NEW DELHI: In Delhi’s neighbourhoods, some children spend their days working through hours they should be spending at a school desk. When a team of educators and singers visits, they gather on mats and sing about a right many of them have yet to exercise: the right to go to school. In the comics they take home, a boy who grew up on the streets and a stray dog help children recognise exploitation and find out where to seek help.The sessions are an attempt to reach children the school system has missed and help them find a place in it.“Before visiting a location, our educators inform children about the session. When we arrive, we often find children sitting together, waiting for us. That space becomes our classroom, and music becomes our medium of learning,” said Pragati, who sings with her colleagues, Manisha and Anuja, at the sessions.A five-member team of educators and singers takes these sessions to places where street children spend time, from Kalkaji Temple and Sarai Kale Khan to the markets of Sarojini Nagar and Lajpat Nagar, and neighbourhoods such as Shakur Basti and Shivaji Park.The visits are part of Street to Strength, an initiative by Delhi NGO Childhood Enhancement through Training and Action (CHETNA).Through songs and jingles, the team introduces children to laws on child labour, child marriage and protection from sexual offences. The comics take those lessons into situations children may recognise. Their protagonists, Chotu and Shera, help readers spot abuse and exploitation and learn where to seek help.For 14-year-old Shikha (name changed), the lesson came while rehearsing a song on child labour for a performance at IIT Delhi. The Class IX student began learning it in January. At first, she was hesitant about singing and keeping time. As she grew more confident with help from her educators and music facilitator, she began thinking about the children the song described and what they missed out on, from school to time to play.“I used to sing the song without knowing its meaning, but now I understand. This song didn’t just teach me music; it opened my eyes to what many children go through,” she said.For Arun (name changed), 11, a song at a community session made him think about the importance of going to school. The Class VII student said the session on child labour and the right to education got him thinking about children who could not attend and what he might do to help.“Now I realise that many children don’t get to go. I think we should help them,” he said.CHETNA director Sanjay Gupta put the number of children living or working in difficult circumstances in Delhi at more than one lakh, citing a rough estimate. The NGO says it has reached more than 4,500 children over the past year through the initiative and has received invitations from Delhi Police and schools to hold similar sessions.It has also recently launched a second Chotu and Shera comic in the presence of members of the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights. The songs are available on YouTube, programme head Pooja Singh said, so children can listen to them again, even after the singers leave.
