• Millennium Development Goals: Where by the International Community has pledged to work towards a common end ensuring that human development reaches every one, everywhere.
• DAKAR framework for Action: It is a collective commitment to action. Where in Governments have an obligation to ensure that Education for All goals and targets are achieved and sustained. This is a responsibility that will be met most effectively through broad-based partnerships within countries, supported by cooperation with regional and international agencies and institutions.
• Roadmap for achieving the elimination of worst forms of Child Labour by 2016: Adopted at the Global Child Labour Conference in The Hague, the Netherlands, in May 2010 the road map delegates tangible responsibilities to various stake holders for combating worst forms of Child Labour and rechristening a world free of Child Labour.

Time is of the greatest essence here. While the first two tasks are to be achieved by 2015, the third one is to be accomplished by 2016. With every passing day, child hood, freedom, smile and opportunities are being robbed of millions of children. Till date we have not lived up to the promises that we had made to the Children. We have not kept pace with the Dakar Framework for Action. If all children were to complete primary education by 2015, they should have been enrolled in schools by now. The condition of girls is particularly deplorable as they are most vulnerable to economic, political, social and cultural exclusions. Such Hard to Reach Children have not been attended to and this is certainly a matter of grave concern.

I do not believe in blame games but at the same time I cannot tolerate the lackadaisical behavior of our Leaders and Governments that are far from achieving the International Objectives. In fact re-invigorated radical action is also required on behalf of the Civil Society for accomplishing the goals and leading by examples. Much more has to be done with immediate effect and we cannot afford to procrastinate any further, before it is too late and the History reflects us in shambles for not doing enough for the forthcoming generation.

2010 and the year preceding it were embroiled with the aftermath of economic recession clubbed with various crises like food crisis, fuel crisis, increased global warming, and insurgencies. In spite of these troubles, the Civil Society has played a significant role as watch dog, policy critique, innovator, and social entrepreneur, in every sphere of life. With every passing year casts an indelible impression by acquiring recognition and prominence in global policy dialogue.

As an activist of India’s oldest and biggest Anti Child Labour Movement Bachpan Bachao Aandolan, and working with Global March Against Child Labour and Global Campaign for Education, I definitely feel proud for the cause but at the same time I sincerely feel that we still have a lot of ground to cover for achieving our goals and objectives in restoring the condition for the deprived Children. The year 2010 was extremely successful for the Global Campaign for Education. We have been able to mobilize over 18 million children, during our One Goal Campaign. This has obliterated the erstwhile record that was registered in Guinness Book of World Records. One Goal is a Campaign seizing the power of football to ensure that Education for All is a lasting impact of 2010 FIFA World Cup and will help in making Education a reality for the millions of boys and girls who remain out of school.

The Global Campaign against Education (GCE) has played an important role towards the reform process of Fast Track Initiative. It is the only Global Financing Mechanism to mobilize funding for education in developing nations fostering high level group on education, adult literacy discourse for bringing about significant changes in favor of poor. In the nut shell GCE, remained the leading Civil Society Initiative in raising the profile for education on a Global Agenda.

On the International Forefront, 2010 has been a significant year towards global efforts in eliminating child labor thereby creating a solid platform for Global March Against Child Labor. The Global Child Labor Conference hosted by the Dutch government and organized by the International Labor Organization in May, which led to the universal acclamation of Roadmap 2016, re-established child labor elimination as a major priority for the global development agenda. Global March played an important role in drafting of the Roadmap and, with its members and partners, contributed significantly to the discussions in The Hague.

We focused our attention on the link between child labor and education through our support for the Global Campaign for Education’s Global Action Week, as well as the 1-Goal campaign during the FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa. The World Cup featured prominently in many related campaigning efforts, including the World Day Against Child Labor, and it was pleasing to note the significant response from Global March members and partners to these efforts. In September, an electronic petition was launched prior to the UN’s Millennium Development Goal Summit in New York calling for the mainstreaming of child labour elimination in worldwide efforts to achieve the MDGs. These and other related efforts were rewarded with a specific reference to child labor in the outcome declaration.

2011 will be an important year of opportunities and challenges for Global March, its members and partners. The global economic crisis has had a major impact on development budgets and will inevitably lead to increased incidence of child labor and the exploitation of vulnerable groups worldwide. Achieving our goals has become more important than ever before on the threshold of this New Year. Millions of children today and the future generations of tomorrow will benefit from a strong, determined, active and coherent Global March movement. We look forward with great anticipation to working together with you in 2011 to revitalize and strengthen our movement and redouble our efforts to protect vulnerable children and ensure that they can benefit from their fundamental rights.

