Thiruvananthapuram: These trio-child parliamentarians hailing from Tamil Nadu, who are in the state capital to showcase the film 'Power to the Children' directed by German director Anna Kersting based on Children's Parliament initiative, has become the talking point of the on-going International Children Film Festival of Kerala (ICFFK), which is being organised by the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare (KSCCW).
Hailing from Nagadasam Patti village in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu the three 18-year olds - Gnanasekar D, Shakthivel C and Gokulraj R - has led the fight to successfully eradicate caste system and politics in their village. These three had taken up the responsibility to save the children in their village from child labour, child marriage. Now they are on a mission to introduce Sociocracy - which supports a deeper democracy and ensure freedom and equality in the country.
Gnanasekar, who is doing his BA Sociology at Loyola College in Chennai, says that it took five years of relentless effort from the children to eradicate caste and politics from their village.
"Initially the parents used to have more control. The elder generation never allowed the children to come together and do things together. Then Children Parliament was formed and the children started working together. There used to be no basic facilities in the village and we started taking up issues one by one," says Gnanasekar, who is the Deputy Children Prime Minister at Inclusive National Children's Parliament, India.
"We joined the Parliament at the age of nine and started fighting for child rights. We started fighting against child marriage and child labour. We saved over 3000 children from child labour," says Gnanasekar.
Shakthivel C, who portrayed the main character in the movie 'Power to the Children', had to give up education because of poverty and had to take up small works to support the family. Gokulraj R too had to discontinue his education because of the sudden demise of his father very recently. However, they are keeping up their fire to continue the fight for the hundreds of children in their village.
"Now we have initiated effort to make our village a model village of the district and get the ISO Certification," Gnanasekar adds.
