Little Jugnus from city slum to lighten up UNICEF meet in Delhi

The students of Bapu Dham Colony bring out this first-of-its-kind monthly wall newspaper. The selected students include Poonam, Ravinder, Shailender and Ganga Kumar, who study in classes IX and X. While Poonam and Ravinder are students of Government Model High School, Sector 26, Shailender and Ganga study in Government High School, Bapu Dham.

The newspaper was launched by Yuvsatta, an NGO, in June this year with an aim of empowering children living in the slums and channelising their energy in a positive direction. The parents of most of the children are daily wagers.

The co-ordinator of Yuvsatta, Parmod Sharma, said, “We wanted to inculcate in students the habit of questioning. It is commonly seen that the most of the people are hesitant to raise questions. There is no better platform than a newspaper to enlighten them.”

The three-month-old newspaper has raised various issues which were prominent in their colony. The issues are selected by the students themselves and for this month’s edition the topic chosen is child labour.

Sharma said, “The Central government’s piecemeal approach to child labour is likely to be ineffective. The rights of the children need to be properly secured. Otherwise India would remain prone to widespread child labour.”

For the four students it would be a unique opportunity to interact with other young ‘reporters’. It would also expose them to the outside world, a life out of the colony, which they have not been able to explore as yet.