On the 30^th of December, 2013, Austin and Manjula from our Home Based Project team, along with other NGOs such as Namma Bhoomi and the Azim Premji Foundation, collaborated with the Marvanthe Panchayat to hold the annual Children’s Gram Sabha (children’s parliament) at V.K. Kamath Hall in Kundapura. From primary school children, to high school students, participants raised awareness on the needs and issues of their schools and community. Over 200 students, 15 teachers, the president of the panchayat and other panchayat members took part in this event.

 

        The aim was to sensitise the panchayat body towards issues faced at schools, and the larger community. The different topics brought up were the need of a school playground, a stage, chairs, a library, a laboratory, and street lights, road facilities, public dustbins, fencing around open wells and more.

 

 

 

        Previous successes of the children’s parliament led to the panchayat providing facilities such as street lights, zebra crossings near schools and water purifiers at schools. This gives us great hope that the children’s parliament’s requests will be once again fulfilled due to their awareness raising efforts.