Preparations for Universal Children's Day

20 November is Universal Children’s Day, which marks the day of the United Nations’ declarations and conventions securing the rights of children. Here at Arogya Agam that means we will celebrate the rights of children but more crucially we will bring into focus where these rights are not secured. Last year we concentrated on sexual violence against children and this year we will bring attention to under-age marriages.

On Sunday 16 November we will hold our campaign and when I say our and we, I really mean the children who are at the forefront of preparing and conducting the campaign.

Saturday 1 November the leaders of the children groups met at Arogya Agam to discuss how to prepare for the day. 25 young people joined and were eager to share their thoughts and ideas.

To start the day off some of the young people had prepared presentations on the children programme’s work more generally. This included HIV related projects, work with tribal children such as securing them education and the prevention of under-age marriages. This was partly to create social awareness about issues, which might not affect the children themselves, but also to establish a foundation for generating suitable campaigns and rights-based advocacy.

The debate on under-age marriage continued as it was decided that this issue would be the focus of this year’s Universal Children’s Day. The young people shared some very important ideas and difficulties related to the prevention of under-age marriage. One point that came out of the discussion was that because of the societal pressure for having a honorable daughter under-age marriages are arranged. The honour of the family lies heavily on the shoulders of the daughter. When parents fear that their daughter might be having a love affair or is too interested in boys, parents feel a pressure to ‘fix’ this without dishonouring the family name. This can be ‘fixed’ by arranging the daughter’s marriage even if this is only 14 years old. This will also mean that the girl drops out of school and most probably, she will marry a man aged at least 18. The fear of love affairs is certainly one of the reasons that under-age marriages are arranged. Another point that was brought up was the importance of training and bringing awareness of these issues to marriage hall owners and the people creating the wedding invitations. In case we are not aware of an under-age marriage being arranged they certainly will be and they can then take contact to Arogya Agam. This, however, is not always possible because the family might hold the ceremony in private, claiming they are together for another purpose. Moreover, many marriages are not registered which makes it very difficult to monitor and prevent. At present a lot of awareness has been spread but under-age marriages are still occurring. A change in attitude takes a long time, often decades, and even though we see improvement this work is still very important.

On 16 November we will be holding a meeting for the public. The children will present the issues and facilitate the debate. During the intervals the children have also prepared a culture programme, including dances and dramas. Thanambikkai (meaning self-confidence) Children Federation will be launched, presenting the policies and bye-laws created by the children and asking for the support of the community in securing the rights of children.

We are looking forward to this day of debate and hopeful that it will foster a change in the mentality and generate action in the prevention of under-age marriages.