Back home in India, 2010 witnessed unprecedented corruption and unabated scandals in the political circles which India is ashamed of. But it has also been a year of historic success for all those who fought the menace of illiteracy. Education has rechristened as a fundamental right vide a new legislation. Judiciary in Delhi has also set milestones through landmark judgments countering child labor, bonded labor and ever proliferating trafficking by thousands of unscrupulous placement agencies. These are some of those success stories where Bachpan Bachao Aandolan (BBA) has played a pivotal role as a leading civil society movement.

It is a matter of pride that BBA has been chosen as the only civil society organization by the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India to constitute and host the “All India Legal Aid Cell on Child Rights” under the aegis of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA). This cell would provide free legal aid to the victims of exploitation and shall also provide assistance in cases where child rights are violated. This gives tremendous opportunities to help the most victimized and marginalized sections of our society. It would also be noteworthy to acknowledge BBA’s success in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Earlier this year we promulgated multi stake holder partnerships with two major industries –i.e. mica and garment, where there have been serious violations of child rights through unlawful employment and exploitation of children as bonded laborers. After mutual consultation we jointly arrived at an action plan for addressing these issues in an effective manner.

The number of children liberated from the yoke of boned/child labor surpassing 78,500 has done us proud. The number of child friendly villages has also crossed 300. Once again, Kinsu Kumar, Amar Lal, Manan Ansari of Bal Ashram were declared toppers in their school for their record breaking academic performance. Our, activists have upheld the solemn pledge for promoting child rights with an un- deterring attitude.

BBA has accomplished three decades of undisputed leadership in promoting education and in its protest against child labor. This may not be a long period as far as crusade against social evil and crime against humanity is concerned, but for continued leadership it is not a very small stint either. The core strength lies in dynamic action and innovation coupled up with clarity on ideology, competence and relentless dedication of BBA’s activists and professionals.

Recent spate of attacks has not been able to inhibit our commitment and zeal to stand tall for the rights of the Child. The latest one was ransacking of our Central Office in Delhi where anti social elements broke into the premises and stole valuables & documents.

On behalf of Bachpan Bachao Aandolan, Global March Against Child Labor and Global Campaign for Education, I wish you a Happy New Year with a solemn pledge to work towards a World free of Child Labor.

I moved my wife and 5 yr old son away from the window but I never came to know what happened to that lone Sikh as they had all run away, however I can still feel the fear, the rage and helplessness in my spine. I knew that Indira Gandhi has been assassinated by her body gaurds, the previous day but fail to comprehend why the violent mob was after the life of this Sikh man?

We were in utter shock to the extent that we forgot Sardar Guru Charan’s family who was living next door. Suddenly my wife cried for them and together we rushed and knocked their door. No answer! We were really worried. Singh’s wife, her 2 teenager daughters and other younger ones, a son and a daughter were lurking under beds or locked themselves inside bathroom. Singh did not return from his accountant’s job at a wooden shop, 10 kms away. Only after a while we heard younger one’s cry. We were extremely cautious as the hooligans were pouring in on the streets. I convinced the family that they are in danger if stay in. So it is better to swap in to our room, one by one. They agreed. Obviously this was a high risk. Suddenly my friend Chakrapani, an avid Gandhian social worker, appeared and while being completely distressed and voiceless both of us felt that at least we are not alone.

Next challenge was Singh’s whereabouts and safety. Thanks to my other next door neighbor Verma who agreed to accompany to go with me on my bike in search of Singh. We opted for small narrow streets, which were comparably peaceful to reach the place. 3 hrs. later we returned empty-handed only to be relieved to know that Singh has safely reached home by paying a huge price. He had to sacrifice his beard and hair and had run for hours to just reach home. Amidst tears of joy and hurt, of hatred and relief, of fear and strength, amidst tears of life and death, all of huddled together, prayed and waited.
After a while curfew was imposed in Delhi.

……………………

Only a couple of days later, volunteers and rescue relief workers could go to the affected areas. We started by carrying out a march in our locality shouting slogans of national integrity and when the news of the extent of the carnage and genocide came.

While the law enforcement machinery was quiet, more than 10,000 men, women and children had been killed, 50,000 forced to flee from Delhi, businesses destroyed, lives ruined forever.

People needed help and Sikhs were scared even to go out and seek help. Most of our friends declined to go out of fear. My colleague, Swami Agnivesh and I decided to go on our own. We went to East Delhi and entered into some Sikh’s houses in Trilokpuri area where the parts of human bodies were still burning. All Sikh establishments and houses have been looted and put to fire.

