introductionHimalayan Human Rights Monitors (HimRights) is a non-governmental, non-partisan, non-profit organization committed to defending the rights of poor, marginalized and socially excluded communities and individuals, with special focus on women, children and youth.
Summary
Second Girl Child National Consultation 2010 was organized to create a platform for girls to identify and prioritize their issues in present context and develop strategies for addressing those issues. Furthermore, the program was also aimed at gaining an understanding of their perspectives on participation in various levels, eg. family, school, community and policy-making level.
There were 80 participants from 32 districts of the country including all development regions. They were selected from following categories:
Child Marriage
Badi girls
Mentally Challenged children
Mine Victim
Orphaned/ guardianless
Differently abled children
Freed Kamlari
Cabin Restaurant workers
Victims of Sexual Violence
Hill/Terai Dalit
Circus Returnee
Substance Abuse
Children from Slums
HIV/AIDS Affected
Children in conflict with law
Janajati
Girl Mothers
Indigenous Minority
Muslim community
Conflict affected children
Victims of Trafficking
Due to rich diversity of participants, varieties of issues related to girl child were brought into a single platform to give their voice at larger level.
It was a four-day tight program with 12 hours of scheduled programs and additional assignments. In the first day, activities were carried out to identify issues of girl child. Individual issues were collected from all participants through participatory methods. Individual issues were then narrowed down by Snowballing method to identify major issues. On second day, the issues identified by them were prioritized on the basis of its severity, and level of impact on girl child. Similarly, a session on participation was conducted to understand their participation at different levels. In the third day, the participants developed strategies to address prioritized issues. They made recommendations to the family, community, organizations, and state. The recommendations to the State were presented directly to the CA members. An interaction session was held between the participants and Members of Constituent Assembly (also Members of different Committees of CA and Women Caucus in CA). In this session, participants directly put their issues and queries to the CA members and they were very happy to get an opportunity to interact with them. During the interaction, they felt that their voices were heard at the highest level. CA members also made commitments to address those issues to incorporate them in the draft Constitution and national policies. The entire process was very lively and participatory; it proved to be a dynamic platform for empowering girl child from diverse communities.
The Kathmandu Declaration 2010 was developed based on strategies developed by the participants themselves.
The concluding ceremony was conducted by the participants themselves. The Kathmandu Declaration was presented in the presence of Government and other stakeholders. They made both verbal and written commitment to address these issues and stressed to bring them into implementation.
Sexual abuse and harassment was one of the most prioritized issues both in 2007 and 2010, which indicates this issue is increasingly a major problem faced by the girl child. This space has been able to bring out the nuances of this problem than before from eve teasing to rape and murder. Freedom, child marriage, discrimination, child labor, different abled children, and conflict affected children are the other issues that are incorporated in Kathmandu Declaration 2010.
Few of the participants were from the Girl Child National Consultation 2007. They shared the impact it had made on them and their societies. Based on in-depth interviews and psychosocial counseling many participants felt very empowered by this program. We assume these participants will be able to make larger impact not only for themselves but in their societies at larger in addition to the follow-up activities of collaborating partners. The successful implementation of the first and second Girl Child National Consultation has created a need for activities at national level with girls only and expectation for the third girl Child national Consultation by the participants and stakeholders.
One of the participants, Biru Dhyawa from Bara, a girl mother who was crying the first day because she missed her children said, “I wish I could stay a little longer. After coming here, I have learnt so many things. I have also gained confidence to talk. I have gained positive supportive empowerment.” Participants expressed that they have learned about various problems faced by girl child and how they could resolve them. They realized they gained positive energy from the program and every participant made commitment to work on issues upon return from the program and make a difference for themselves and other girls.
