Children’s Parliament Stresses Education Importent
A group of children from A.G. Pudur village at Sathyamangalam took out a rally and dharna demanding support from their parents in matters relating to education. This follows incidents of parents stopping their children from attending the children’s knowledge centres set up by non-Governmental organisations in the village.
According to a release from Rights, Education and Development (READ) Centre, an NGO in Erode, rallies were taken out in several villages in the district to stress the importance of education. The NGO had organised Children’s Parliaments in each of these villages, with an aim of empowering the children to take decisions for themselves and make them self-reliant. Every week, the children conduct meetings in which various issues concerning children are discussed. These issues include child labour, school drop out rate, and even the relevance of the midday meal scheme in the education system.
The parliament had recently decided that the children who dropped out of school should continue their studies at the Children’s Knowledge Centres and that more rallies would be conducted to create awareness among the parents. A majority of children belonged to the Arunthatiyar community, which was economically backward.
