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Working for Women and Children
and their Human Rights
Woman & Child Welfare SocietyT

he Woman & Child Welfare Society (WCWS) is a non-profit and voluntaryorganization established in August 2006 to promote social and economic
development among the most marginalized and most disadvantaged sectionsof the Indian society.
WCWS tries to foster self-confidence,cooperation and self-reliance through valuebased education among women. It seeks topromote economic, social and psychologicalempowerment of women and children. It seeks
to provide relief and assistance to women andchildren in order to alleviate distress and suffering, provide auxiliary aid to workers; and tosponsor, support or assist in family planningand welfare programs and projects dealing
with industry, trade, social organizations andcharitable causes. It also organizes legal literacy
workshops in the rural areas.
WCWS is a group of experienced, wellqualified and highly motivated members whoare committed to promoting women’s andchildren’s rights. Most of the team members
have been engaged in voluntary social work forthe past several years and have come together toform an active team in order to work towards
the betterment of needy women and children.
WCWS believes that women and children
are left extremely vulnerable. Most of the women do not have access to basic education. The
literacy rate of women is very low, particularlyin the rural areas. Most families in these areas
are dependent on the agrarian economy with
agriculture being the main source of income,occupation and means of livelihood.

Rights of Women and Children
Women and children are faced with political,
economic and educational problems. They face
severe social, economic and political discrimination. Children do not enjoy their childhood andtheir little shoulders carry the burden of adulthood in their tender years. Their little hands
work in the field in scorching heat to earn for
their families or look after their siblings whenother children of their age play.
Children are innocent, trusting and full ofhope. Their childhood should be happy andloving. Their lives should mature gradually,as they gain new experiences. But for many
children, the reality of childhood is altogether
different. In India, two million Indian babies
die before they celebrate their first birthday.
More than one million girl children are killed
before their birth. About thirty-five million
children aged 6-14 years do not go to school
and approximately seventeen million children
in India work.
The main reason for widespread female foeticide and the continued prevalence of female
infanticide in parts of India was the dowry
system, which although prohibited by law,
continues unabated in Indian society. Dowries
and wedding expenses regularly run to morethan 3,000 US dollars in a country where the

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average civil servant earns about 2,000 US
dollars a year. Added to this is the low status of
women in rural India, where they perform themenial tasks within the family such as fetchingwater, gathering firewood, and feeding theanimals, and it is clear where the roots of thediscrimination spring from.
Throughout history, children have been
abused and exploited. They work in harmful
conditions; suffer from hunger and homelessness, high infant mortality, poor health careand limited opportunities for basic education.
Children have the right to survive, develop,
be protected and participate in decisions that
impact their lives. Children are citizens in theirown right, entitled to the full spectrum of human rights. They will only attain these rights
guaranteed to them if each person believes inmaking this dream come true as parents, neighbors, consumers, employees, businesspeople,
teachers, politicians, journalists, professionals,
bureaucrats, activists and most importantly as
citizens.
The Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986 prohibits the engagement ofchildren below the age of fourteen years incertain employments and regulates the conditions of work of children in shops, commercial
establishments, workshops, farms, residential
hotels, restaurants, eating-houses, theatres orother places of public amusement or entertainment. The said Act does not provide anything
for those children whose parents are engaged
in low paid, unskilled jobs and are unable tosend them to school. The vulnerability of suchchildren to be exposed to child labor is also
very high.
Apart from this, we see everyday children
aged 3-4 years trained for begging, not only in
big cities but also in small towns. Parents arepaid for the exploitation of their children for
begging purposes. Begging is an offence under
Indian law. There are lots of children underfourteen years of age who do not work in any
industry or engage in any economic activity

