PACT: Building Bridges, Transforming lives A report on how Aangan’s Parents and Children Against Trafcking and Harm (PACT) Program is making communites safer for children and altering the lives of the women who partcipate | June 2016 By Devika Mahadevan With invaluable input and support from Deepika Khatri Contents A. Overview 3 B. Introducton to the PACT Program 7 a. The natonal context b. The Structure and Reach of PACT 8 C. Examining Impact: How PACT is making neighbourhoods safer for children a. Creatng safe spaces: Individual and Collectve agency 14 b. Formal and informal engagements for child protecton 20 c. Family enttlements and social security key for child 27 protecton 32 Conclusion Table 1 11 PACT Impact Table 2 Accessing government schemes for increased protecton 29 A. Overview A vast insttutonal and legal framework has been set up to protect children in our country, but the statstcs of crimes against children remain grim. To make maters worse, not only are the majority of adults and children unaware of their rights and the protectons they can seek under the law, they also view the State with suspicion and fear. This exacerbates their sense of isolaton and puts children in more danger of being harmed. There is a critcal need for grassroots initatves to empower children and communites to build mechanisms to overcome their isolaton and powerlessness. This paper describes the Parents and Children Against Trafcking and Harm (PACT) program run by Aangan for the last two years. Working in marginalised communites where children are endangered by the high occurrence and risk of trafcking, early marriage, hazardous work or other exploitaton, Aangan trains cohorts of local women to become community child protecton volunteers who proactvely promote their children’s safety. | A. Overview 3 Since 2002, Aangan has worked to strengthen India’s child protecton systems focusing on safety and the preventon of harm. What started out as support to traumatsed children who had been trafcked, abandoned, run away, harmed or in confict with the law and were now confned in state-run rescue and shelter homes, led to a deep engagement with the complex factors that lead to child harm and an urgent concern for its preventon. In 2009, Aangan expanded its work to include a preventatve grassroots approach that identfed and supported adolescent girls and boys living in situatons of grave risk in urban slums, and tll date 60,000 young girls and boys have partcipated in Aangan’s Shakt and Chauraha safety networks. Two years ago, the PACT program emerged out of Aangan’s realizaton that for the work of preventon to be both transformatve and sustainable it needed to include parents, families and community in meaningful ways. Fueled by the interest and insistence of mothers whose children were part of Aangan youth groups that they should also be included in the organisaton’s work, Aangan devised a program to mobilise and train these groups of mothers into becoming ‘barefoot’ child protecton workers. Currently Aangan simultaneously focuses on protectng children in vulnerable communites from serious harm as well as supportng and enabling the recovery of children who have already sufered serious harm. How PACT works Drawing upon the success of in-house curriculum developed for Shakt and Chauraha safety networks where adolescent girls and boys meet to learn about, discuss and address child protecton issues, the PACT program also has a comprehensive and specifcally tailored weekly curriculum developed by Aangan. Conducted over the course of a year, it aims to do several things simultaneously. It introduces a group of women to the various laws, schemes, agencies and programs established by the central and state government to protect children. It helps the group to use its knowledge to identfy and employ informal and formal strategies to protect vulnerable children in their community. Finally, it creates a collectve identty and platorm for them to negotate on behalf of children both within their communites and for their communites with child protecton agencies and social welfare departments. | A. Overview 4 In each community where Aangan works, a group of 8-12 women is brought together with the explicit aim of keeping children safe in their communites. As they partcipate in an intensive year-long training, their lives and the lives of their communites are slowly transformed. While they are closely guided and supported through the year by an Aangan social worker, their sense of personal and collectve agency steadily grows. Small successes, such as enrolling a child in school, are thrilling for the group and breed confdence and larger successes, such as preventng a child marriage. The women’s motvatons as well as their thoughts and feelings as members of the group are discussed in the paper. Across the board, PACT members, describing their partcipaton in this program said, “Hum jagruk hue, aur humne logon ko jagruk kiya (We became aware and in turn have made others so).” This increased awareness and agency is the frst step in Small successes, such altering the way the PACT group interacts with the state. A as enrolling a child in core component of the PACT training is regular meetngs with school, are thrilling government functonaries. When