The Indian social scenario still had the after-effects of the emergency era and a lot of people, especially young people like myself had started dreaming of social change on a variety of fronts (like child slavery in my case). Slowly but surely, within a week or so, several concerned and dedicated volunteers, most of them non-Sikhs, came out on the streets not only for relief work but to condemn the massacre. Hope and encouragement started coming. We found several help workers and volunteers were helping wounded and injured victims by taking them out, consoling and giving immediate medical assistance. We started gathering every evening at a Gandhian centre, Lajpat Bhawan in central Delhi. Tons of food material, cooked food, clothes and other medicines were collected and distributed as donation. This was the place when I first saw a young Sikh lawyer with a passion in his eyes to help and support the victims, encouraging them in their resolve to fight for justice. We came across each other and with a silent nod went along our respective ways.

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January, 2009 – BBA National Convention

My struggle and the fight against child slavery had grown into Bachpan Bachao Andolan and several other organizations on National and International fronts, and a lot of positive changes were there to be seen. Apart from the civil society and people’s awareness, The Judiciary had started taking an extremely proactive stand against child labour, especially in Delhi. My son Bhuwan Ribhu had become a lawyer himself and along with our family friend and sister Sunita had several high profile cases in the Delhi High Court against child trafficking and slavery. Sunita had requested a senior advocate to represent BBA in these cases and introduced us to him. Along with several high profile dignitaries and BBA elected colleagues from across the country, we had also requested him to attend the BBA Convention. It is here that I recognized and formally met Mr. H.S. Phoolka, the senior advocate, and the young man (now with a white beard and yet) with the glint in his eyes and the quiet passion and resolve to still fight for justice and human rights after all these years of struggle.

Indian justice system has failed the victims of atrocities time and again, and the murders of 1984 have never been brought to book. Committees and Commissions have come and gone. Recommendations filed away and forgotten, Victims and witnesses being questioned time and again over 25 years about what happened and what they saw, but one man was still fighting for the same cause of justice through this quarter of a century.

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July, 2010: Phoolka

For many, senior lawyer Mr. Phoolka’s announcement to withdraw from all the court cases pertaining to1984 anti-Sikh riots could be an internal matter of Sikh kaum (community) or religious orders, but not for all like me.

In the last 25 yrs, Phoolka’s name has become synonymous for the legal fight against perpetrators of 1984 riots and hope for such cases as the most honest and outstanding advocate who was fighting for the justice to the killed victims and their families selflessly, several of them are widows and orphans. Since the accused were amongst the most powerful individuals in political establishment such as Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and Late HKL Bhagat, it is like breaking a mountain. Phoolka became the source and inspiration for many witnesses to come forward as he, himself never gave up in spite of threats to your life and facing everyday allegations beside the most cumbersome legal and judicial hurdles.

The latest one has come from amongst the Sikh religion. The Chair of Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee has accused Phoolka of delaying the cases in the courts for monetary interests. What a painful and disgusting allegation against the man of utmost integrity! This is example of shameless politics in all institutions with massive power and money. One must not forget that some of the concrete results of his relentless struggle have come through Nanawati Commission’s outcome. The Prime Minister apologized for this carnage, the compensation for the families of dead victims was enhanced to Rs 10 lakh, Jagdish Tytler was forced to resign from the Union Cabinet and Sajjan Kumar could not contest the election and the cases against Sajjan Kumar were reopened on the basis of Commission’s report.

Mr. Phoolka is not only a proud Sikh but a proud human rights defender. He has earned unprecedented trust, love and respect not only from the Sikh carnage victims but also from the entire human rights community. His work for education in Punjab, his work on environment and suggesting that people bury the hatred by planting a tree in the memory of their losses, his work against child labour and bonded labour and on prevention of trafficking of girls, on the issue of missing children have brought him accolades from the entire world.

And that fact that he has been doing all this remarkable work without charging any fee makes the charges against him for money ridiculous. It is also important to know that, the attack on him came at a very critical time when the cases pending on various courts are at final stages. The politicians in power who are facing charges, including murders obviously did not leave any stone unturned to influence judiciary which is not un-common in our country. Now they have been successful in their designs in finding their friends in Sikh religious institutions.
What a shame!

The voice of integrity is seldom heard in the corridors of politics. And unfortunately, our politicians, wherever they might be holding positions, are never seen taking the side of truth out in the open – maybe everyone fears the ghosts in their own closets. But I was also astonished and surprised that no one from the legal fraternity or the human rights world has yet come forward and spoken in his defense.

Phoolka does not need any certificate of integrity or any credit for his services… but his critiques in Sikh community should also know that he might not earned money or fame for his work, but he has earned respect far and wide throughout the globe and such support is much wider and bigger than they could ever imagine.

