Interns' diary: Anahit Simonyan
I feel myself very rewarded being selected for this programme among other, perhaps no less skillful and knowledgeable, candidates and offered the chance to work for children in India. This has been my strong desire since the time I am in India. This fact, however, puts great sense of responsibility on me to do my best to live up to expectations from me. This feeling is driven also by the assurance from UNICEF that our small contributions in forms of case studies on a variety of child issues throughout the country are going to have practical use, serving specific needs and will not be done just for their own sake. Originally I am from Armenia. Since last year I have been pursuing Master’s Degree in International Relations from JawahTo my mind, we were given one of the most important topics for research. Birth registration as the first right of the child mentioned in the CRC, provides basis for future child activities- health, education, development and protection and state national planning for children. I am part of a group consisting of three people – Aarti Dayal from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Teryn Mattox from Harvard University and me. We are going to study the level of birth registration in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh. Current level of birth registration across the country remains insufficient – each year 42% (approx. 10 mln.) births go unregistered. Dhar district claims to have very high birth registration indicators. So, the aim of our study is to find out the actual level of registration, impediments for its futher improvement and success factors that can be replicated in other districts, as well as identify differences of practices across various social groups within villages. Our experience in Dhar promises to be quite challenging judging from the initial knowledge we have. It mainly consists of tribal population with their own lifestyles, customs, beliefs and perceptions some of which are really exciting for an outsider. In addition, the literacy rate is not high (34%). So we have prepared ourselves that we will not hear a single word in English and just hope that our Indian team-mate makes out of the Hindi the local people speak. Currently, three of us are engaged in getting background knowledge on our study, making plans of how our survey is going to proceed and getting accustomed to the environment of Bhopal city. Here we are placed in MP Academy which is a quite renowned research institution with very nice location – near one of the Bhopal lakes. The latter also creates peaceful atmosphere for us to work. I don’t want to sound idealistic but, as far as possible, I would like to share their lives, happiness and fears. To me, what In this regard one among other useful insights during the orientation workshop I got was that we should not approach and interview people as “teachers” to show them directions, but as learners and good listeners being open to new ideas. All these are thoughts …, reality may have surprises in store …
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