PANAJI
The Goa State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (GSCPCR) engaged with children at a workshop in Vasco to teach them to stand up for their rights and empower them amidst growing concern of child abuse and several crimes against children.
GSCPCR said, it conducted on Sunday a workshop on “Children’s Participation in Everyday Lives” at Kiran Niketan School Hall in Zuarinagar on Sunday where 65 children participated.
The workshop was held in collaboration with Child Rights in Action and Kiran Niketan, a small but significant and novel idea of the Commission to promote and strengthen children’s right to participation, the GSCPCR said.
"We need to shift children’s participation from mere tokenism to citizenship. Children have the right to express their views and to have those views considered, according to their age and understanding," the Commission's chairperson Peter Borges said.
Borges said, public bodies and organisations working with children have the responsibility to respect that right as children know what is best and what makes them happy.
Sunday's workshop focused on children realizing their dreams, how child rights can enable them to overcome challenges they face and importantly what they can do to make their dreams and child rights a reality.
"Children are citizens of today and not tomorrow which is why we need to educate them about their rights and the UNCRC charter," said Aditi Salkar, a facilitator at Sunday's workshop which was held in a participatory manner.
Salkar, is a licensed psychotherapist; an NLP trainer and an advanced REBT practitioner, currently, working for Child Rights in Action (CRIA) as Program and Scientific Director.
Others who collaborated in conducting the workshop included Anny Fernandes and Jeryssa Pereira of Kiran Niketan, besides Prifa Xavier, Santosh Badgari and Rheya Fernandes.
