EVERY ONE making a noise with school children

By Rajdeep, EVERY ONE team


June 19, New Delhi: Save the Children in association with The Tehelka Foundation is reaching out to schools with EVERY ONE. On the hot Saturday evening a group of kids joined hands together to make some noise, a noise to wake up Delhi to issues which “we” blissfully want to be oblivious of. This group consisted of children from contrasting social backgrounds- a homogeneous mix of students of Bluebells School International, an elite school in a posh south Delhi locality and children from Salam Balak Trust, an NGO working with street children in and around New Delhi railway station. These children were brought together and provided with training in street theatre by The Tehelka Foundation, an NGO working on social equity and justice.

With the sun still beating down hard, the excited bunch of children made their way into Dilli Haat, a popular handicrafts bazaar in the heart of Delhi. These children with their infectious energy spread themselves to every nook and cranny of Dilli Haat ushering people to gather around to watch their play with the chant “aao aao, natak dekho” (come with us and watch the play). As the play progressed, the group had managed to gather an audience of about 100-120 in number. The audience included Tarun Tejpal, Editor-in-chief of Tehelka magazine with his wife, representatives from Unicef and Save the Children. 

The street theatre focussed on several issues such as maternal health, child mortality, state of the girl child, female foeticide, family planning, child labour and the plight of the street children. But more importantly, it stressed on the fact that these are not “their” problems and it not just affects “them”, it is “us”. EVERY ONE of us has an important role in addressing these issues. One of the children played the role of a mother who had lost her child because of diarrhoea, establishing the fact that diarrhoea is one of the major causes of child mortality in our country. Another group of children played the role of a family with an expecting mother showing the importance of prenatal care. The audience laughed at the mimicries of the Bollywood actors and occasionally paused with a deep silence as the hard-hitting messages were conveyed by the children in a subtle and simple language. The tapestry of humour juxtaposed with serious messages engaged and enthralled the audience. 

The play culminated with the children reaching out to the audience and distributing leaflets with the key messages of the EVERY ONE campaign. The warmth of the applauding audience more than made up for the unrelenting Delhi heat. So much so, that the excited children repeated the performance at the entrance of Dilli Haat gathering an even bigger audience around them.

Dilli Haat was the first in the series of venues for the street theatre by The Tehelka Foundation. In the month ahead, these children will reach out to more public places such as malls, markets, university campuses; slum clusters and colonies in and around Delhi, making a noise that EVERY ONE of us can save a child’s life.