Indian Council for Child Welfare

Starting in Chennai our first full day of project visits has got underway. The group now fully formed after some members took 3 days to arrive, split up to visit four projects, of which I will be telling you about the Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW).

ICCW is a non-profit non-government organisation that is committed to ensuring that children's basic human rights are protected within the state of Tamil Nadu.

We were greeted by the lively and hospitable project founders. After a quick look at the sports fields and the class rooms we were whisked up stairs for a presentation about the work of the organisation. The founders sat opposite us in a line and passionately all launched into the discussion, you could tell that these ladies had known and worked with each other for a long time as they proceeded to finish off each others sentences, I guess this also highlighted their commitment and strong belief in what they are doing.

The organisation part of a national body and it works in all districts of the Tamil Nadu state. It has been going for 23 years and the range of progammes and the achievements is staggering. The organistion run's many programmes including:

• A mother and child welfare project in the southern part of Tamil Nadu (Usilampatti). This project tackles the practice of baby girls being killed at birth. When the projecct first started in 1991 200 babies were killed in 309 villages per year. The project has now successfully wiped out this practice and for the last two years no female babies have been killed in these villages.
  
• A programme for the prevention of child beggary in the urban areas of Chennai.
  
• A crisis intervention programme tackling child abuse and neglect.
• A series of residential care programmes- the organisation's centre provides places for children up to 18 year old, currently the centre houses 50 children.
• A series of day care centres- the organisation is currently running 130 centres for children below 5 years old.
  
• A sponsorship programme which helps children to stay in education and not drop out of school dew to their families having no money.
• A counselling and guidance service.
• An education and development project (Karur).
• A programme offering supplementary school lessons.
• A programme of recreational activities.
• A childline service- this is a free number for children and adults to access, where the welfare of the child can be discussed and services can be sort in a confidential manner. In the last 7 days alone the center has taken 708 calls, where 43 have led to intervention (there were 17 cases of child abuse, 10 children were given shelter and 7 children had been reported missing)
• A series of advocacy programmes.
• A series of child and social work training programmes.
  

The organisation is run by many volunteers and has been crucil to the advancement of government strategies and policies on children and social care systems and interventions. There is still cleary a lot more for the organisation to tackle not least the role of men in the family and child rearing process. The centre did acknowledge that this was an area of work that they need to tackle and some work has started to educate young boys to take a more active role.

I think that everyone in the group took something away with them. For me the organistion showed that you can do a lot with a strong will and belief, but it was clear that the organisation will have to grow and change as the complex indian family system evolves.


Pictures of a girl making Idly, a rice and lentil based food that is their breakfast and the ICCW centre in Chennai.