“Isn’t everything we learn in life, a life skill?,” questioned my best friend as I explained to him my Fellowship project. I didn’t have an answer. My project as part of the AIF Clinton Fellowship was to be able to streamline, compile and re-organise a Life Skills Curriculum for the "Balsena program" at my host organisation Shaishav, a child rights organisation. Over the course of the fellowship, I’ve reflected on the question “What are life skills?” through much thought, research, and deliberation and developed my own understanding of the same.

Life Skills may be viewed as a range of psycho-social and cognitive abilities that equip children to make informed decisions and choices, manage their emotional well-being and communicate effectively.These can be interpreted in many ways. It can consist of teaching children a functional hard skill such as riding the cycle or changing the light bulb or it can mean a vocational skill that teaches the children how to gain skills required to excel at a particular job. Life skills education represents a shift in educational focus from information to methodologies. Children are empowered with skills rather than knowledge, that can help them to function and make sound personal choices in areas of education, health, careers, and social interaction.

Life skills, as part of Shaishav’s "Balsena Program", aims to develop the internal capacities and behaviours of the children to make them responsible, socially aware and active citizens of the society. By inculcating values such as equality, friendship, religious tolerance amongst others through the engagement of children in activities, the children are encouraged to actively make decisions about matters in their own lives and surroundings. Ultimately, these communities of children, who are the future of India, shall learn to be change-makers in their communities and therefore, the country. Thus, it’s the “children leading change” at Shaishav.

The necessity for the revitalisation of the content was urgent. The needs of the children have changed in the slums of Kumbharwada, and Shaishav was trying to deal with that. With everyone having or wanting 4G enabled phones, there was an urgent requirement to develop new content that was engaging, fun and contextually relevant. It needed to get the children out of their homes in the evening, away from the pull of television sets and mobile phones. So what did the children really want?

Three big events and a lot of planning helped bring in clarity and work in that direction. With patience and an uncanny ability to handle my anxiety, incessant questioning and huge doses of skepticism, my colleagues pushed me to try my hand at designing the activities, training the trainers, facilitation and conducting reflective feedback sessions. As a team, we brainstormed, piloted and assessed what activities and games worked and didn’t work with the children.

Slowly but surely, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, it all started to come together. I learned to take failure in my stride, forge through uncertainty and learned how to test and tweak the activities.

Working on this project taught me the importance of contextualisation of content to the demographic. All the activities found from the various resources must be customised and contextualised for the participants at all times. That is the true indicator of its efficacy and relevance. Change is a slow process but it begins now, in the everydayness of our thought process.

Life skills thus are the means to approach life through our thinking. This is what I’d tell my friend in response to his question.

(*A <a href="https://aif.org/the-year-that-was-learning-about-life-skills/">previous version</a> of this article was originally published on August 2nd, 2018, by the American India Foundation)

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL) 
&nbsp;

Life Skills may be viewed as a range of psycho-social and cognitive abilities that equip children to make informed decisions and choices, manage their emotional well-being and communicate effectively.These can be interpreted in many ways.

