Social Welfare in Delhi: NGO for children

There are an enormous number of NGOs for children coming up in the metropolitan city of Delhi; NGOs that tackle different kinds of problems and are trying to make our earth a better place to live in from different fronts, but a majority of them with children as their major stakeholders. There are quite a number of adversities that the world is facing today: global poverty, climate change, terrorism, rising inequalities etc.; and there are attempts being made to deal with them as well. But global problems need global solutions where the whole world works together for a long-term goal of a better and sustainable environment. Now, if we are talking about the future, today’s children have a major role to play. It is the love, values and nurturing we give today that will determine if they would also become global citizens.

In an ever-expanding city like Delhi with people from all backgrounds living together, it becomes easier to merge different groups of people and help them empathize and work for each other. One can often see children as young as four years of age begging in the streets with clothes that are torn from every visible point, while at the other end there are children who have the luxury of having different kinds of food every day and have matching shoes for every dress they own. If one spends some time with the former lot, it becomes evident that poverty cannot be eradicated in one day or with just one kid becoming a millionaire; it is a step-by-step process; the many NGOs that operate in the city are in this process. There are various things that are being done:

• Catering to the educational needs of children
• Eradicating the evils of child-abuse, trafficking and child labor
• Providing vocational training to develop skills to be able to be self-dependent and self-sustainable
• Providing with a conducive and progressive environment for their development without any short comings
• Providing a forum for the exchange of ideas on the social, cultural and educational conditions of society because children, especially those who are under-privileged and exploited cannot by themselves bring themselves out of their miserable conditions; NGOs act as the voice of these children.
• Influencing the laws of the country to protect the rights of children
• Taking care of the health of the under-privileged and under-nourished children by providing for nutritional food

Among all such NGOs, Lakshyam is one that is engaged in a number of social welfare activities, child welfare being one of its major frontiers. It is registered as trust under the Indian Trust Act 1882 with amalgamation of Lakshyam, a society; registered under Societies Registration Act 1860. Since its inception in 2004, it has established itself for mankind at large, catering to the impoverished sections of the society and fighting for their rights, so as to one day bring about a more egalitarian world. Based in Delhi itself, it has two centers in Vasant Kunj and Ghaziabad. But with an aim to offer every child their fundamental right to education, Lakshyam has slowly grown into a larger organisation covering 11 states of India. At the onset of its journey, Lakshyam set up free-of-cost remedial schools to provide basic education to children by instilling in them a new interest in studying. In areas that lack basic habitable conditions, it set up sustainable sources of energy and electricity.

So as some person once said, indeed: ‘the children of today are the future of tomorrow’. Sometimes it may seem like it is taking forever for a change to come about or it may take an era for just a minor change to come about, but what is most important is the courage to empathize rather than sympathize and indeed take whatever action one can take to keep moving forward; even the thought counts. For us to bear witness to the changes that the NGOs are striving to bring about by working for the children of tomorrow, we must take our little steps in that path as well.