People like Phoolka are not judged by anecdotes and allegations – they are judged by history.

Kailash Satyarthi

An update on August 15th

Surprisingly the Supreme Court of India has stayed ongoing proceedings against Sajjan Kumar in the lower court when the testimonies of witnesses were about to be completed in a day or two for framing the charges against Mr.Kumar. What a gift on India’s Independence Day to the man who has been facing charges of massacre of innocent people since 1984.

Seven of us were standing speechless in deep sorrow and tears; four were women who had come all the way from USA and UK to spot a place where exactly their dear ones- brothers and nephews took their last breath. The rest of the three were my brother and dear friend Mohammad Zia-Ul Haque, Sheikh Riyaz Mehmood and I. (I had never seen Zia bhai so lost and sad before. I will write a full blog on him later on, as it is a two decade history of our friendship.) It was exactly a month after the brutal massacre at the Ahmadiya mosque at Garhi Shahu, Lahore, Pakistan. This was one of the two Holy places where more than a thousand innocent worshipers were praying for peace and humanity on that fateful day, 28 May 2010. I was taken to the prayer hall, verandah, basement, and courtyard by Sheikh Riyaz who himself miraculously escaped death. He explained how six terrorists took over the mosque for about four hours. Marks of bullets and blood tell how barbaric we are in year 2010. At the same time another mosque in the city, at Model town was also attacked. About hundred people were assassinated in this heinous act of terror. Youth who tried to save elders were shot at point blank range or were hit by grenades.

Sheikh Riyaz who had become a full time volunteer at the mosque after giving up his lucrative business, along with other volunteers collected the dead remains of the people who had come to pray. I have no words to express my feelings to see hundreds of shoes lying in the corner of the big courtyard. They were smeared in blood which soon dried and gave a ghastly look to the strewn shoes. The relatives of the deceased kept on coming to take those shoes if they could recognize them.
Once again, a deadly act has been committed in the name of God. Once again two mercenaries blasted themselves to kill others claiming to be the saviors of Islam and once again the humanity has been ashamed. What madness! Which God will allow this to happen? And for how long?

As far as I know, Islam is based on the principles of humanity, love, compassion and peace. What else could be more shameful than those who abuse the great religion are still patronized, supported and even respected among certain sections of the society? Otherwise, how can these Islam-abusers, the terrorists live, eat, move and survive?

These outfits, tendencies and the mindset which breed terror are a crime against Allah- the God. They must not only be condemned, but challenged strongly. Their supporters must also be equally condemned. Such miscreants kill innocent people every other day, which are followed by condemnation in the media as a ritual. I spent four days in Lahore during this visit. I travelled in Pakistan widely in the past. I have had many organizational and personal friends for decades, as good as I have in India. But for the first time I saw that people are frightened and disillusioned. Of course, on the other hand I could observe more openness among educated people. At several occasions in international fora, I advocate for more financial support to Pakistani children for their education- good quality, scientific and rational education. I strongly believe and advocate that education is one of the most powerful weapons to fight fundamentalism and terrorism.

Pakistan is under fire. This beautiful nation with beautiful people has to flourish for the sake of well being of her people and for the peace and sustainability of others. Only a strong, sustainable and prosperous Pakistan will be good for its neighbors. But unfortunately, things are not as easy as we wish. A deep-rooted Mullah-ism or Maulvi domination is so intrinsically embedded in all sections of the society which is not easy to handle by any progressive Government. A large number of madrassas are engaged in spreading hatred and act as a building ground for terrorism. They are perhaps the most damaging obstacles in the making of a progressive democratic state. Unfortunately I don’t see many open voices against this. This silence is suicidal.

It could be a surprise for many that a particular community, Ahmadiya or Kadiyani, has been notified as non-Muslims for years. One will definitely be impressed by the progressive and open-minded attitude of this Muslim sect. They do not only preach education for all of their followers, particularly for girls and women, but practice it. Obviously, their literacy rate is more than 90%, which clearly reflects in their lifestyle. They not only preach international brotherhood, harmony and peace, but prove it in their deeds. Ahmadiyas had a long history of state repression and the attacks by the fundamentalist forces like the recent one. But, there is no hard evidence of any violence or retaliation by them.

