When adults are going through a crisis in their social relationships, it is the children who are the most affected. Much needs to be done in the area of nurturing children in this highly competitive and increasingly isolated world.
This is exactly what Latha Rajinikanth plans to do. Her Peace for Children initiative, conceived by Shree Dayaa Foundation, strives to refocus society’s attention on the need to provide kids a safe and a happy childhood.
She feels that society, at large, appears to have ignored children’s needs today, and should come together and ensure that a ‘child’s childhood is not undone’. Speaking about the initiative in her Poes Garden residence, Latha says that the patience of the larger community to address the needs of a child is increasingly wearing thin.
“Most of the time, we are undoing a childhood and not assisting it. This should stop. Peace For Children is an initiative to stop undoing a childhood,” says Latha. To do this, the initiative will organise events such as carnivals and concerts, mimicking the grand thiruvizhas and religious festivals of villages. Latha believes that reconnecting with Indian community living of the past is important to create a safe environment for the children of today. She adds that the idea is to create ‘carnivals’, which were a part of Indian living in the past.
“[The carnivals will have] Everything from games, and activities, to platforms for children’s skills to develop. There will be indoor and outdoor games,” she says, adding, “Indian living was a great example for good upbringing. We had a balance: festivities and discipline. The original Indian education system was absolutely stress-free. It was not time-bound. Today, we are forgetting that emotional health should be the base for intellectual health.”
She adds that those days, people were connected, unlike today. “When there is no community, there is no protection. Children need a strong community in order to be safe and happy. Elders involved in the community have to be evolved human beings. They have to be mature and patient,” she says.
Having worked with children for the last 40 years, Latha says that she has already implemented many of her convictions at The Ashram School that she founded. Asked if she was glad that the State Government stopped releasing State rank-lists, Latha says, “It is very late. We did it 25 years back.”
She says that so many people have been affected by an inferiority complex because of the ranks. “If State ranks are missed by one mark and two marks, imagine the chaos in the child’s home that day. If you don’t have adults to deal with it maturely, the child gets a complex.”
Peace for Children will be holding a concert on November 24 at Ramachandra Convention Centre in Thiruvanmiyur. Prior to the concert, a family mela will bring together over 1,500 children.