ofcials begin to respond to for the group and PACT’s concerns and requests for assistance, and in turn, seek the group’s help in solving individual cases or partcipatng breed confdence in various public work campaigns, stereotypes are broken on and larger successes, both sides. Communites begin to see the state working for the such as preventng a beneft of the group, at the behest of the group, and both the child marriage. ofcials and the community see each other as a reliable partner in a larger and joint project of child and family protecton. Much of PACT’s community work does not immediately appear to be child protecton work focusing as it does on bringing large numbers of previously marginalised and isolated families into the mainstream. A great deal of tme and efort is spent on identfying and linking families to schemes that strengthen their long-term economic and fnancial positons. Everywhere, mothers reiterated their belief that child safety is deeply embedded in overall social security. So while all groups across the board have worked intensely on enrolling and keeping kids in school, they are equally concerned with making sure families have bank accounts and health insurance. It is important to note that unlike the law which is punitve and supposedly | A. Overview 5 The experience of the PACT program over the past two years clearly demonstrates the importance of making investments at the grassroots to train poor women to be alert and aware ‘barefoot child protecton workers.’ prohibitve in nature, only getng involved when rights have been violated, PACT’s focus on social security is a proactve step that fundamentally believes that families are doing the best for their children and therefore supports parents to build the frm foundatons they need to make healthy choices. In the past two years, nearly 80,000 adults and children were linked to 26 diferent government social protecton schemes. PACT groups have overcome myriad obstacles to make their neighbourhoods safer for children and it is remarkable how much a small group of enthusiastc and empowered women have been able to achieve in so short a tme. The experience of the PACT program over the past two years clearly demonstrates the importance of making investments at the grassroots to train poor women to be alert and aware ‘barefoot child protecton workers.’ These groups become crucial links between the state and the poor communites they represent. | A. Overview 6 B. Introducton to the PACT Program a. The natonal context The situaton for children in India is deplorable. Every year, one lakh children go missing1 and more than a million children are trafcked for prosttuton.2 Of the three million sex workers in the country, nearly 40% are below eighteen.3 There are 5.8 million child labourers in India - the highest in absolute terms in South Asia.4 Almost half of all girls in the country are married before they are eighteen.5 1 Ministry of Home Afairs, 2014, as shared in Parliament 2 U.S. Department of State (2013), ‘Human Rights Reports: India’, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour htp://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2013/sca/220392.htm 3 Status of Children in 14-18 years. Review of Policy, Program and Legislatve Framework. 2012-13. GOI and NCPCR. Pg 29. Cited from India Country Report: To Prevent and Combat Trafcking and Sexual Exploitaton of Children and Women, World Congress III Against Sexual Exploitaton of Women and Adolescents (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, 2008) 4 ILO and UCW, 2015, ‘Measuring children’s work in South Asia: Perspectves from Natonal Household Surveys’ 5 UNICEF State of the World’s Children, 2013 - data from UNICEF Multple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) htp://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2013/sca/220392.htm htp://www.icrw.org/child-marriage-facts-and-fgures | B. Introducton to the PACT Program 7 India ratfed the UN Conventon on the Rights of the Child in 1992. Currently there are numerous domestc laws, policies and schemes that govern child protecton such as the Juvenile Justce (Care and Protecton) Act (2015), the Prohibiton of Child Marriage Act (2006), Immoral Trafc Preventon Act (1986), the Protecton of Children from Sexual Ofences Act (2012), the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Educaton Act (2009), Child Labour (Prohibiton and Regulaton) Amendment Act (2016). In 2009, to bring together multple schemes under one comprehensive child protecton program, the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) adopted the Integrated Child Protecton Scheme (ICPS) to protect children living in difcult circumstances. The scheme envisions Child Protecton Societes/Units at the regional, state, district, block and village level who are tasked with the implementaton of child protecton laws and schemes and most importantly the coordinaton of the various functonaries and authorites such as Child Welfare Commitees, police protecton ofcials and insttutonal staf. Currently there are about 10,000 functonaries such as Probaton Ofcers, Case Workers, Superintendents, Counsellors, administratve and feld staf for a populaton of 170 million children in need of care and protecton, a rato of 1: 17000.6 Clearly, there is much that needs to achieved before children are safe in this country. b. The Structure and Reach of PACT Thus far, Aangan has worked in forty locatons in six states and over the next three years plan to expand this number to seventy- fve. Their work is in the states of Bihar, Odisha, Maharashtra, Utar Pradesh, West Bengal and Rajasthan. The organisaton identfes and works with vulnerable communites that live along railway tracks, highways and dumping grounds, and in rural hamlets and illegal slums that have poor or no access to water, electricity, sanitaton or any basic amenites. These communites 6 Status of Children in 14-18 years. Review of Policy, Program and Legislatve Framework. 