“Isn’t everything we learn in life, a life skill?,” questioned my best friend as I explained to him my Fellowship project. I didn’t have an answer. My project as part of the AIF Clinton Fellowship was to be able to streamline, compile and re-organise a Life Skills Curriculum for the "Balsena program" at my host organisation Shaishav, a child rights organisation. Over the course of the fellowship, I’ve reflected on the question “What are life skills?” through much thought, research, and deliberation and developed my own understanding of the same. Life Skills may be viewed as a range of psycho-social and cognitive abilities that equip children to make informed decisions and choices, manage their emotional well-being and communicate effectively.These can be interpreted in many ways. It can consist of teaching children a functional hard skill such as riding the cycle or changing the light bulb or it can mean a vocational skill that teaches the children how to gain skills required to excel at a particular job. Life skills education represents a shift in educational focus from information to methodologies. Children are empowered with skills rather than knowledge, that can help them to function and make sound personal choices in areas of education, health, careers, and social interaction. Life skills, as part of Shaishav’s "Balsena Program", aims to develop the internal capacities and behaviours of the children to make them responsible, socially aware and active citizens of the society. By inculcating values such as equality, friendship, religious tolerance amongst others through the engagement of children in activities, the children are encouraged to actively make decisions about matters in their own lives and surroundings. Ultimately, these communities of children, who are the future of India, shall learn to be change-makers in their communities and therefore, the country. Thus, it’s the “children leading change” at Shaishav. The necessity for the revitalisation of the content was urgent. The needs of the children have changed in the slums of Kumbharwada, and Shaishav was trying to deal with that. With everyone having or wanting 4G enabled phones, there was an urgent requirement to develop new content that was engaging, fun and contextually relevant. It needed to get the children out of their homes in the evening, away from the pull of television sets and mobile phones. So what did the children really want? Three big events and a lot of planning helped bring in clarity and work in that direction. With patience and an uncanny ability to handle my anxiety, incessant questioning and huge doses of skepticism, my colleagues pushed me to try my hand at designing the activities, training the trainers, facilitation and conducting reflective feedback sessions. As a team, we brainstormed, piloted and assessed what activities and games worked and didn’t work with the children. Slowly but surely, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, it all started to come together. I learned to take failure in my stride, forge through uncertainty and learned how to test and tweak the activities. Working on this project taught me the importance of contextualisation of content to the demographic. All the activities found from the various resources must be customised and contextualised for the participants at all times. That is the true indicator of its efficacy and relevance. Change is a slow process but it begins now, in the everydayness of our thought process. Life skills thus are the means to approach life through our thinking. This is what I’d tell my friend in response to his question. (*A previous version of this article was originally published on August 2nd, 2018, by the American India Foundation) (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Blog: Life skills equip children to manage their emotional well-being

&ldquo;I would like to ask them a question&rdquo;, said a boy standing up from a sea of children in pink scarves. My co-fellow and I had just introduced ourselves to the Balsena, as we had to the many new faces and people we had been meeting in the past few days. One of his eyes was stitched up and the scars of a badly done surgery were visible on his face. Yet, the conviction in his voice made me search for the speaker. &ldquo;What is your Dream?&rdquo; he asked with one eye, looking straight at me. I was stumped.

Sitting in the middle of a dusty field in the slums of Kumbharwada, 4 kms on the outskirts of Bhavnagar, with 60 crackling kids and smoke arising from the pile of plastic being burnt right next to us, I was taken aback with the depth of the question. In the days since we arrived, I had heard stories of children being beaten up by teachers, bullied on the streets, pressured to work, pressured to study, fending for themselves, having no one listen to them amongst others. Yet, here at <a href="http://shaishavchildrights.org/" rel="nofollow" target="blank">Shaishav</a>, I met children still curious to know more, willing to learn more, dreaming big and smiling from their hearts despite violence being a routine occurrence in their lives.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false"><img alt="" draggable="false" src="http://s.wionews.com/photos/picture1-20171110071541.jpg" />
<div class="media-description">
Balsena team &lsquo;Morpeach&rsquo; having their weekly meeting at Kumbharwada. (Others)
</div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="javascript:void(0)" id="jqclosemark">&times;</a></div>

Balsena, literally meaning &lsquo;Children&rsquo;s Collective&rsquo; is the <a href="http://shaishavchildrights.org/maitree/" rel="nofollow" target="blank">flagship program</a>me of Shaishav in Bhavnagar. It is run by the children, for the children, with Shaishav acting as a facilitator. Established in 2003, Balsena is open to all children, regardless of class, gender, caste or religion, and is centred on a child-participation approach &ndash; where children can experience the power of collective strength, learn to develop empathy for other children and support each other. The children decide what they would like to learn about, discuss problems in their community, problem solve together, organise rallies and outings, amongst other things. Aged between 8-16 years, they are organised into teams (Balsena points) based on either their school or community. Each team holds a weekly meeting and participates in activities which focus on developing hard skills and soft skills.

