NCN (Neighborhood Community Network)

Neighborhood Community Network (NCN) is a secular non-governmental organisation committed to promoting the concept of neighbourhood parliaments. NCN was established in 1998 in Hyderabad. Father Edwin M. John, founder of Voluntary Health Association of Kanyakumari (VHAK) spearheaded the creation of Neighborhood Parliaments of Children in India’s southernmost district, Kanyakumari. People and organisations from various parts of India expressed interest to understand the concept of neighbourhood-based-participation, represented by these neighbourhood parliaments of children and also of women and grown ups. Eventually as the Parliaments were formed and federated, Father Edwin gave shape to the national organization to wide-base the dream of neighbourhood parliament of children across states and to promote the concept worldwide. The working office of NCN is situated at Nagercoil, Kanyakumari District, while the head office continues is in Hyderabad. It also has an office in Bangalore.

Concept of Neighborhood Children’s Parliaments (NCPs): Children from each family in a neighbourhood are organized into two separate children’s neighbourhood parliaments: one, a neighbourhood parliament of junior children (those of six to eleven years) and the other neighbourhood parliaments of adolescents (of 12 to 18 years). They meet regularly and discuss their issues and problems such as child right violation, harms of HIV/AIDS etc. and keep written minutes. Each unit has its own Chief Minister and other cabinet ministers in charge of various aspects of their neighbourhood such as school drop out, child labour, domestic and other abuses, child trafficking, finance of the CP, etc. Since these parliaments are just territorially organized units, every child within that particular neighbourhood area of about thirty families automatically is considered a member. Children in these neighbourhoods gather together, learn together, analyse the issues, plan their responses, implement them and monitor the process etc. These NCPs are federated at the levels of the area, village, Panchayat, block, district and the state. NCPs being small face-to-face communities ensure maximum attention to all the members; being neighbourhood-based units ensure that all the children are covered; being units of a multi-tier federation gives the children a wider say and powerful protective network.
 

Vision:

NCN envisions a world where, through multi-tier global federation of Basic Human Communities or “neighbourhood parliaments”, people are in total control of governance processes and thus ensure their well-being and dignity.

Objectives:

• Establish a federation of Children’s parliaments that are able to participate in making decisions about their own issues at village, district and state level, particularly those that will protect from abuse and violence to prevent them from being separated from their family and community
• Support alliances at district, state and National level to work together to protect children with representation from civil society (NGOs, CBOs etc) through promotion of child parliaments
• Lobby State and National government to promote children’s parliaments for strengthening the child protections systems and child friendly governance through participation of children at village, district, state and National level

EveryChild India and NCN: Working together

The concept of children parliament was evolved by NCN during the time of Tsunami relief work in December 2004. At that time EVC India was also involved in the rehabilitation work all across the affected district in Tamil Nadu. During this time the two organizations came together and shared their ideas on addressing issue of children at risk of becoming separated from their communities and family or who are already separated to be protected through a comprehensive child protection system which will link CBOs, NGO and statutory state and district authorities mandated with a duty of care. NCN designed the concept of Neighborhood Children’s Parliaments (NCPs) which could be used to prevent children from being separated from their family or community as well as actively seek to incorporate child protection recommendations into district/state level plans. The proposed structure was based on uniformity, inclusiveness, federated at all levels and ensured good quality governance. EveryChild started working with NCN to implement the project titled “Strengthening Child Protection System in Tamil Nadu” in 2005.This project is part of a holistic strategy of EveryChild in India that aims to bring together a range of civil society organizations involved in prevention, rescue, rehabilitation and reintegration work with children who are at risk of separation or who have been separated.

Contact us:

Neighborhood Children’s Network:
10, East Colony,
Ramavarmapurna
Nagacoil-629001
Tamil Nadu, India
Phone No: 91-4652-278233
Email: ncnworld2000@yahoo.com
Website: www.neighborhoodparliament.org
              www.ncnworld.org
              www.childrenparliament.org