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Butterflies in
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Tsunami had shaken the lives of thousands of children across Andaman
and Nicobar Islands and hundreds of children had been orphaned by the
deadly waves. While the government and many NGOs were busy rebuilding
the lives of the adults, there were very few who looked into the needs
of the children. Butterflies with the support of Save the Children has
been operational in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands since the emergency
phase caused by the Asian tsunami on 26th December 2004. Butterflies
started ‘Activity Centres’ at the request of the Department of
Education and organized Educational, Recreational and Cultural
Programmes in several temporary shelters. These Activity Centres
gradually started playing a pivotal role to help children to overcome
their fears, by engaging them in various creative activities, resume
schooling and getting back to their normal lives.
 PROGRAMME COVERAGE
Butterflies initiated its ‘Child Protection Programme’
in ANI in March 2005 and from Little Andaman it moved on to South
Andaman and then to Great Nicobar. With time, Butterflies sought
permission from the Tribal councils of Car Nicobar and Nancowry group
of Islands and following their approval, Butterflies initiated its
programmes there as well. There are 61 operational CDCs (Children’s
Development Centres) with a direct outreach to 2142 children and
indirect outreach to another 2026 children. It’s outreach to families
exceeds 2000 households. We have also been successful in encouraging
and helping enroll number of children to school.
CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT CENTRE (CDC)
Butterflies established CDC’s in villages/intermediate
shelters to promote ‘Children’s Collectives’ as a strategy for overall
empowerment of children and to equip them with necessary skills to
enhance participation in their development and protection of their own
rights. CDC conducts activity-based teaching, and also provides a
platform to identify the talents of the tsunami-affected children in
ANI. Most of the children, who have become lonely after tsunami
expressed that meeting with their friends every evening at the CDCs
and the peer interactions, helped them in faster recuperation.
These centres are facilitated and monitored by the local youths of
each village/island. The CDC strategy incorporates following
participatory activities/forums:
● Bal Sabha/Children’s
Council
● Children’s Club
● Educational Support Programme
● Cultural Activities
● Children’s Library Sports and Recreational Activity
● Health Interventions
● Children’s Newspaper- Andaman &
Nicobar Children’s Times (ANCT)
● Bal Rang Manch (Children’s Theatre)
 Through a combination of many of these participatory tools and
regular mentoring by Butterflies cadre of community workers, the
children attending Butterflies programme have conducted several social
issue based theatre performances and cultural evenings at
village/island forums, written in their newspaper and organized school
enrollment rallies. They have also made representations before
administrative officials to address matters concerning/affecting their
lives following discussions in Bal Sabhas.
Apart from regular work at the CDC’s, Butterflies team has also
continued meeting the parents of children and community members,
teachers, panchayat & tribal council representatives as well local
administration officials, in efforts to create an awareness on child
rights issues, as well create a common platform of understanding for
all stakeholders to accept & adopt the UN Convention on the Rights of
the Child in free will and spirit. To pursue this, Butterflies has
recently conducted workshops on Child Rights for youths at island
level. On 31st March 2007, we organized a half day consultation on
child rights and child protection with tribal council members.
Twenty-two members including Captains and Vice-Captains of seven
project villages participated in the consultation.
 Butterflies in association with Directorate of Health services,
Andaman &Nicobar organized Health Camps in Eleven villages of South
Andaman. 550 children and 400 adults benefited by attending lectures
on communicable diseases and non- communicable diseases, health and
hygiene by the medical professionals. In collaboration with Bishop
John Richardson Hospital, Car Nicobar, we organized Dental Check-Up
camp for two days (31st January and 3rd February 2007) in four schools
of Car Nicobar. Around 450 children had check-ups and received tips on
protection from dental caries and dental plaque.
Supportive of Butterflies work, many parents have risen protesting
against local ward councilors desiring to shut down one of the CDC.
Some of them had met school authorities, PRI and government officials
on matters concerning children’s development sharing and expressing
their concerns relating to the poor status of education,
unavailability of teachers, problems of public transport, corporal
punishment of children at schools etc.
The Child led research- planning by children is a very significant
part of the programme activities, where children participate in
identification of their problems and working out solutions with the
objective of influencing stakeholders to incorporate the findings into
village level planning. This is in its completion phase and following
documentation, select group of child representatives are expected to
host a press conference in Port Blair to share the findings of the
research.
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