I had a very good time with Zia-bhai and Zakia-aapa staying with their family with my wife, Sumedha. It was just personal. But an evening with Chowdhary Hameed Nasrullah Khan and his son Chaudhary Mustafa Khan was memorable. Chowdhary Hameed is the nephew and son-in-law of Sir Zafarullah Khan, a renowned scholar and statesman of our subcontinent. Chowdhary Hameed is not only a prominent leader of the Ahmadiya community but also very well respected in Paksitani society. I was quite impressed by the in-depth knowledge and understanding about religion, society and politics and concern for people that these two gentlemen had.

I really wish to see a strong and vibrant civil society in Pakistan- the civil society which has the courage to speak truth to power, a civil society which can lead the people to break their silence. A civil society which has moral power to condemn and challenge the reign of terror and help in building a strong democratic and progressive society with all the essence of culture and the values of humanity.

Today, BBA rescued 72 children from a leather factory situated in old Delhi. All these children were trafficked at different times from their native villages in Bihar on the enticement and lure of money and good education. Their parents are poor and illiterate; they were promised a good life for their children but eventually cheated.

BBA did a thorough investigation in NabiKarim area. Hundreds of illegal factories/units run inside the narrow, clumsy, claustrophobic streets. One can not even breathe properly. Walking easily is next to impossible. Children are kept in bondage on the second, third and fourth floor rooms. The situation is extremely appalling. At the time of rescue, several of the children had developed blisters and skin allergies because of sleeping along heaps of raw leather. Working and living in the narrow by-lanes of the walled city, the children braved scorching heat of temperatures close to 45’C in the absence of basic amenities. The children worked for more than 12-14 hours a day for seven days a week for wages as less as more than $ 4 a month. The rescue operation points out the fact that young children trafficked from other states are working in conditions of slavery in the capital with little or no wages at all.

BBA has rescued over 78,000 children in last 3 decades. Not as charity/humanitarian work but as an effort to restore right to freedom. All of the relevant laws like bonded labour Abolition Act, Child Labour Law, Inter migrant workman Act, JJ Act as well as criminal procedure courts on trafficking are used by BBA very carefully and systematically.

The Delhi High Court which has not only acknowledged this as an important action but has given strong directions to the Government of Delhi to conduct such raids periodically.

Raid and rescue operations are like hitting several targets with a single stone. First of all, the slave children get immediate freedom. Secondly, the prosecutions start against the employers for their criminal acts. This might result in 3 years imprisonment. They are arrested and 20,000 rupees are recovered as fine for employing each child. This money goes for the Education and rehabilitation of the rescued children. Thirdly, liberated children are entitled to for the rehabilitation under various government schemes. Additional 20000 rupees worth earning assets are given as compensation to the parents and free schooling for children. Fourthly, the very incident of liberation is a big psychological shock for the children which can create a sense of trust and belongingness for others in them because in most of the cases, it is the first time in their Life when they are helped by someone without any demand for return. Fifthly, horrendous experiences of these children help in tremendous awareness building in the village community. Sixthly, this creates hope and shows a way out to many other parents whose children are still trapped and bonded somewhere. Another important aspect is that just one single raid generates enormous fear and pressure among traffickers and slave masters in the surrounding area.

The raid is one of the most effective and time tested strategy and core competences of BBA. I extend my best wishes to the victim’s assistance team for grand success in their future endeavours for the change starts with them!

It’s exciting to learn about an extra ordinarily rewarding ‘Global Action Week’ (GAW). This was our 11th year in making a history of mass mobilization in favour of Education for All. I was upset due to cancellation of flights to Washington D.C and Berlin. In Washington, the Global March advocacy office had organized a round table of IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) labour Ministers on April 19th. I was one of the panellists in the discussion on “Policy Frameworks on Child Labour” to review national policy approaches to tackling child labour as a priority in their countries, presenting key government programmes and lessons learned in harmonising policy frameworks to ensure the mainstreaming of the issue across public service provision to reinforce sustainability.

I missed it but am pleased to know that it was a great success. The credit singularly goes to Dr. Sudhanshu Joshi, the director of Global March’s International Advocacy. His passion for the task at hand is unparalleled.

In hindsight, I don’t regret the cancelled trips because I was able to attend a few events of GAW in India. The first one was a round table organized by NCE India, Bachpan Bachao Andolan and Parliamentary forum on Education. Six eminent members of Lok Sabha along with some former child laborers and representatives from International non-governmental organizations participated. Former trafficked and bonded child laborer Kalu was the superstar of the evening. Pointblank in the presence of MPs, he said, “Thank you for making the new law on the Right to Education but all the laws remain empty words unless they are filled with resources and intent. If you don’t finance the education properly, the law will remain on paper.”