but because of their parents’ work they are also
forced to undergo all the hardships that children
working anywhere face.
Women also face a similar situation. Despite concerted efforts by non-governmentalorganizations (NGOs) and civil society, theoverall status of women and their lack of legal entitlements still call for a struggle. Even
today, women occupy a devalued position insociety. This is manifested in different forms ofgrave human rights violations such as domestic/sexual violence, sexual harassment at theworkplace, identity-based gender violence andsex selective abortions, to name a few. These
forms of violence result in the negation ofequality rights of women and their exclusionfrom all public spaces and spheres of activities
such as meaningful employment. In the absenceof a state-sponsored social security network
and unemployment guarantees, they become
dependent on their male relatives for protection and support.
Laws guarantee the human rights of womenand children, but without proper implementation they would not solve the problem. WCWS
was established to become a single platform toaddress the root causes of violation of women’sand children’s rights and work towards theirsocial and economic development.
WCWS seeks help and co-operation from allgovernment and non-governmental organizations with similar aims and objectives and assure
them of its wholehearted determination to workfor the cause of women, children, the poor, theilliterate and the underprivileged.

WCWS Activities
Since its incorporation, WCWS has beenquite active in protecting women’s andchildren’s rights. WCWS conducted a survey
on male/female sex ratios and checked therecords of the anganwadi1 workers. Under the
Integrated Child Development Scheme, one

Working for Women and Children and their Human Rights  63

anganwadi worker is allotted to a populationof 1000. An anganwadi worker is trained invarious aspects of health, nutrition and childdevelopment. The duties of the anganwadi
worker are 1) regular health check-up, 2) immunization, 3) health education, and 4) nonformal pre-school education. Apart from this,they also keep the record of births and deathsin the rural areas. The results of the WCWS
survey were shocking as the male-female sex
ratio in many villages was less than 1000:560.
This affirmed the continued heinous practice offemale foeticide with the complicity of greedy
medical doctors.
Lack of awareness among the people in thevillages on the serious consequences of foeticide
helps perpetuate this problem. And government
support for raising people’s awareness on thisissues as well as women’s and children’s rights
has been weak to say the least. WCWS has been
seeking government help in undertaking rights
awareness activities at the village level but haslargely failed to receive the support it needed.
One case illustrates this problem.
In October 2006, WCWS contacted theDistrict Ayurvedic Officer, the Deputy Commissioner and many other officials in District
Sonepat of Haryana state to obtain support for
an Ayurvedic camp and a seminar on women’sand children’s rights. The planned Ayurvedic
camp was meant to provide health checkups toas many people as possible, who in turn could
be made aware of women’s and children’s
rights. Bearing in mind that the governmenthas been encouraging such activities, officials
of WCWS met Mrs. Neerja Raj Shekhar, thenDeputy Commissioner of District Sonepat.
She extended her full help and cooperation byrequesting the Red Cross Society to provide
free medicines and also by asking the doctors at
District Ayurvedic Office to be available for thesaid seminar. But such support from the Deputy
Commissioner did not translate to action on
the part of the officials at the District Ayurvedic
Office, who instead said that the Red Cross

Society provided free medicine only upon theirrecommendation. They also promised to visit
the WCWS on the matter, but actually failed to
do so despite repeated follow-ups. Thereafter,
WCWS requested many high government officials, including Mr. Bhupender Singh Hudda,
Honorable Chief Minister of Haryana, andMrs. Kartari Devi, Honorable Health Ministerof Haryana, to help organize such seminars ineach and every village. But the many letters ofrequest failed to get a response from any ofthem. Thus, the sincere efforts of the WCWS
volunteers were in vain.
WCWS has also been involved in encouraging women and poor families to form Self-Help
Groups (SHG) for their upliftment and havebeen able to form some SHGs that are doing
very well since their formation. Involvementin these SHGs gives women the chance tospare some time from their daily routine work
to know about their rights and their strength.
Many of them are now able to face the publicand deliver speeches on women’s and children’s
rights. On many occasions, WCWS volunteers
attended the monthly meetings of these SHGs
that helped the women become aware of theirrights.
The Women and Child Development
Department (WCD) of the Government ofHaryana has been running Anganwadi Kendras (nursery schools) for children of 0-6 years.
Children are given readymade meals in such
Kendras. In early 2007, WCD decided to havethe meals cooked in the Kendras and to appoint
poor and needy women especially those fromthe women’s SHGs to do the task. But thework was awarded to women from influential
and rich families. At the request of the womenfrom SHGs, WCWS complained to the WCD
about this. After so much effort, WCWS wasable to procure work for the deserving candidates from the women’s self-help groups. Now
the women earn some money that support theirfamilies and help to pay for their monthly loan
payment to the SHGs.

