PICTURE SPEAK

THE FACILITATOR: Ayer with ‘activist’ children

The film has been made under the aegis of East Side Story (ESS), a bureau where children in the age group of 8 and 14, from poor sections of society, write articles on subjects concerning them which appear in newspapers and magazines and make films on these issues which are aired on radio, TV and Internet. Kalvettu, a six-minute film on a child victimised by a parent, and many other short films have been screened in more than 600 villages across Tamil Nadu to great response. "I was convinced that providing them access wherein they could translate their perceptions into digestible forms of media would help make solutions to child welfare more meaningful," says Sriram V. Ayer, who, with support from UNICEF, launched ESS to "empower children to vocalise their concerns, physical and emotional."

Ayer, a software professional, quit a lucrative job four years ago and now heads Nalandaway, an NGO that strives for holistic development of poor and underprivileged children. No wonder the children in Krishnagiri district, where this project was piloted six months ago, are busy sniffing for news, reporting facts and voicing their views through a monthly tabloid news poster, Thappa Righta (wrong or right). Each district, and Ayer has already identified six-Chennai, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Kanchipuram, Vellore and Kanyakumari-will have an ESS bureau with access to a digital camera and a voice recorder.

Nalandaway will soon release a musical album with six songs penned by children. There is also a plan to ensure that each district has an audio blog. "The idea is to make the blog an archive of content which even the mainstream media can use," Ayer adds. Driven by the golden rules of journalism-accuracy and objectivity-the child scribes are on a roll. "We are almost getting activist," quips Ayer, "which is good and bad." But reality bites, doesn't it?

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