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Butterflies - Bal Rang Manch or Children's Theatre
Drama is a powerful means of communication, a great tool for advocacy that engages people in understanding children’s life stories and the kind of rights violation that they face on a regular basis. Drama overcomes literacy barriers,
whilst also enabling children to share experiences and ideas amongst
themselves. Furthermore, through preparing dramas children are able to
reflect upon their experiences, analyze their situations and understand more
about their own behavior and the way their lives are also affected by other
people. Children’s insights gained through their own drama expressions can
be channelised towards productive collective action and advocacy.
"When I, as an individual want to express my problems, nobody is listening but when we form a collective and perform, people are suddenly listening"
- Raju, 15 years, Ex-Ragpicker
 Street theatre has been an integral part of our alternate education
programme. The role of drama as a means of therapy, communication and
advocacy has led us to form the Butterflies Bal Rang Manch or
Children's Theatre.
This theatre group currently consists of 30 regular members who meet with a street theatre educator. The Butterflies Bal Rang Manch regularly produces plays on various thought provoking social issues mostly directed by the faculty of National school of Drama (NSD) which is one of the foremost theatre training institutes in the world and the only one of its kind in India. Butterflies has established a working partnership with NSD to develop a curriculum on theatre.
 The performances of the Butterflies Bal Rang Manch serve many purposes:
● helps street and working children recognize and realize their potentials
● opens up children's perspectives and teaches them to see new possibilities that
would help them to
understand their surroundings better
● develops skills in children to deal with life situations
● makes children confident and skilled communicators
● useful medium to spread awareness among people regarding
various issues prevalent in the society
● the cathartic fallout of theatre helps children in
copying with their psychological needs
● the creative process of theatre leads children to be more
open-minded and acceptable because of the
diverse roles they portray. This helps
them to understand the need to sympathise and empathise with situations and
people
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