Transform the Lives of Children in Gujarat, India

Balsena Elections

It is the election season everywhere!

In Balsena, each year new council and president and vice president are elected. This year Balsena general elections were held in month of August. In the general elections, four new council members were elected from each team. Together, they form Council of Balsena, which is the main decision making body of Balsena.  Balsena children prepare criteria for council members and only those who fit the criteria can contest the elections. Criteria are as following: The contestant should be regular in the points and in the meetings, can take responsibility, know about child rights, have knowledge about Balsena, can speak and read Gujarati and Hindi, can go to meetings on their own in the city.  Balsena children also have system of ’right to recall' if the elected representatives are not doing the work that is expected of them. 60 new children were elected as council members this year. 

On October 1st and 2nd, Balsena also held presidential election to elect its President and Vice President. In the months of September, preparation of the election went on, where the new council children decided the criteria for President and Vice President, based on these the children nominated themselves to contest the election. The criteria were as following : The contestant should be regular in points, meetings and different programs, have experience of taking responsibilities of different programs, have good knowledge of child rights and children's issue, have knowledge about Balsena and its history, have ability to solve problems, Can understand, speak, read and write Gujarati and Hindi and have some knowledge of English, should be ready to represent Balsena at state and national level and should be ready to travel as well, report back and teach what they learnt at these forums. Council children elect the president and vice president through discussion based open voting system. 

During the leadership camp on 1st and 2nd October for election, children learnt about what are the characteristics of a good leader, how to be a good leader and how electing leader is not enough but we also have to be active and demand accountability as well. Children learnt about these from various activities. During this election, 7 children contested. They also shared about their understanding about each rights, issues, and discussed their plans of work if they are elected. 
Previous Presidents and Vice Presidents acted as Election Commission, and led these discussions, process and some of the activities, as well as counting and announcement. 

Bhoomi was elected this year as President and Hemanshi and Gopal were elected as Vice Presidents. Balsena has 50% gender reservation rule, so if a girl is elected as a President, a boy must be elected as a VP and vice versa. Bhoomi with the highest votes became President, Hemanshi had second highest votes and Gopal had third highest. So, council children decided to elect both Hemanshi and Gopal as VP. 

Mental Health: 

Mental Health Matters! Children these days are facing several mental health challenges, from stress of studies, exams and marks to feeling peer pressure and addiction to social media which lead to several issues and complexes, and absence of adults who listen to them. 

This year, Shaishav has kept Mental Health as one of its focus. We are also learning and building our own muscles for this. 

We have started Circle Practice for our entire team on every Friday, it is a reflective space where we can get in touch with our thoughts and feelings, and create a safe and non-judgemental space for each other as well. 

This has helped us in creating a safe and empathetic space with children as well, so that they can share about their thoughts and feelings without fear of judgement.

We are also facilitating more activities with children so that they have opportunity to understand various emotions, and can name them. We are also teaching them different tools which they can use on their own when they are feeling overwhelmed. Each time, when the facilitators meet the children, they do check in with individual child about how they are doing. This helps children feel connected to their emotions and needs and helps them feel that it is ok to ask for help. 

We are also learning and building our muscles for this, so we have also taken help from psychologists like Krupaben and Nitaben, who have helped our team and if the children need, help in counselling them as well. 

Sports Day: 

Sports remain favourite of children. After the exams, we planned sports days in different zones, where children from different points in their zones gather and play together. 3 sports days were planned in the three zones. Different games were planned for both younger and older children. Active and council children also took leadership in organizing and facilitating the sports days. Games such as Dodge Ball, Relay Race, Zip-Zap, Zoond Zupat, Glass Jeet, Pass the Ring, etc. were played. 127 young and 161 older children participated in Sports days, and had lots of fun together. 

In the coming months Balsena children are planning more leadership camps and have identified Right to Protection from physical, mental, emotional and Sexual Abuse as one of the core areas they want to work on.