Among the Parliamentarians, Dr. Virendra Singh was very impressive. It came as a pleasant surprise for me when he told me that he has done his Doctorate on Child Labour and has read a lot about BBA and me during his Ph. D research. He was not only promising in his approach to tackle the issue of child labor but also took a pledge to work intensely on the issue of Education for the marginalized and hard to reach children of his constituency.

The other event was the classroom activity which was organized in an MCD school of capital. I was very impressed with the environment. The setting, paintings, teachers demeanour, playground – everything looked child friendly. I have known Mr. Dabbas as a teacher Union’s leader for quite some time now. His new avatar as a successful headmaster is inspiring.

The event was attended by an eminent personality, UNESCO’s country Director Mr. Arumugam Parsuraman. A very humble man, brimming with knowledge, he has passion for Education. Born in a poor family in Mauritius, he had to walk miles before he reached his school and even studied in the light of an open kerosene lamp. He has served as a professor, elected counsellor, parliament member, Union Minister and is now heading UNESCO in the biggest democracy of the world.

The third event was my interaction with child football stitchers. A group of former child labourers who worked in football manufacturing units came to campaign for Right to Education with the Parliament members. They stayed in the capital for a week and met several MPs at their official residences and lobbied for finances in education.

On the international front, more than 100 countries participated in GAW. The important highlights kept continuously buzzing in. The US coalition endorsed the Education for All Act introduced by Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY).

In Japan, more than 42,000 children showed yellow card to Japanese Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama symbolizes the lack of support to education by the Japanese government.

In Palestine, more than 1 million are expected to participate.

In Georgia, the country which has just recovered from Russian attacks, National sports competitions kicked off 1GOAL events this week in Tbilisi. Campaigners have teamed up with the Football Federation, the Parliamentary Committee for Sport and Culture, USAID, Save the children, UNICEF and World Vision to support 1GOAL.

I am sure there would be better and more encouraging news coming our way till the end of GAW. We already have our name in the Guinness Book of World Records for mobilizing the largest number of people at one time around one theme. I am quite hopeful to break our own record this year.

Today is an important day for the children, the global civil society and for me, as the President of Global Campaign for Education (GCE). We launched our annual mass mobilization action that is called ‘Global Action week’ (GAW). The campaign would go on till April 24th. More than 100 countries are participating for a specific objective demanding adequate finances for Education. We are anticipating more than 30 million children, women and men to participate in the campaign.

The countries across the globe have committed to ensure education for all by 2015, particularly the completion of primary education of all children, meaning, all children must be enrolled in school this year. Unfortunately, for most children class rooms are a distant reality. Schooling is not free everywhere. There are insufficient trained teachers, inadequate course books and damaged class rooms. An additional fund of $18 billion is immediately required. This can only be realized through the commitment made by rich countries to increase the aid for Education. The developing countries also need to enhance their budgets for Education.

The leaders have disappointed the children. They have brought them failure even before they could begin. Everyday, promises are broken, present and future is ruined. One can hardly find a concrete strategy and action plan to bring marginalized and hard to reach children into the classrooms. This means the child labourers, bonded and trafficked children, child domestic workers, orphans, migrants, refugees, indigenous groups, minorities, communities living in abject poverty, victims of HIV AIDS and children with disabilities will never be able to make it to school.

GCE is the largest civil society coalition with the unique constituents like children and their organizations, teachers unions, national and international NGOs with their wide network. We have been organizing action weeks in the month of April every year. We have a record in the Guinness Book of World Records in mobilizing the largest number of people at one time around one theme. We are quite hopeful to break our own record this year.

GCE has redefined the space and role of civil society. There is no exaggeration when we say that a large share of the credit goes to GCE in upholding the agenda of education in public and political domain. Despite the challenges mentioned above, there are reasons to be optimistic. About 50 million children joined school in last decade; overseas development assistance (ODA) for Education has increased fourfold from $ 1 billion to $ 4 billion annually. Several governments abolished school fee. More priority is given to teachers training and quality in learning outcomes.

A number of world leaders and celebrities have joined hands with GCE to raise a voice for the children of the world. With the cooperation and support of British Prime Minister, Mr. Gordon Brown and her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan, we had successfully launched the class of 2015 at UN in 2007. The class was joined by Mr. Brown, Queen Rania, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, King of Saudi Arabia Abdullah bin Aziz Al Saud, heads of UN agencies including UNESCO, President of FIFA Sepp Blatter as well as the CEOs of multinationals like Intel and CISCO. The class of 2015 has led to one of the most ambitious campaigns in the history and that is ‘1 Goal – Education for All” campaign. GCE, in association with FIFA and football world launched this extra-ordinary campaign in October.

