The Child Rights Resource Centres are a space for children from the poorest backgrounds to come together and engage with child-friendly facilitators around activities that interest them. The centre has some basic resources like publications, games, stationery, art & craft resources that help the children express themselves. Children are encouraged to draw, read, write, perform, play, express themselves in ways that is special for each child. Most children arriving at our centres are school drop-outs, never been to school or working children.
Most of these children are from socio-economically distressed families, and would have faced trauma from varied incidents in their lives. Most working children prefer to listen to story-telling or engage in play or sing together with the facilitator. The facilitator engages with each of these children on a one-to-one basis, especially when they seem to be disturbed. Not many of these children like school and have expressed their aversion for engaging with teachers. Due to the circumstances in their own lives, children are not able to access the centre regularly. However, the centre facilitators attempt to reach out to them regularly through home visits. Currently, we have child rights resource centres in four zones of Bhopal Municipal Corporation.
The Resource Centres also host other processes including:
- Counselling – for young people, women and daily wagers
- Roohi Library – a free library for all
- Hunar – Skills training & production unit
- Meetings, sessions and workshops
- Communication hub for young people