April 28th, 2010 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 [...]
25th April 2010 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 [...]
19th April, 2010 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 [...]
13th April 2010 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 [...]
9th April 2010 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 [...]
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.
April 2, 2010 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 [...]
1 April 2010 For someone like me who always dreamt of a world where all children are in school, enjoying education and growing as responsible citizens will never be satisfied with piece meal. However, today is a very important day in my Life. Today is the day when millions of children in my country, get [...]