This year’s Global Action week has been linked with 1 Goal. The main activities of the campaign would take place during the FIFA world cup. I would elaborate on it in the coming few days but let me finish by sharing that more than 1 billion people would be involved, directly or indirectly in this historical campaign.

Few months ago, a British charity organization got in touch with the communication department of Global March against Child Labour (GMACL). They wanted to meet me. On the day of the meeting, I reached a tad bit late. The Project Coordinator was already there, talking to two British gentlemen. Krishna Sharda is the director and the key person, I presumed. He was accompanied by an elderly gentleman, extremely polite in his demeanor. He introduced himself and said, “I am Amir Bhatia”. The name struck a bell but I could not really connect at that very moment. It was only towards the end of the conversation, when he mentioned how he and some of his fellow members from House of Lords in Britain would be interested in taking up the issue of child labour. I was dumbstruck for a while. He was Lord Bhatia.

Last month, I was invited by the British Teachers Union to address their annual convention. For one day, I was free. Lord Bhatia invited me for a cup of tea in the House of Lords. I had been to the House of Commons before but the majestic grandiose of the Lords library, buildings and restaurants is overwhelming. During our conversation, Lord Bhatia expressed his willingness to visit ‘Bal Ashram’ (a transit rehabilitation and education centre run by Bachpan Bachao Andolan in Virat Nagar, Rajasthan).

Within a month, he was on India. We fixed a convenient place to meet and travel together – a restaurant outside Delhi. I reached before Amir bhai and Krishna ji. We all had tea and were ready to leave. Suddenly, I saw the British Lord requesting the can driver to have tea/coffee and sincerely apologizing for his ‘big mistake’ of having forgotten to invite him before. His body language conveyed it was not a superficial gesture aimed at impressing us. He held his ears and genuinely asked for forgiveness.

We had a good day with children in the Ashram and received a warm welcome in some child friendly villages on our way. Lord’s politeness will always remain a lesson.

Today was an interesting day. Bachpan Bachao Andolan’s (BBA) persistent partner KidsRights invited some of their major funders to visit Bal Ashram and a nearby child friendly village. The temperature was more than 41 degrees celcius and our friends from abroad were sitting on a camel cart on the way to visit Mansath, a remote village situated in Alwar district of Rajasthan with a local population of 2000 people. BBA has been working to make this village child friendly. One of the 200 odd villages who have become, or are in the process of becoming child friendly.

About a thousand children, women and men came out to welcome the guests. The day was also the handing over ceremony of that village. Once the village achieves four key milestones of the process, the villagers commit to take the responsibility and ownership. The first step is to withdraw all children from exploitative conditions or any form of child labour which is a major obstacle in full time education, health and overall development of children. In the second phase, all children are enrolled in schools, particularly girls and those who belong to backward castes and communities. Thirdly, children and youth of the village are encouraged to form a Bal Panchayat or children’s assembly through the democratic election which includes manifestos by the candidate and the secret ballot. The fourth and the most critical step is to ensure that the official panchayat acknowledges the Bal Panchayat (Children’s Assembly) and agrees to work with them. This means that the official village leaders participate in meetings with child parliament to listen to their issues.

These milestones are achieved through sensitization of the village community and their participation. The issues of Child labour elimination, Education for all children, empowerment and participation of children and village community for the protection of child rights, inculcation of democratic values among children and youth and claiming a role in the village development, interaction and interfacing between the ordinary village children with authorities, setting the budget priority of the village in favour of children and exercising the moral authority for quick decisions by the powerful village panchayat are addressed simultaneously.

Mostly, in all child friendly villages, separate toilets for girls were absent. Even if there were any, they were used by teachers. This seemingly simple thing resulted in massive school drop out. There were issues related to clean drinking water, roads, boundary walls for safety, playgrounds, libraries, reading material, adequate classrooms, teacher absentism and corruption in mid day meal. The Bal Panchayat leaders raise issues before the village Panchayat and insist to resolve them on the spot. Such meetings take place regularly.

The BBA also facilitates the formation of two important committees. One is youth committee and other is the women’s committee through identifying, sensitizing and involving youth and women to make this process successful. The concrete results are achieved in approximately two years time. Once the period is over, the BBA activists officially handover the village to its inhabitants.

The elected head of the sub district (people’s representative), the village Panchayat head and other elected members, head misters, community leaders are present along with the entire community.

Guests were thrilled by the special treatment given to them by the people. Rajasthan is known for its warmth and hospitality. The villagers tied the turbans to show their regards. The Dutch in turbans said, “We feel like kings and queens today.” Not only that, they were taken to a small house and offered lunch Everybody was made to sit on the floor and eat ‘Dal Bhaati churma’ (a typical Rajasthani dish made of boiled lentils, wheat, gram flour and ghee).

