City joins global rally for child rights
April 20, 2012 is a big day for child rights supporters all over the world. It marks the almost inexplicable resurgence of interest in the life and times of feared warlord Joseph Kony. Bengaluru is the only Indian city (so far) participating in the global rally against the Ugandan chief and his misdeeds; Bengalureans will join people the world over at 10 pm on Friday for the three-hour long protest.
Kony’s life in the Lord’s Resistance Army left a trail of dread and bloodshed and a veritable media circus in its wake. He has been accused of rape, mutilation and murder of civilians and recruiting child soldiers to fight his war during his decade-long campaign in Uganda. Reviving all these horrors now, is Kony 2012, a short film created by Invisible Children Inc, as part of the attempt to bring Kony to justice before the International Criminal Court. If you’re wondering what this has to do with India, Siju Daniel, whose organisation, SCEAD Foundation, is behind the protest in the city, will tell you that Kony is not the only one abusing children and recruiting them to fight as soldiers.
Daniel, a child rights campaigner, was in Orissa a year before Kony’s arrest in 2005. There, he came to understand how recruiting child soldiers isn’t a horrific patent of the Lord's Resistance Army; Maoists are seeking out children, paying their families money, and taking kids by force. “The government hasn’t done anything about it, but I would hear of cases every week,” he says.
The Kony 2012 rally was just the chance he needed. “I realised this rally was the perfect link to highlight the same issues in India, which nobody has bothered about yet,” says Daniel. The rally, which will be held at Bangalore International Academy, Jayanagar, will see 200 students from 30 schools participating. There will be a street play based on the life of a child soldier in Orissa, songs on freedom, and a movie on Kony. “Some people from the SCEAD team will also go to Delhi to protest in front of Parliament and participating students will write a letter to the President,” he explains.
Post new comment