Good response to 'Kalajatha' teams

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, MAY 28. The just-concluded month-long campaign on child labour, early marriage and discrimination against girls taken up by about 150 adolescent girls and boys from rural areas has received encouraging response from the people in seven districts. They have been trained in street theatre by the Andhra Pradesh Academy of Rural Development (APARD) in collaboration with the UNICEF.

After touring Srikakulam, Prakasam, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Kurnool and Medak districts and giving 900 street-play performances the ten "kalajatha" teams converged here on Sunday at a State-level convention. Each team comprised 12 girls and three boys.

The campaign was so successful that some of the teams were able to not only prevent several child marriages, but also create sufficient awareness among rural masses, whose superstitions were difficult to get rid of.

The campaign comes in the wake of discrimination shown against the girl child not only from her birth, but also in play, education, provision of food and upbringing. Besides this, the girl child undergoes trauma soon after marriage and, because of lack of proper diet, suffers delivery problems often resulting in death.

Members of the kalajathas gave a repeat performance on Sunday to not only acquaint City people with what they have been doing for the last month, but also officials who got feedback. They were awarded certificates.

So impressed was Mr.T.Janardhan Naidu, Commissioner, Women Development and Child Welfare, that he suggested to the APARD to take up a similar campaign in other districts of the State, particularly in the backward areas of Mahbubnagar, Medak and Ranga Reddy. The jathas could also identify specific issues and help create awareness and bring about the desired social change.

Mr. William Thomson, State representative of the UNICEF, pointed out that the success achieved by the kalajathas showed that its members helped by NGOs could change the lives of the people and make a tangible difference in the lives of the boys and girls.

Dr. Sonia Gupta of the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, giving her assessment, said the campaign helped in the emergence of leadership qualities of the kalajathas' participants.

Mr.L.K.Narasimha Rao, Commissioner of the APARD, and Ms.K.Chinnamulu, leader of the Srikakulam kalajatha team, spoke. Mrs. Shalini Mishra, DPEP Project Director, was among the officers who witnessed the various programmes presented by the members of kalajathas.

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