Later in the day, the guests enjoyed their evening dancing and singing on the latest Bollywood tunes in the Ashram.

Thanks to Marc Dullart, the soul behind KidsRights !!

Yesterday was a long hectic day. On a normal day, I leave bed around 8 in the morning with at least two cups of tea and definitely two or more newspapers. At 8 am today, I had my first tea with Mr. Madhav Kumar Nepal, the Prime Minister of Nepal. A very open, receptive and if I could quite candidly say, a nice man. He was with us at the launch of Nepal March for Education in September 2009. I was impressed with his commitment for the education reforms in his country. Today, I had an opportunity to discuss with him education and child labour again. I requested him to immediately convene a meeting of ministers of Labour, Social justice, Health, Child and Women development, Finance and Home along with the Minister of Education and set up an inter ministerial committee. I tried to convince him that the education goals can never be achieved, and domestic expenditure and foreign funding in this regard can never be optimally utilised unless such a coordination mechanism is set.

Nepal is a place where more than 40% of children are not in schools but somewhere in agriculture farms, small factories, restaurants and domestic services. This country is the hub of human trafficking, particularly children. I also reminded him of the promise made by Nepalese Government during the March to constitute a National Commission on Child Labour. The proof of his sincerity and commitment came when he asked the Union Minister of Education to fix a meeting with us and talk about the details of the proposal. The meeting with the Education Minister Sarvendra Shukla with his top aids took place in next few hours. The meeting ended with a concrete commitment by the Minister to set up an inter-ministerial dialogue immediately and to constitute a multi stakeholder steering committee on education as soon as possible. He promised me to convey the outcome of discussion to the Prime Minister within a day and initiate the process. I also had good meetings with National Leader and three-time Prime Minister Mr. Sher Bahadur Deuba as well as with the Minister Counsellor of Embassy of Denmark in Nepal. The Danes are the principle donor for the education sector funding for Nepal.

I also participated in very important meetings of key NGOs and other stakeholders on the follow up of Nepal March for Education. There were several decisions which were made to intensify grassroot mass mobilization and policy intervention. The task force has been formed to steer the process. Besides these, I got a chance to meet the leaders of teachers unions, Global Campaign for Education members, leaders of Rugmark Foundation in Nepal and some Global March partners independently.

The entire programme was facilitated by Global March partners – Dilli Chaudhary, a noted tharu tribal leader and human rights activist from base Nepal, Chandra Chaudhary, General secretary of BBA, Nepal and Bhuwan Ribhu National Secretary of BBA, India along with others.

Yesterday when I was celebrating the enforcement of Right to Education Act with my friends, a shameful incident took place in my city, New Delhi, the capital of India. An 11 year old tribal girl Shalini was compelled to jump from the roof of her master’s home to get rid of the extreme physical and mental torture as well as sexual abuse. Shalini was trafficked to Delhi from Assam – a northeastern state in India through a placement agency (private employment groups) to work as a domestic labour. Hundreds of such placement agencies run illegally on the patronage of police and other law enforcement agencies who traffic thousands of children every month.

The girl does not understand Hindi, the language spoken by her masters. She worked and lived like a tethered animal, or even worse, I believe. When she jumped on that fateful day, it was a desperate attempt to escape the indignities of her life. She fell on the street, passersby were kind enough to take her to a hospital. Somehow she managed to survive. Today, she spoke to a Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA for short, Save the Childhood Movement in English) activist who is also an Assamese. She complained, “Chota sahab (Master’s son) is a bad guy. I ran to save myself from him. I always cried and begged for mercy but there was nobody to listen or help.” BBA is working rigorously for a legal action against the perpetrators.

This reminds me of another incident that happened in recent past. A couple of weeks ago, Suchitra, a pregnant 16-year-old girl was sitting in my office. As a human being, my conscience made it impossible for me to face her. In Indian society, nothing could be a bigger curse, agony and humiliation than being raped and having a child out of wedlock at such a young age. It was Archana, a very dedicated young lady activist from my organisation who consoled her and encouraged to speak the truth. Though a police case against the culprit was registered after tireless efforts, he has been released on bail. The entire system is incapable of ensuring justice to poor. The most unfortunate thing is that such incidents keep happening in spite of the plethora of laws, which criminalise domestic child labour, bonded labour and trafficking in our country.

These hidden forms of servitude pose as the biggest challenges in the enforcement of the law on the Right to Education. Until and unless every single child is in school receiving her right to a free and quality education, we cannot truly enforce our right to education.