Not just playing House: Kiddie ministers do exemplary work too

Nandar is one of the 90 villages in Paithan taluka of Aurangabad district where the Bal Panchayat programme is being implemented. The programme was started in 1989 by the Institute of Health Management (IHM), a social organisation based in Pachod village. Though thereis no "campaigning" in these elections, children vote by secret ballot (by ticking against the name of the candidate). The Panchayat — 40 per cent of which comprises girls — meets every fortnight to plan the tasks ahead. The elected pramukhs then handle issues like environment, sports, development, water supply, art and culture in the village.

Children undertake home-visits in pairs. The younger child straps on a poster while the older one advises residents on personal hygiene. Pointing to a picture of the farmer in the poster, Durga explains, "There is no toilet in Ranga’s house. So he goes out to relieve himself. He returns and sits down to eat. The flies on his unwashed hands now settle on to the dough his wife is kneading. Ranga’s son eats the rotis made out of the same dough and falls sick." Durga’s partner takes over, "You must go far out into the field to relieve yourself. You must wash your hands with soap or ash when you come back.."

Recalls Nandita Kapadia Kundu, additional director of IHM,Pune, "When we wanted to spread the message about sanitation and cleanliness, we had asked adults in the village to carry out the campaign. They refused saying that it was silly and embarrassing to talk about sanitation habits. The children took it up, and it continues today".

Kundu proudly introduces 19-year-old Ishwar Kale, who belonged to the first Bal Panchayat batch of 1989. A Standard 12 Arts student, Ishwar hopes to get a diploma in education and start teaching in his village. Much to the delight of the children around, he speaks fluent English, "Our batch of 25 was just like this, play-acting, teaching, working and of course playing with aplomb. There were hardly any girls naturally".

One of the important duties of the sabha pramukh is to distribute copies of Balshakti, a four-page Marathi newsletter brought out by the IHM. In Anantpur village, also in Paithan, 12-year-old Mangal Shinde explains her duties as an Upapramuk – she teaches children songs. At 8 pm every day, these office-bearersbecome teachers. A class 7 student, Durga Achitra Kale, imparts the rudiments of literacy to her 4 pupils. Durga’s students are from poor Dalit families.

Highlighting the marked divide between the educated and non-school going children, another pupil Shabana Syed, hides behind her crumpled dupatta. Then little Ganesh Kale, barely four feet tall, chips in proudly carrying the words his boys have scrawled on a slate. Ganesh describes how he went to meet the boys’ parents to ask if he could teach them and how they agreed to the little master’s demands. Using the Hydrogen Sulphide test given to him by the IHM, ten-year-old Rajendra Shinde has tested the water from the hand-pump in Nandar. "The test showed that the water was not potable so I asked the government sepoy to add TCL to it. The sepoy refused, saying he had not been paid for three years. So there is no reason for him to work."

For, as Ganesh points out, "we may work effectively. But for our parents, we are children after all." And when they do notagree on certain issues, they don’t get down to fisticuffs like their adult counterparts in the Capital, whose antics the young "politicians" have watched on television. Instead, they "esolve the situation amicably" as Shakila puts it, or run to Programme Coordinator J J Rupekar "Sir"…for once, behaving like the children they actually are.