Participatory Studies
As members on the editorial board of PLA notes, which is being published by IIED, London, RCPDS during the year produced/translated specific materials related to social mapping and GIS systems in Tamil language in partnership with Gandhi Gram Rural University. This is also uploaded on the website of IIED. Thus the participatory approaches and the innovations to various tools of PRA is widely used by many of the Tamil speaking NGOs, Government departments and CBOs to scale up participatory practices.
An innovating attempt is being tried out during the reporting year to introduce simple games for rural children whereby they get thorough with the principles of child rights in line with the UN conventions and able to reflect with their own situation with undermining the play attraction to the age. Currently these games are field tested with some of the child focused NGOs in Southern states.
A systematic HIV/AIDS vulnerability study is conducted in Nagapattinam District among the victims of tsunami, with special emphasis on adolescent children and single women. The bench marks are derived from earlier experiences of Latoor, Gujarat experience with money flow, unemployment, multi level players, destitution, broken families and orphan and semi orphan children. The study is being tabulated and analysed with the assistance of CMS –Catalyst Management Services, Bangalore.
As a Research Institution, RCPDS joined hands with IIED, UK in translating the PLA (Participatory Learning & Action) - 54 in Tamil, so as to take the methodology to wider circle, with the assistance of Gandhigram Rural University, Gandhigram.
Making Paths by Walking Together
Child Participation is a process rather than an event, with varying degrees of involvement - from being consulted on a predetermined issue to children and youth choosing their agenda, making their own decisions and taking them forward. Siva Barathi is a dynamic young leader from Idayankulam village who had been the spark for effective child participation and created a forum of 25 adolescent children and youth from her village to make constructive change in environment and sanitation. She is an active member of CMCJ and learned many aspects of climate change its implication to child rights. The new path she started to walk from her being part of the Movement is that she reflected her village environment, her peers in her village against what she learned in the training programs as well part of children led ecological learning centre.