The Transformative Role of Bal Raksha Bharat in Children’s Lives

02/04/24

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Founded in 2008, Bal Raksha Bharat (also known as Save the Children) is helping children across India enter a better future. As of date, it has helped over 10 million children, by implementing its efforts in diverse areas, including education, healthcare, good nutrition and protection from harm. The NGOs ability to achieve reach, scale and impact in a wide set of intervention areas has set it apart as an effective and renowned NGO for children.

Education

A focus area of the organisation is making education better, more inclusive, and more accessible for children. Reflecting the understanding that the delivery of education must be made more engaging and seamless, they build new schools that have libraries, computers and classrooms designed to help all children learn, including children with disabilities. They also train teachers to use new, modern teaching methods to better engage students and ensure a holistic and more relevant learning experience. The NGO’s volunteers and field workers also implement special programmes to help bring children who have dropped out into regular schools. They also get local communities involved in supporting schooling initiatives, to ensure that there is social acceptance and uptake of the work they do. 

Child safety

Keeping children safe is another major priority of this NGO for children. To realise this ambition, the organisation helps create, mentor, and guide groups of children to speak up about other children who may be in adverse circumstances, enabling them to access the help they need. This empowers children to act as the first line of defence for their own safety and empowers them to speak up against any violation of child safety.

The organisation also partners with India’s child safety authorities, bringing forward local research and insights to strengthen laws and enforcement to protect children. They also help train community leaders and voices, including teachers and police, to help them prevent violence, and also respond better to children’s needs. Overall, they try to create an environment where all children can grow up without facing threats of trafficking, forced labor or violence – a facet of their work that has been captured on the NGO website in great detail. 

Health

Bal Raksha Bharat supports a wide variety of government programmes for children’s immunizations, nutrient supplements and clean water and sanitation. The organisation helps bring basic health services and health education to remote areas through community health camps. Leveraging its awareness of local realities, it also advocates for policies addressing causes of diseases like malnutrition across India. It also partners with large national nutrition campaigns to reach more children and mothers in need. The goal is to have communities where children can grow up healthy.

Disaster reliefs

In times of disaster, Bal Raksha Bharat can rapidly send in teams to give emergency aid focused on children. This includes distributing supplies, deploying healthcare professionals and counsellors, and setting up child-friendly spaces for kids to get education and emotional support. Their ability to deploy local preparedness plans allows faster response when crises occur, enabling them to work as an effective shield in such times. 

Working in partnership with other organisations

The organisation has achieved scale and reach by creating partnerships and alliances with a wide variety of organisations, who, together, bring complementary strengths to their child rights vision. In addition, they maintain effective linkages with grassroots government and civil society workers to ensure that they can shape realistic programs fitting local children’s needs. Through their approach, they can catalyse momentum towards ensuring that stakeholders, including corporates, and governments, among others, prioritise the rights of children in decision-making. Guided by a common sense of teamwork, they can sustain progress toward the goal of all children in India getting their basic rights met.

 Since commencing its operations in India, Bal Raksha Bharat has pioneered many proven ways of uplifting the country’s most vulnerable through education, healthcare, child protection and emergency aid. Going forward, its community-connected, child-centric approach will remain important for achieving an India where all children can thrive free of deprivation and fear. Read more about Bal Raksha Bharat on the official NGO website, or visit its social media profiles to get a snapshot of its most recent efforts.

Pulkit Arora

Manager-Brand & Communication

“With over 12 years of dedicated experience in the social development sector, I am passionate about championing child rights and community empowerment through innovative communication strategies. As a Digital Marketing Manager for digital Campaigns and Communication with Bal Raksha Bharat (Save the Children), I have honed my expertise in orchestrating impactful campaigns online and fostering partnerships with key stakeholders to drive positive change."