2012-13. GOI and NCPCR. pg. 71 | B. Introducton to the PACT Program 8 are predominantly scheduled castes and tribes, daily wage labourers, migrants and extremely poor and marginalised. These locatons have been chosen based on the areas the central government has selected to focus its Backward Region’s Grant Fund, afer consultaton with state ofcials and on reviewing natonal and internatonal data on child marriage, trafcking, hazardous work and violence and abuse. By mid 2016, 509 PACT members had been trained and worked with around 25,000 families, impactng over 50,000 children (Aangan Impact Report 2015-16). The structure of the program is simple. In the frst year, a group of 5-6 women get together to learn about how to keep their children safe. They are each responsible for about ffy to sixty households and spend a couple of hours a day visitng the families that they have chosen to support. In the second year, they are joined by another 5-6 women. Every week for a year, the group, led by an Aangan community worker, is introduced to various schemes, laws and policies that aim to protect children and their families from harm. They meet with a range of authorites that oversee these schemes and programs. A comprehensive curriculum developed by Aangan covers a range of topics such as how to create a protectve environment, the right to educaton, community mapping and surveys, communicaton and listening skills, and creatng linkages with the state. The idea is for the women to develop skills to proactvely support children in their communites. Most groups usually decide to frst work on ensuring that the maximum number of children go to school. The next secton discusses the complex formal and informal negotatons involved in this seemingly straightorward and noncontroversial task. Through the year, local residents are invited to monthly ‘Parent’s Circles.’ At these informaton-sharing meetngs, PACT group members discuss what they have learnt with the larger group or invite a local NGO representatve to introduce their work or invite a state functonary such as the local constable, a Child Protecton Ofcer, or an ICDS (Anganwadi) supervisor, among many others, to talk about the various schemes available for vulnerable children and their families. For many who atend, | B. Introducton to the PACT Program 9 this is usually the frst tme they become aware of a partcular program being run in the community or a government scheme meant the beneft them, and certainly this is the frst tme they are able to interact with a government ofcial in such an informal manner. PACT subsequently holds ‘Community Help Desks’ where parents are assisted to fll out the necessary paperwork to beneft from the programs and schemes discussed at the Parent’s Circles. Over the last two years, over 10,000 people have atended nearly 1500 Parents Circles and Community Help Desks. Invitng local and state representatves to atend Parent Circles and Community Help Desks requires that the group invests considerable tme in getng to know which department is in charge of what aspect of child protecton and meetng ofcials several tmes. Initally hesitant and scared to interact with these authorites, the group practces how they will approach various departments and what they will say. Early successes, such as when a partcular ofcial responds positvely (of which there are many examples presented in the next secton) go a long way towards building the group’s confdence. It is commendable to note that while Aangan coordinators accompany the group to their frst few meetngs, in the frst year alone groups across the country had formed independent relatonships with 414 ofcials. By the end of the next year, they had connected with another 109 ofcials. This list includes the District Child Protecton Unit (DCPUs), the police, Child Welfare Commitee ofcials, Ant- Human Trafcking Units, health and labour ofcials, Educaton Ofcers and Child Marriage Prohibiton Ofcers. How this transforms the way poor communites see the state and, in partcular, how they start responding to PACT mothers, is examined later. As the training progresses, each woman becomes increasingly able to identfy children at risk. They bring back cases to the group, and, along with their Aangan coordinator, discuss how to address each individual problem. Depending on the nature of the issue (a child who has dropped out of school and is all alone at home or a case of child marriage) they work with families to address specifc vulnerabilites, frst trying to address a problem | B. Introducton to the PACT Program 10