The United Nations identifies children&rsquo;s basic rights to be Right to Survival, Right to Development, Right to Protection and Right to Participation (see CRY 2017). While provisions in the Indian legal system like <a href="http://ncpcr.gov.in/index1.php?lang=1&amp;level=0&amp;linkid=23&amp;lid=593" rel="nofollow" target="blank">POCSO</a> Act and <a href="http://righttoeducation.in/know-your-rte/about" rel="nofollow" target="blank">RTE</a> Act look at protecting the former three, the latter &ndash; Right to Participation &ndash; remains largely ignored. Shaishav aims to bridge this gap through programs like the Balsena. Viewing &lsquo;children leading change&rsquo;, Shaishav hopes to enable in children the confidence to make their own decisions.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false"><img alt="" draggable="false" src="http://s.wionews.com/photos/untitled%20design%20(4)-20171110071821.jpg" />
<div class="media-description">
Children tallying votes for deciding on what shall be the activities for the weekly meetings this month. (Others)
</div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="javascript:void(0)" id="jqclosemark">&times;</a></div>

On my first day, I happened to witness a module on Child Rights being introduced to the Balsena. What was interesting though, was that it was not being &lsquo;taught&rsquo; to the children. Two Youth Fellows were facilitating the session. These were children from the Balsena who had been trained to lead and conduct the module, the weekend before. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s decide among ourselves what are the five essential things we need in our lives&rdquo; said the fellow, and I listened in on what the groups were discussing.

&ldquo;Money can buy anything&rdquo;, said one boy with utmost seriousness. &ldquo;Therefore it is critical to our survival&rdquo;. &ldquo;But it doesn&rsquo;t buy clean air or water&rdquo; interrupted another. &ldquo;Clothes are most important, otherwise how will you go out and work to earn money?&rdquo; added another.

I watched the children debate their rights in smaller and then larger groups. They went on to play a game of snakes and ladders, integrated with child right pictures in it. Every time my piece landed on a picture, the children chimed in to describe the scene and what right it stood for. &ldquo;Look, the girl is sitting on the side while the males in the family are served and eat first. This is not right. She should get nutritious wholesome food also, and not just leftovers. This goes in her right to survival.&rdquo; And on went the game with each picture being categorised, debated and imbibed.

I wish I had known these rights as a child. I remembered the subtle gender dynamics in my family where girls would be called to help lay out the dishes as the boys continued watching television. While it was never explicitly stated that girls had to help out in household work, these forms of inequality persisted, and I internalised them into my idea of a family structure. Till much later, I never learnt to question them.

To be able to identify gender dynamics and spot subtle gender roles in the family and other environments can be extremely tricky, and it is even more challenging to teach children how to recognise it. But through games like this, it is possible. Here, children were being taught to identify specific scenarios, question what they saw and learned, and place this knowledge within a framework.

The children were being encouraged to think for themselves and stand up for what they believe&nbsp;in. They were learning to form opinions. A rally organised by the children in their communities yesterday was a&nbsp;testament to that. Shouting slogans against tobacco and alcohol, the children marched in the lanes of their neighbourhood, their voices resonating through the alleys and bringing people to their doorsteps.

Shaishav and its work through Balsena, demonstrate that children are capable of asking questions and taking charge of their own lives, if they are equipped with the right set of knowledge, values, direction and mentorship to do so.

Initially stumped by the boy&rsquo;s question, I think I have my answer now. My dream is to be able to watch each child find their voice, explore their curiosity and work towards making this world a more peaceful, green, harmonious and better place to live.

&nbsp;

This&nbsp;<a href="http://aif.org/children-leading-change-notes-from-the-field/" rel="nofollow" target="blank">article</a>&nbsp;was originally&nbsp;published on 20/ 10/ 2017 on <a href="http://aif.org/" rel="nofollow" target="blank">American India Foundation</a>

Photo Credit:&nbsp;Adrian Fisk for Shaishav

Children are capable of asking questions and taking charge of their own lives if they are equipped with the right set of knowledge, values, direction and mentorship to do so.

