Resource and Training faculty:

Ms. Nandana Reddy the founder Executive Director of the Concerned for Working Children (CWC) is now the Director Development and heads Dhruva. She was the Chairperson of the International Working Group on Child Labour (IWGCL). She has inputted extensively into international and national policies, drafted child related legislation and has set up structures and mechanisms in the field for making children’s rights a reality. She has many years of training experience and has designed and conducted training programmes on child labour, children’s participation, protagonism and governance in several countries. She has been a consultant for international NGOs, organisations and Multinational Corporations. She is one of the founding members of the AIT-NGDO CHAKRA Consortium.

Ms. Kavita Ratna is one of the Directors of the Concerned for Working Children. She has been involved with information management, communications, advocacy and training. She works closely with Bhima Sangha, a union of, by and for working children and with the National Movement of Working Children on issues of communication and assists them to bring out several publications.

She has also been associated with the International Movement of Working Children facilitated by the International Working Group on Child Labour (IWGCL). She has been involved with Dhruva since its inception and has been intimately involved in developing training modules, conducting workshops and designing strategies that enable children’s participation, protagonism and Governance.

Mr. Damodar Acharya, one of the founder members of the Concerned for Working Children (CWC) is presently the Executive Director. His activism began in the trade union movement during the early 80’s. He has more than 15 years of field experience in implementing programmes that have enabled children to organise themselves and participate at all levels of decision making. He has facilitated children’s Protagonism and Governance strengthening children’s agency. He is also one of the members of the CHAKRA Network set up by Prof. Hiran Dias of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok.

Mr. Ganapathy M. M. has years of field experience working with children and their communities. He has enabled children to form their own parallel local governments and facilitated structures to link these with local governments. He is an experienced trainer and had conducted several training programmes for children and NGOs on the subject of children’s participation. He has also conducted training programmes on Appropriate Education for children.

Mr. Lolichen P.J. is the research co-ordinator at the Concerned for Working Children (CWC). He has several years of experience facilitating research with, by and of children. His academic background is a Masters in Social Work and Law. He has designed processes with children that enable them to come up with definitions regarding good and bad work, education, infrastructure and other issues. He has authored a process document on children and their own research, which describes the process and methodology.

Visiting Resource Panel:

Mr. Brian Raftopoulos, Deputy Director of the Institute of Development Studies, Zimbabwe has done extensive work on the issue of child labour. He was a member of the International Working Group on Child labour (IWGCL). Prof. Ben White is a professor at the Institute of Development Studies, Den Hague, the Netherlands.

He has several papers and publications on the issue of children, children’s rights and child labour to his credit. He was a member of the Resource Group set up to assist the International Working Group on Child labour (IWGCL).

Prof. Michael Bourdillon is a professor of Social Anthropology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Zimbabwe, where he has taught for 25 years. He is also actively involved with an NGO ‘Streets Ahead’ that works with street children in Harare. He has recently authored the book ‘Earning a Life: Working children in Zimbabwe’ which discusses both the costs and benefits of children’s work that in some cases enables them to access schooling.

Professor Hiran Dias of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) Bangkok.

Dr. Hiran Dias, is a former professor and head of the NGDO Management Training programme, Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand. He spearheaded the CHAKRA consortium that designs and conducts training programmes for NGDO Managers in Asia. Now a freelance NGDO management consultant, he continues to support the NGDO community in Asia by organising training workshops and consultancy.

Mr. Julian Kramer is the Senior Policy Advisor to Save the Children Norway. A Social Anthropologist who has several years of experience working with issues concerning children, especially the disadvantaged in Asia. He has designed and conducted several workshops on the issue of children’s rights and has facilitated a process documentation workshop to enable children document the process of their own research.

Mr. William Myers, an educationalist, has been working on policy for marginalised children for over 20 years. He is a consultant on child work and has formerly served both UNICEF and the ILO as an official dealing with child work issues. He has authored variety of publications (including articles) on disadvantaged children, education and child labour. He is one of the co-authors of ‘What Works for Working Children’, a landmark publication in this area. He was a member of the Resource Group set up to assist the International Working Group on Child Labour (IWGCL).

Ms. Amuktha Mahapatra is an educationalist who has studied several systems of education including the Montessori method. She has experience in developing learning material, training teachers and designing curriculum for disadvantaged children.

She set up and was the principal of ABACUS, a Montessori school in Chennai, India. She has worked on several issues related to education including the transformation of formal and government schools in India.

Mr. Lakshapathy is the Executive Director of the Association for the Promotion of Social Action (APSA), a community based organisation working for civil society participation. He is a founder member and a Director of the Concerned for Working Children. He has extensive experience in designing and conducting training programmes for children and adults in child participation and protagonism. He is one of the members of the CHAKRA Consortium.