Bhubaneswar: After the successful implementation of “Khilta Bachpan”, an innovative campaign that promotes art education as a means to support children ‘Engage, Express, Empower’ in the North, today, ChildFund India launched the campaign in the East with an event organized at the Odissi Research Centre, Jaydev Vihar from 2:30 pm to 5pm.
The campaign was launched by Prof. (Dr.) A.B. Ota, IAS (Director-cum-Special Secretary SCSTRTI, Government of Odisha) who was the Chief Guest, and Guests of Honour Mr. Gangadhar Sahoo, OAS (SAG) (Director, TE & SCERT Department of School & Mass Education, Government of Odisha), Mr. Basudev Malabisoi (State Project Coordinator, Odia Language, Literature & Culture Department, Govt. Of Odisha), Mr. B. K. Mishra (Convener, Odisha CSR Forum) and Mr. Shantiraj Khosla (Music Director & Music Composer).
The event saw amazing performances by children, being supported by ChildFund, who were trained by local artists. A group of children presented a song on their culture and life in local tribal Desia language, using different musical instruments. Another group presented a short play stressing on the importance of Art & Culture. A spellbinding performance of Odissi dance was staged by trained group of children from Utkal Rangamancha, Odissi Research Centre. Last but not the least, the grand finale of the event was a dance performance by various teams showcasing different tribal dance forms such as Ghumura, Santhali, Dhemsa, Mundari and Gedi. The highlight of the event was the “Walk of Fame”, where children displayed their creations depicting various tribal art and craft forms from all the corners of Odisha.
ChildFund believes Art in any form – literature, dance, painting – gives children access to unexplored vistas of their personalities and opens doors to untapped opportunities. Considering the need, it initiated this innovative campaign on ARTs – ‘Khilta Bachpan’ through which they are supporting children, aged 6-18 years, in underserved communities across the country, get access to art education, in order to promote cognitive, social and emotional learning, encourage creative expression and inculcate in them appreciation for the richness and diversity of arts in India, while giving them a platform and an opportunity to be able to express, influence and showcase their creative aspirations.
Khilta Bachpan campaign is being implemented in 60 government schools in Delhi. The campaign is simultaneously being expanded to over 2000 schools across the country, where ChildFund India is currently running its programs supporting the Rights to Education. This launch is part of that expansion. Through this initiative, ChildFund hopes to reach over 250,000 children and young people over 2 years across 15 states in India.
“Khilta Bachpan campaign is a focused intervention that works towards engaging children in Arts and providing them with means to constructively channelize their energies towards positive outcomes. ChildFund believes that in absence of a creative, open and secure option to express, young children can be negatively impacted. Art Education plays an important role in helping children develop, engage meaningfully, build resilience, and reach their utmost potential. The recent Draft National Education Policy (NEP), 2019 also cites that all school subjects should be considered curricular rather than extra-curricular or co-curricular, including sports, yoga, dance, music, drawing, painting, sculpting, pottery making, etc. We have been organizing art related activities at national level”, shared Neelam Makhijani, Country Director and CEO of ChildFund India at the event.
The event was attended by more than 100 children, representatives from various corporate organizations, government and non- governmental organizations as well as individuals.
About ChildFund India
For nearly 7 decades, ChildFund India, a child development organization, has been working with underprivileged children, youth and families from the most remote, extremely backward and hard-to-reach areas, with a vision of building “an India where children lead a dignified life and achieve their full potential”. ChildFund India annually reaches nearly 3.5 million children, youth, and their families across 15 States through its long-term programs. ChildFund’s unique programs provide comprehensive support to children from their conception until they reach 24 years of age by integrating health, nutrition, sanitation, gender equality, disability, education, Arts, skill training, livelihoods, child protection and humanitarian relief work.
ChildFund’s programs give equal importance to recreational activities as much as they give to education. Over the years, ChildFund has realized that Art plays a critical role in a child’s overall development. To take this thought forward, ChildFund India has incorporated Arts-based programs in its strategy and designed Khilta Bachpan campaign, which uses exclusively ‘Arts’ as a tool to help children achieve their full potential, and become responsible and contributing citizens, hence breaking the generational cycle of poverty.
This award-winning organization has been successful in establishing relations with relevant stakeholders including the communities it works with, district, state and national government bodies, academic institutions, media, funding agencies and corporates to achieve their mutual goals.