of close community collaboration for rights realisation and good governance of children.”
Ramamurthy added: “While much is being achieved for children up to 14 years among the target population, there is a long way to go in transforming the lives of adolescent children aged 15 to 18, especially the girls. The future focus needs to be on empowering adolescent children, especially girls.”
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