Mumbai: In a bid to engage local communities across Indian villages, small towns and metro cities, children from SOS Children’s Villages India, who are part of Bal Panchayats, perform street plays or nukkad nataks aimed to raise awareness about the vital role that their parents and communities play in the holistic development of children. These performances are a part of SOS India’s Family Strengthening Programme (FSP) and focus on community outreach and child development.
Since the 1990s, children under FSP have been performing short skits on social issues in the communities they reside in. Beginning from 2010, these have become an integral part of FSP. These street plays serve as an informal and effective medium to raise awareness about informed parenting, active community involvement, and the key role this plays in directly impacting a child’s cognitive, emotional, and social growth. The plays inspire the adults to create and advocate a more supportive and nurturing environment for children, and lead to the development of well-rounded, resilient, and responsible future citizens. This closely aligns with SOS Children’s Villages India’s core mission of ensuring every child grows in a loving, caring, and safe environment.
Sumanta Kar, CEO, SOS Children’s Villages India, said, “We believe that when children are empowered to express themselves, they become catalysts for change. For over a decade, our Family Strengthening Programme has supported Bal Panchayats in creatively using street theatre to voice the challenges they and their communities fac,e be it child rights, education, climate change or protection in their local contexts. These street plays are more than performances; they are platforms for participation, where children between 10 and 17 years take the lead from scripting and rehearsals to staging. Children speak for children, and this peer-to-peer approach has been designed for their holistic development.”
The nukkad natak is conducted in all locations across the country where SOS Children’s Villages India has their FSP set up. The plays are typically organised quarterly or bi-quarterly in each of these locations and range from 15 to 30 minutes each. About 10-20 children organise and participate in each natak, including overseeing acting, emceeing, and supporting logistics.
The theme of the plays mostly circles around eight key themes – child rights and protection, education for all, health and hygiene, child marriage prevention, child labour prevention, gender equality, climate change, and substance abuse or domestic violence. The FSP team works with the Bal Panchayat to create an orientation on the themes identified by the children, followed by script development and talent identification, role distribution, rehearsals, a mock performance, and finally, the children’s performance in the community. Community mobilisers and group leaders inform local communities through announcements and visits to gather audiences, with 100–150 people typically attending each play. This has led to several contextual issues gaining traction and action by the local ward and panchayat’s representatives, such as building roads, cleaning of waterlogged drains, etc.
“Each play is a moment of transformation, not only for the performers but for the community. We’ve witnessed significant community engagement across all our programme locations, reaching hundreds with every performance. The children’s voices carry messages of resilience, equity and dignity. This initiative is directly aligned with our purpose: ensuring that every child grows with the bonds and support they need to become their strongest selves. Our vision is to build communities where children feel heard, valued, and empowered, and these plays are living proof that when given the opportunity, children can spark dialogue and foster social change at the grassroots level,” added the CEO.
The plays serve a dual purpose as they build the skills, confidence, and growth of children associated with SOS India while simultaneously educating and sensitising the community, advancing SOS India’s mission of holistic child development and societal change. The performances by the children have encouraged school enrolments and motivated communities to support Bal Panchayat groups, effectively turning awareness into action, thus indicating that these performances have tangible community engagement, raising awareness and discussion on child rights, education, and gender issues.