Kaliyuva Mane (Home for Learning), a free residential and non-residential school, located at Kenchalagudu village about 15 km from Mysuru, has launched ‘Parivarthane’ (transformation), a children’s mock court, on its campus.
Principal District and Sessions Judge K.S. Mudgal inaugurated the new initiative recently. Dinesh Hegde, Member Secretary, Mysore District Legal Services Authority and others were present.
The concept
Explaining the concept of ‘Parivarthane’, M.R. Ananth Kumar, Managing Trustee of the school, said that children quarrel with one another and that is a natural thing. ‘Parivarthane’ aims at helping children settle their ‘disputes’ at the mock court.
Petition box
According to him, the school has kept a petition box in which children are encouraged to put their requests in it. For the time being, teachers don the role of a judge.
So before passing a verdict, both the feuding parties are heard. Gradually, the school hopes to train students to manage their own affairs by way of taking over the role of the judge also. The ‘guilty’ has to pay a fine in the form of a ‘fine cheque’ to the Kids’ Bank that is functioning for the past six years besides taking part in physical work [gardening, cleaning, cutting vegetables, etc.] of the school based on his or her age and physical stamina for not more than two hours a day.
Also, if found ‘guilty’, the child will be asked to sit alone in the court by skipping game sessions.
A confession box has also been kept for students wanting to confess, a release said.
The school was launched 10 years ago and children aged between 6 and 14 from difficult backgrounds are resident scholars. It provides food, clothing, accommodation and medical care and admission is given round the year.
Kaliyuva Mane has kept a petition box in which children are encouraged to put in their requests
