Children could help you to win the election !

If we fail to do anything better for the children now, we will not see a better Bangladesh ever. It is unlikely that our great political leaders do not understand this fact. It is even more unlikely that they intentionally left the children's agendas out of their priority list. There must be something else that has hindered many of them from being child-sensitive leaders. It is unfair to generalize this for all the political parties and leaders but, undoubtedly, almost all parties and, many leaders, can make improvements in terms of their plans and actions for the children.

Each election gives the children, as well as the adults, a new chance to influence the parties for becoming better committed to the children's issues. But the responsibility should be more on the shoulders of the political parties. They should use this opportunity to revise their agendas. It would be very easy for the Child-Rights organisations to organize a series of workshops and seminars where they could invite the party leaders to talk about this. This is certainly one way of doing it, and in many cases quite successfully. However, in my view, the better approach would be if the political parties themselves could organize sessions to hear about the children's problems, dreams, fears and ideas.

The political parties could claim that they are always with the people, which gives them the knowledge useful in determining the best thing for the people. This understanding was also present in preparing our national budget. But for the last few years the finance minister has been listening to various sections of the community, and this approach must be working well, as this has become a regular trend now a days, and is becoming even better with time and practice. The present finance minister even listened to children regarding the national budget, and he characterized that as a "great initiative." That attempt, facilitated by 'Save the Children, Australia,' an international child-rights organization, did show an encouraging example of children's meaningful participation in determining national agendas.

Such attempts could be replicated in the case of national election, as 'Save the Children,' and many other Child-Rights organizations, are constantly facilitating various processes for mobilising and amplifying children's voices. But I am looking forward more to the political parties' own initiative, rather than the events organised by non-governmental organisations, as it would indicate a qualitative change in the parties' approach to listening to people, which in this case would be the children. The parties could approach the Child-Rights organisations for providing the necessary technical support. I am sure that those oganisations would be delighted to do so. However, in the long run, the parties must also build their own capacity to listen to the children's voices and concerns, which will be an institutional change that is one of the essentials for achieving sustainable positive changes for the children in Bangladesh.

As I mentioned above, the political parties are always with the people, but being with adults and being with the children are two completely different things. We often see that some of the political parties are using children for many of the political activities, which include election campaigning as well. First of all, such malpractices should not only be discouraged, but should be made illegal. Then comes the question of listening to children through ensuring their true participation, which is obviously easier said than done. If the parties try to listen to children's voices then they have to know of, and ensure, an environment in which the children will feel free to air their views. The leaders must know how to "translate" childrens' sayings into policy language, and vice versa. They must find processes through which they could meet representatives of the children from all sections of the community. They must pay special attention to children with special needs e.g. children with disabilities. The parties must also avoid the practice of "show-off" dialogues, and they should be accountable for what they have listened to and committed for. It is crucial for them to go back to the children and tell them about the steps that they have taken, and/or will take, following the children's suggestions. The parties must be aware of these, and many other, aspects of child participation which would allow them to truly consider the children as stakeholders. There are organisations and individuals who could help the parties to ensure that those aspects are taken care of. It would be wonderful to see such a system in practice, maybe initially, in a discreet manner and then as a part of the political system in our country.

Maybe the political parties are already doing it, which I might be unaware of. If it is already happening then we should congratulate the respective parties. But if not, then we should request the leaders to consider it seriously. This would not only do well for the children, but would also add to the total number of votes that the parties would get. We should not forget that children do influence the adult persons they are connected to in determining the preferred candidate in the national election. In addition, the children will become voters in future, and the parties would certainly enjoy long-term benefit for being considerate to today's and tomorrow's children.

Zaki Hasan is Programme Manager (Children as Stakeholders), Save the Children, UK