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The government has many programs andschemes for the upliftment of women andchildren but little action is taken to implement
them. In September 2008, two women SHGs
wrote a request to Mr. Murali S. Deora, Honorable Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister,
Government of India to help them in starting
up a candle-manufacturing unit. A copy of thesame was also sent to other ministers including Dr. Manmohan Singh, Honorable Prime
Minister, and Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, Honorable
Chairperson of United Progressive Alliance, but
received no response to their request. WCWS
took their case and wrote to Honorable Minister Deora to look in the matter and provide
the necessary help. The response from Ministry
is still being awaited.

Activities with Teachers and Students
As already mentioned, WCWS has beenquite active in the rural areas where literacy
rate is very low. It is a known fact that 75% of
the children in the rural areas do not get the
chance to attain proper education either because their parents cannot afford the same or
because of their family responsibilities such as
taking care of their siblings, etc. A WCWS research involving interview with several teachers,
parents and students shows additional factors
to the low literacy rate among children in therural areas: the parents’ lack of education, andtheir engagement with work the whole day thatprevent them from taking care of the educationof their children. These children lag far behindin education, and their parents are unable toguide their children to do the homework given
by teachers. The parents are also financiallyhelpless to send their children for a private
tuition. Only the government schools provide
education in rural areas, but they are affected bycorruption and lack of good teachers. In many
villages, only one or two teachers take care ofwhole school, while schools in the urban areas
have surplus teaching staff.
Students in rural areas also suffer from
corporal punishment for not completing their
homework and for violating school disciplinary
rules, which affects them mentally as well as
their education.
These problems encouraged WCWS to build
a platform through various conferences in andoutside the schools for teachers, parents andstudents to identify the reasons behind illiteracy, poor examinations results, and increasing
drop-out rates. As a result, WCWS decided toconcentrate and be more active on school-related activities.
WCWS organizes women and child rights
awareness programs with the help of women andchild rights activists, teachers and local women.
Through seminars, WCWS try to understandthe problems of students, teachers and parents.
WCWS invites resource persons who explain
how and why women’s and children’s rights
should be protected. Speech, essay writing,painting and other competitions are employed
to facilitate an understanding of women’s andchildren’s rights by students, teachers andother participants. These activities, suggested
by teachers and human rights activists, are alsomeant to create a friendly atmosphere inside theschool between teachers and students. Students
who excel in their study receive notebooks,
pen/pencils and other stationeries to encourage them to continue their efforts. All these
activities help students to enhance their learning
skills. WCWS also supports the teaching about
discipline and moral education so that students
give due respect to their parents, teachers andtheir seniors.
WCWS holds small plays in the villages
regarding different social evils like female foeticide, dowry system, child marriage, discrimination against girl education, etc. It organizes
rallies to make the public become aware of the
problems faced by women and children, andof their rights.

Working for Women and Children and their Human Rights  65

In the 20 December 2008 rally in Village
Nahara, District Sonepat, teachers and students
from Government Girls Senior Secondary
School, Kendriya Vidyalaya (Central School)
and Government Boys Secondary School
along with the local women participated in the
program. Mr. Jai Bhagwan, Sarpanch (Head)of Village Nahara flagged off the rally, which
commenced in the streets of the village andculminated at Government Girls Senior Secondary School.
The teachers, students and local womenmarched through the streets of the village
shouting slogans against female foeticide,displaying placards urging the public not to
get involved in this severe crime. The villagers
warmly welcomed them. Many teachers, social
workers, panchayat members and officers of
WCWS spoke during the rally.2 Speakers at the
rally requested them to struggle for their rights.
Students displayed placards urging the public tomake the ‘Save the girl child’ campaign a mass
movement so as to rid the society of the evil of
female foeticide. One speaker, Mr. Jagbir Singh,
Principal of Government Girls Senior Secondary School said, “The female foeticide is not
only a crime, but also a stigma in the society.”
An interactive discussion on women empowerment, female foeticide, dowry system,
girl education, child marriage, etc. was also
held. One speaker, Dr. Satyawan Baroda, Yoga
Teacher, Patanjali Yog Peeth who also teaches
at MD University Rohtak, welcomed the teachers, students, local women and other eminent
people of the area. Addressing the participants,
he said, “We even cannot dream of a developed
and disciplined country until we do not change
our thinking against girl child. We shouldcelebrate the birth of a girl child just like [thebirth of] a boy. Female foeticide is a black spot
on the shining head of India.”

