A new light for Purulia children

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Purulia (West Bengal): Not long ago, did Kalpana spend toiling all her time at the kitchens of various houses in Purulia district in West Bengal. Today, the 12-year-old girl is a columnist of a quarterly Bengali newsletter. And that is the uniqueness of this simple Bengali newsletter, 'Notun Aalo'.

'Notun Aalo' (translated as new light in English) is a project started by school kids from diverse backgrounds, who like Kalpana have been employed as child labourers. Set up as an initiative of the school set up by the State Labour department under National Child Labour Project, the newsletter aims to lend a voice to all those underprivileged children who have even been denied their basic rights till a few days ago.

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The first issue of 'Notun Aalo' is under print and the children are the proud owners of the product, in which they write their news, pen their opinions and thoughts and even draw drawings. Even the name, Notun Aalo, was chosen by the kids themselves. Though technical aspects such as design and printing of the newsletter are handled by a few adults, the entire editorial responsibility rests with the children.

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But, have no doubts about the editorial skill sets of these underprivileged children. For, each of them are have undergone special training on various aspects including children rights, leadership qualities, communication skill, and also on how to write a report on their achievements and activities or issues related to child rights for newspapers or to the authority and stake holders.

''As the students of NCLP schools (National Child Labour Project) in Purulia mostly belong to the most backward sections of the society, their empowerment and awareness through education is instrumental to bring positive changes against social issues such as child labour, child marriage, child migration, drop-out etc. says Prosenjit Kundu, Assistant Labour Commissioner, Purulia.

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The newsletter initiative is a part of the main project called 'child activists initiative'. The project was conceptualised and started jointly by UNICEF and District National Child Labour Project Society of Purulia.

''Along with Kalpana, there a lot more like Ruksana, who propagates strongly on the issue of child labour or Rekha who resisted her own 'child marriage'. All these children now have a platform to voice their concern,'' he explains.

''Though the district-wide initiative is a smaller one compared to those in the urban context, the newsletter project is very close to the hearts of these children, who had never been to school for a long time,'' says Prosenjit.

The current editorial board of the newsletter constitutes a team of 10 children. But, about hundreds of students from 46 NCLP Schools across all the 20 blocks and 3 municipalities of Purulia District have already been trained for this project.

With the effective cooperation of all the members of the local civic bodies, the project has yielded some good results, proclaims Prosenjit. It was the Sabhadipati (chief of Zilla Parisad) of Kalpana's district who was instrumental for such a change in her life. And now, inspired by that Kalpana too wants to be a Sabhadipati and help more children like her.

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