About 20 children and young people (mostly girls) from a community of stone-cutters, artisans and daily wage earners in Dubbaga Lucknow participated in the first day-long orientation programme of Achyut Patwardhan Bal Sabha.
As we know, Achyut Patwardhan was an independence activist, politician, theosophist, philosopher, and one of the founders of the Socialist Party (India), who believed fundamental change in society begins with that person herself/ himself.
Members of Achyut Patwardhan Bal Sabha had several sessions and rounds of discussion on key themes such as: gender justice, communal harmony, religious fundamentalism, what is socialism, caste and class based discrimination, among others. They also staged few short plays in small workshops on these themes. Few songs that have inspired people's movements and struggles were also introduced to the members of Achyut Patwardhan Bal Sabha.
Members of Achyut Patwardhan Bal Sabha also responded to a call for help from a parent whose child was not getting admitted to a private school despite the orders of Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) under Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009. They staged a demonstration outside this school owing to which school administration handed the admission form to the child. For more details see this news in The Times of India (2nd June 2016): http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/Pandey-on-sit-in-for-girls-admission/articleshow/52562629.cms
Apart from few Socialist Party (India) members like Dr Sandeep Pandey national vice-president and Bobby Ramakant, other resource people included: Rubina from Humsafar - Support Centre for Women in Crisis; Rajeev Yadav from Rihai Manch; among others.
Citizen News Service (CNS)
2nd June 2016
