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.
