Human development during childhood is a complex phenomenon with the various stages of development from infancy, toddler, preschooler/early childhood, school age and adolescence being impacted by society and culture with processes of thinking, play, imagination, relationships, fantasy, imitation, mental representation developing over the years. HAQ: Center for Child Rights B1/2, Ground Floor, Malviya Nagar New Delhi - 110017 Tel: +91-26677412,26673599 Fax: +91-26674688 Website: www.haqcrc.org Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/HaqCentreForChildRights

1. Weekly Activities in Children’s home, Nirmal Chhaya
Human development during childhood is a complex phenomenon with the various
stages of development from infancy, toddler, preschooler/early childhood, school age
and adolescence being impacted by society and culture with processes of thinking,
play, imagination, relationships, fantasy, imitation, mental representation developing
over the years.
One of the basic tenets of development is that, growth takes place in various spheres-
physical (gross motor and fine motor), socio-emotional (interpersonal and
intrapersonal), linguistic (comprehension and expression) and cognitive (memory,
thinking, understanding, reasoning) throughout childhood.
At the Children’s home for girls in the Nirmal Chhaya complex, an initiative was
taken by HAQ Centre for Rights to introduce arts and crafts, combining weekly
activities with play and group discussions, which focus on the child’s development in
various spheres. An attempt was made to involve the children in something
constructive while also providing them with stimulation to make them think and to
make use of their creative potential in order to feel a sense of participation and
mastery over whatever they had created.
Our activities, over the past one year, have ranged from drawing, making pen stands,
paper bags, rakhis, friendship bands, hair bands, ear rings, bracelets, paper mache
objects, playing with clay and making various things out of it, kite making, balloon
art, story telling, applying mehndi on hands, doing make up on each other’s faces,
chart making (festivals, cleanliness, habits, transportation, famous places) etc. We try
and engage the child by linking this activity with their own self experiences while
making an effort to keep it fun and enjoyable for the child.
We try to combine these activities with discussions around various themes relevant to
the child’s life, ranging from topics of interest to the children to issues and problems
they face to various age appropriate themes such as hygiene and cleanliness that
should be maintained, emotional problems that the girls face and the various coping
strategies used by them , appropriate ways of managing anger, empathy and emotional
connect with the other, the loss and sadness that the girls feel being away from home,
relationships and friendships that are formed, the various kinds of relationships that
are formed, sexuality and reproductive health, school and home related problems,
tolerance and patience.
The girls seem to enjoy this weekly interaction and it has been our experience that
they look forward to being a part of something which involves them creatively while
giving them a forum to talk about any issues that they face. An important facet of this
work is to facilitate processes of introspection and reflection through an engagement
with the child’s own experiential and subjective reality with a respect for individual
differences.