“I would like to ask them a question”, said a boy standing up from a sea of children in pink scarves. My co-fellow and I had just introduced ourselves to the Balsena, as we had to the many new faces and people we had been meeting in the past few days. One of his eyes was stitched up and the scars of a badly done surgery were visible on his face. Yet, the conviction in his voice made me search for the speaker. “What is your Dream?” he asked with one eye, looking straight at me. I was stumped. Sitting in the middle of a dusty field in the slums of Kumbharwada, 4 kms on the outskirts of Bhavnagar, with 60 crackling kids and smoke arising from the pile of plastic being burnt right next to us, I was taken aback with the depth of the question. In the days since we arrived, I had heard stories of children being beaten up by teachers, bullied on the streets, pressured to work, pressured to study, fending for themselves, having no one listen to them amongst others. Yet, here at Shaishav, I met children still curious to know more, willing to learn more, dreaming big and smiling from their hearts despite violence being a routine occurrence in their lives. Balsena team ‘Morpeach’ having their weekly meeting at Kumbharwada. (Others) × Balsena, literally meaning ‘Children’s Collective’ is the flagship programme of Shaishav in Bhavnagar. It is run by the children, for the children, with Shaishav acting as a facilitator. Established in 2003, Balsena is open to all children, regardless of class, gender, caste or religion, and is centred on a child-participation approach – where children can experience the power of collective strength, learn to develop empathy for other children and support each other. The children decide what they would like to learn about, discuss problems in their community, problem solve together, organise rallies and outings, amongst other things. Aged between 8-16 years, they are organised into teams (Balsena points) based on either their school or community. Each team holds a weekly meeting and participates in activities which focus on developing hard skills and soft skills. The United Nations identifies children’s basic rights to be Right to Survival, Right to Development, Right to Protection and Right to Participation (see CRY 2017). While provisions in the Indian legal system like POCSO Act and RTE Act look at protecting the former three, the latter – Right to Participation – remains largely ignored. Shaishav aims to bridge this gap through programs like the Balsena. Viewing ‘children leading change’, Shaishav hopes to enable in children the confidence to make their own decisions. Children tallying votes for deciding on what shall be the activities for the weekly meetings this month. (Others) × On my first day, I happened to witness a module on Child Rights being introduced to the Balsena. What was interesting though, was that it was not being ‘taught’ to the children. Two Youth Fellows were facilitating the session. These were children from the Balsena who had been trained to lead and conduct the module, the weekend before. “Let’s decide among ourselves what are the five essential things we need in our lives” said the fellow, and I listened in on what the groups were discussing. “Money can buy anything”, said one boy with utmost seriousness. “Therefore it is critical to our survival”. “But it doesn’t buy clean air or water” interrupted another. “Clothes are most important, otherwise how will you go out and work to earn money?” added another. I watched the children debate their rights in smaller and then larger groups. They went on to play a game of snakes and ladders, integrated with child right pictures in it. Every time my piece landed on a picture, the children chimed in to describe the scene and what right it stood for. “Look, the girl is sitting on the side while the males in the family are served and eat first. This is not right. She should get nutritious wholesome food also, and not just leftovers. This goes in her right to survival.” And on went the game with each picture being categorised, debated and imbibed. I wish I had known these rights as a child. I remembered the subtle gender dynamics in my family where girls would be called to help lay out the dishes as the boys continued watching television. While it was never explicitly stated that girls had to help out in household work, these forms of inequality persisted, and I internalised them into my idea of a family structure. Till much later, I never learnt to question them. To be able to identify gender dynamics and spot subtle gender roles in the family and other environments can be extremely tricky, and it is even more challenging to teach children how to recognise it. But through games like this, it is possible. Here, children were being taught to identify specific scenarios, question what they saw and learned, and place this knowledge within a framework. The children were being encouraged to think for themselves and stand up for what they believe in. They were learning to form opinions. A rally organised by the children in their communities yesterday was a testament to that. Shouting slogans against tobacco and alcohol, the children marched in the lanes of their neighbourhood, their voices resonating through the alleys and bringing people to their doorsteps. Shaishav and its work through Balsena, demonstrate that children are capable of asking questions and taking charge of their own lives, if they are equipped with the right set of knowledge, values, direction and mentorship to do so. Initially stumped by the boy’s question, I think I have my answer now. My dream is to be able to watch each child find their voice, explore their curiosity and work towards making this world a more peaceful, green, harmonious and better place to live. This article was originally published on 20/ 10/ 2017 on American India Foundation Photo Credit: Adrian Fisk for Shaishav

Why it is crucial to ensure rights of a child

Author

Zee News Rajasthan

Editor

Maitreyi Nandhakumar

Home

Live Tv

Latest

World

India

Business

Entertainment

Sports

Opinions

Videos

Photos

Gravitas

Lifestyle

Science

Tech

Rajasthan News in Hindi: In-depth coverage of Rajasthan Crime, Political News, Education, Rajasthan Weather Update and Latest Rajasthan News on Zee News Rajasthan.