Future Aims and Plans
Based on its experiences, WCWS has defined
the following future aims:a)	To work for the communities sufferingfrom great distress, discrimination andmarginalization.
b)	To make an attempt to provide basic
human rights to poor and marginalized
communities.
c)	To provide children not only withschooling but other basic rights as children have seen adulthood in their earlychildhood.
d) To prioritize education among girl children and women in the rural areas.
e)	To promote livelihood among weakersections of society by working on education, health, rights and advocacy.
f)	To enhance outreach programs on avariety of issues at the grassroots level.
WCWS plans to realize these aims throughthe following activities:
1.	 Provision of free crèches for children of
migrant workers in places near the workplaces (usually construction sites) thatwould allow them (children) to receive
food and education. The educational
component will have to be coordinatedwith nearby schools. WCWS will also
arrange for these children to attend
classes in the nearby schools despite lackof formal enrollment.
2.	 Provision of vocational education tochildren of poor families to provide theman opportunity to have different work or
livelihood from those of their parents.
3.	 Lobby for the provision of free education in government schools/institutions(with provision for accommodation,
food, uniform, etc.) for the children

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whose parents do not have permanent
residence and have no capacity to afford
such expensive education.
4.	 Lobby for and monitor (using different teams of volunteers) the proper
implementation of government welfare
schemes like pension for the elderly,
widows and the handicapped, low-priced
food grains for people living below thepoverty line, midday meal at government
schools, attractive schemes to save girlchildren and stop female foeticide, etc.
5.	Raise before proper government offices
the lack of facilities in many schools in
the rural areas (including proper classrooms, benches, safe drinking water,
toilets and playgrounds), while also
working with school officials on how toaddress this issue.
6.	 Campaign for the continuation of education of girls beyond primary and juniorsecondary levels through values education for parents.
7.	 Expand the program for the formationof self-help groups of women to boost
their morale and economic status, andthe health and food awareness program
for women.
8.	 Hold seminars on legal aid, and womenand child rights with the help humanrights activists, human rights lawyers,
and many other eminent personalities
to help people understand their rights
as well as their duties towards country
and other members of society.

Endnotes
1
2“Anganwadi” literally means courtyard.
	Other participants and speakers were:• Mrs. Sulekha Rana, Teacher, Kendriya
Vidyalaya, Nahara• Mrs. Darshana Devi, Teacher, Kendriya
Vidyalaya, Nahara• Mrs. Prakash, PTI, Government Girls
Senior Secondary School, Nahara• Mrs. Savita, Teacher, Government Girls
Senior Secondary School, Nahara• Mrs. Prakash Devi, Teacher, Government
Secondary School, Nahara• Mrs. Sunita, Teacher, Government
Secondary School, Nahara• Mrs. Meenakshi, President, WCWS
• Mrs. Sumitra Devi, President, Mahila
Mandal, Nahara• Mrs. Sushila Devi, Asha Worker• Mr. Prem Das, Secretary WCWS
• Capt. Dharam Singh Chauhan, Treasurer,
WCWS• Mr. Vijay Sihag, Founder Trustee, Deepak
Shiksha Darpan• Mr. Anoop Verma, Social Worker• Mr. Bhale Ram, Panchayat Member• Mr. Anoop Singh, Panchayat Member• Mr. Jile Singh, Social Worker• Mr. Jaipal Singh, Social Worker