Bachpan Bachao Andolan

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Bachpan Bachao Andolan (English: Save Childhood Movement) is an India-based movement
campaigning for the rights of children. It was started in 1980 by Nobel LaureateKailash Satyarthi.
Its focus has centred on ending bonded labour, child labour and human trafficking, as well as
demanding the right to education for all children. It has so far freed 80,000 children from
servitude, including bonded labourers, and helped in their successful re-integration, rehabilitation
and education.[1]
Contents
[hide]

1 Purpose

2 History

3 Strategy

4 Campaigns

5 See also

6 References

7 External links

Purpose[edit]
The stated vision of Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) is "to create a child friendly society, where
all children are free from exploitation and receive free and quality education." It aims "to identify,
liberate, rehabilitate and educate children in servitude through direct intervention, child and
community participation, coalition building, consumer action, promoting ethical trade practices
and mass gaming."[2]

History[edit]
BBA was formed in 1980 by Kailash Satyarthi, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate for 2014, who was
appalled by the plight of child slavery across South Asia. Child labour has been socially accepted
and widely practised in the region for generations, being seen as a necessary outcome of
poverty. BBA became the first organization in India to highlight the issue and spawned the wider
South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS).

Strategy[edit]
The work of BBA takes three strands, being prevention, protection and rehabilitation. [3]

Prevention is encouraged through community intervention. Public awareness campaigns

and efforts to publicise the problems of child labour to consumers are important facets in this
activity, as are initiatives at grassroots level with villages in India where the practice has been

tolerated by both employers and parents. The BBA's Child Friendly Village program (in
Hindi, Bal Mitra Gram, or BMG), has been accepted as a best practice model for
development and elimination of child labour and trafficking. This program recognises those
villages where child labour no longer exists, all children are enrolled in school and they have
access to their own public assembly (the Bal Panchayat) that is officially recognised by the
elected village council (the Gram Panchayat).[4][5]

Protection: where possible, the Indian legislative provisions are used to restrain and
eliminate the practices of child labour and trafficking, and campaigns for tightening and
developing the legislation are pursued. BBA works to recover fines from employers and
traffickers and also to obtain monies owed to those whose labour has been used. [6]

Rehabilitation: BBA tries to ensure that rehabilitation remains the responsibility of the
State (Govt.). Statutory rehabilitation is one of the key components of legal action. This
includes a fine of 20,000 Rs. on the employer, in cases of child labour, a further
compensation of Rs. 20,000 from the Govt., apart from other Govt. social welfare schemes.

In trafficking and child labour cases requiring transit rehabilitation and other support through
residential care, the rescued children find their new life at BBA's transit rehabilitation centres Mukti Ashram, situated at the outskirts of Delhi and Bal Ashram, situated in Virat Nagar,
Rajasthan. Mukti Ashram is an immediate shelter for the children who are rescued from Delhi
and its surroundings. They are immediately provided with medical help, food, clothing,
recreational facilities, sports, theater and counseling during their stay until the legal formalities
are completed and they are repatriated and reunited with their families. On the other hand,
children who do not have families to fall back upon find a new home at Bal Ashram. Here,
Children stay for a longer duration, receive basic as well as formal education as well as
vocational training which may help them earn their living when they grow up.
Public Interest Litigations : BBA works on policy and legislative changes through effectively
implementing the legal process and approaching the Supreme Court of India or various High
Courts for making and enforcing policies in favour of children. This includes a number of
judgements/ orders including the recent orders:
1. Upholding the Constitutional validity of Right to Education
2. Prohibition of employment of children in Circuses
3. Recovery of fines and cancellation/ sealing of establishments employing child labourers.
4. Protection of girls being trafficked through unregulated placement agencies.

Campaigns[edit]
BBA has led the largest civil society initiative in the world against child labour in the form of the
Global March Against Child Labour in 1998, leading to ILO Convention 182 on Worst Forms of
Child Labour.
One of the recent campaigns of BBA include:
Child Labour Free India Campaign: for an amendment in Child Labour (Prohibition &
Regulation) Act, 1986 for total abolition on child labour till the age of 14 yrs., in line with ILO
Convention 138.[7]
Right to Education Campaign:[8]

In 2001, BBA had led the campaign demanding Fundamental Right to Education, with
over 180 Members of Parliament and a 15,000 km. long march across the country, resulting

in a constitutional amendment and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education
Act.
Child Domestic Labour campaign[9]

6487 Letters sent to all judges in High Court, Supreme Court, Education department,
social welfare department, Commissions, members Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha etc. to create
awareness

16140 Stickers pasted in total 320 villages and RWAs across the country.

In Delhi, 225 Resident Welfare Associations pledged to make their home child labour free

Mukti Caravan (campaign against child trafficking for forced labour)[10]

Covered 158 villages in UP, Bihar, Delhi and Rajasthan

750 street plays, approx. 3500 wall writings, rallies, Public Vigilance Committees 70
formed, 250 schools reached

Follow up of 137 child labourers, 2 child marriages stopped

Complaint received - 350 approx

Missing Children Campaign: biggest ever research undertaken on missing children, resulting in
Supreme Court issuing notice to all states and union territories on missing children. [11]