Month-long Nonkilling Summer Camp for Children in India

The Shanti Sena Training Centre, Trivandrum, Kerala, India (attached to the Indian Council of Gandhian Studies) and the Rangaprabhat Children’s Theatre partnered in a unique month-long nonkilling summer programme for 120 children from different parts of Kerala. The programme began on April 4 at the Rangaprabhat Chidren’s Theatre and was inaugurated by CGNK Honorary Sponsor Dr. N. Radhakrishnan in the presence of distinguished social activists, teachers, artists, journalists, parents and others.

The medium of the entire programme is dominated by performing arts, music, dance, lullabies, child games, puppetry, story telling and story enacting poems composition, poetry recitals, short story writing, etc., fostering creativity and value creation.

In is opening speech Dr. Radhakrishnan pointed out that the objectives of the programme are two-fold: (i) to offer a variety of live situations to the children to react, respond creatively and emotionally; (ii) to offer a set of situations to the children to help them to unwind the tension they are being subjected to during their academic and examination sessions.

The orientation of this programme in community living, nonviolent/nonkilling leadership, yuva shantisena, etc. is a curtain-raiser to a major effort being planned to be launched soon to emphasise the value of “giving the children their childhood back” and encouraging their parents and teachers to understand children properly and treat them with compassion and love.