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Balsena
– A Children’s Collective
Introduction
Balsena Activities
Introduction
 Children’s
right to participation is inherent in all of Shaishav’s activities. As in the
school, Shaishav has formed Balsamitis
(Children’s Committees) in the
Community Centres which are actively involved in planning, organising,
implementation and reporting of all their
activities. This participatory process led to the formation of Balsena, a
Children’s Collective linking children associated with
all the various Shaishav
programmes. With the aim of bridging inequality in society, Shaishav started to
link
children
from private
and municipal
schools
(See the Setu Programme in next section). In this way children from the
private schools are also included in the collective. Balsena is the first
of
children's collective of
Gujarat.
It is also
the first collective in
India
where unprivileged and privileged children are brought together
in the name of unity, equality and solidarity.
Balsena
is an
independent organisation where Shaishav acts as a facilitator. Our role is to
provide a platform to children where they can experience the power of collective
strength, take up issues that they face, satisfy their emotional needs, develop
empathy for other children and derive support for each other. This in turn will
make them more self-reliant and confident. We believe that if children evolve
their own understanding of issues such as child labour, education, gender biases
and communal prejudices, they themselves can become change makers in society.
Children can
become members of Balsena by paying an entry fee of Rs. 10 and an
 annual
fee of Rs. 10. The
children have decided membership rules which all the
members have to sign.
The children have also
developed Balsena's flag, logo, song, uniform, which is a pink scarf, and
detali (high five) greeting. Every school or community where Shaishav works
has a Balsena team. At present there are 53
such teams with membership of about 2,105
members. Each team elects a captain, a vice captain and two core members
who constitute the Balsena Council of total 164 members. An annual
gathering
of the Council elects a president and a vice president to represent the
collective. The Council members have to give written reports
of
the activities to the Shaishav program organiser and
to the entire Balsena
group.
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