Children for Peace: Workshop at BHU with A Difference

August 9,2000 saw a major initiative culminating into a daylong workshop at the Malaviya Centre for Peace Research, Banaras Hindu University. Of late the Malaviya Centre for Peace Research has emerged as a harbinger of peace and a hub of intellectual activities in northern India. One of the central concerns of the Malaviya Centre for Peace Research - a fledgling Centre at the Banaras Hindu University, has been to promote public peace constituencies within and across national borders. To this end, the Centre has been undertaking varied activities in collaboration with institutions and individuals sharing common objectives. Last year the Malaviya Centre for Peace Research in collaboration with the British Council had organized a successful Workshop on " Women & Peace" involving peace & women activists and this year the Centre has launched yet another innovative project on Children & Peace.  

Indeed Children are the worst affected victims of wars, conflicts, small arms and light weapons. Two million children have been killed in the last ten years in conflicts; five million have been disabled and twelve millions left homeless. Many children exploited as combatants and forced to participate in fighting. Thus Peace is not an idea; it is a pragmatic need to promote such culture of Peace. With this perspective, the Malaviya Centre for Peace Research, Banaras Hindu University and Nomura Trust for Lifelong Integrated Education represented by Ms N. Simhadri decided to seek ideas, support & collaboration with leading educational Institutions of Varanasi concerned with small children. And the response were quite overwhelming with more than 20 leading schools coming forward to share these peace efforts. After a series of Workshops involving university intellectual, activists along with teachers of more than twenty schools for primary education, it was decided to launch a Peace forum to promote ideas and projections on peace, nuclear disarmament and conflict resolution. The very first project of this peace forum was to commemorate the Human Sufferings Inflicted on Hiroshima & Nagasaki on August 6 & 9, 1945

On August 6, 2001 the participant schools organized in respective Schools various essay, poetry debate and poster competition on the theme of Children for Peace.  These Posters, Paintings, essays and other creative initiatives numbering over a hundred were displayed at the Malaviya Centre for Peace Research on August 9,  2001. The participants on this occasion included: Dayawati Modi Academic, Ramnagar, Central Hindu Girls School, Kamchcha, Spring Dale School, Sunbeam School, Durgakund, Sunbeam School, Bhagwanpur, Sunbeam School, Sigra, Smith Schools, Sigra, Malaviya Sishu Vihar, BHU, Mahamana Vidhyalaya, BHU.

Along with the Poster Exhibition, highlighting varied dimensions of human destruction brought about by weapons and culture of violence, a touching movie entitled " A Mother's Prayer" was also shown (courtesy Japanese Foundation at New Delhi) to the audience numbering over 150 people including young children, their parents, teachers, university intellectuals, peace activists, media people.  The movie captured the horrific loss of human innocence and also unraveled the real possibility of such tragic recurrence if the arms culture is not replaced by the culture of peace & dialogue. The Poster Exhibition and the Movie show were followed by various speeches and peace stories.

Inaugurating the day long Workshop Prof. P. Krishna, Director, Krishnamurty Foundation, Rajghat and an eminent nuclear physicist amplified the essential unity of human beings, which has been tragically disrupted by artificial divides perpetrating the culture of arms and violence. History is replete with distressing tales of humans trying to destroy the very humanity. If we do not take urgent measures to transform our mindset, they're real possibilities of complete elimination of human species.

Professor Krishna's theme was followed up by the eloquent presentation of Sri D.C. Pandey, a Senior Police Officer and an eminent poet known as Nazar Banarsi. Dilating on the import of family values to promote the Culture of Peace, Sri Pande exhorted members of civil society to undermine the salience of arms culture and violence, which is crippling our society. Representing the peace concerns of Nomura Trust for Lifelong Integrated Education, Ms N. Simhadri, the Executive Trusty of the Trust explicated in simple terms the basic unity of human beings and how the arms culture specially the nuclear weapons are posing a live threat to it. Her presentation was deeply appreciated by the young minds. Dr Priyankar Upadhyaya the Coordinator of the Malaviya Centre for Peace Research and the organizer of the Workshop then presented the long term objectives of the project " Children for Peace" and how the Peace Centre is committed to create favourable peace constituencies within and across national borders. The present endeavour, according to him, is a preliminary exploration into the prospects of initiating young children into the imperatives of peace, tolerance and conflict resolution. Although Indian culture offers a strong normative impulse of Co-existence  & Non-Violence, there is a strong need to operationalize these ideas into real life situations. And children are obviously the most responsive and effective constituency to begin this impulse.

Indeed the most rewarding constituency to promote such culture of peace is that of children. With this perspective, the Malaviya Centre for Peace Research, BHU  & Namura Trust for Lifelong Integrated Education decided to seek ideas, support and collaboration with leading educational institutions of Varanasi concerned with children education. In his presidential remarks, Professor A. P. Singh, Dean Faculty of Social Sciences highlighted the issues of structural violence and how an overall developmental process is needed to salvage the children from the scourge of violence. Dr DGA Khan, a Political Scientist while offering vote of thanks exhorted the audience to fulfill their societal commitment to the imperative of peace.

It was indeed a Workshop with a difference as it offered a rare blend of academic and real life issues and in turn children education with the social science concerns in the university.