Pakistani peace activists decided to join in paying respects to Nehru and the celebrations of Children’s Day in India by organizing and participating in a teleconference with a group of children in Jaipur, Rajasthan. This picture is from the site in Hyderabad.

It was the third such teleconference of the year aiming at knowing our neighbours better through direct contact. The first two – between children in Hyderabad, Pakistan and Lucknow, India and between Hyderabad, Pakistan and Rohtak, India – had been very successful.

One of the Pakistani organizers, Aslam Khwaja, who is a journalist and rights activist, pointed out that these were forums organized by the civil society. Children from both sides spoke quite enthusiastically, talking about their homes, their schools, their hobbies, about movies and larger social issues.

In Pakistan, a group of dozen children included participants from various economic and social strata including children who worked on the streets and children released from bonded labour.

In India, the participants were representatives from 400 children from 34 schools participating in a two day camp called Sanjhi Khoj-Sanjhi Samaj. These included children from Government schools, Madrasas, children from slums, children released and from bonded labour.

A senior PUCL leader, Kavita Srivastava, had organized this call from the Indian side along with peace rights activist Monica Wahi. Describing the enthusiasm in the air at Jaipur, Kavita says:
We had more than 400 children of 34 schools from a diversity of backgrounds like public schools, Government schools, Madarsa Schools, children from slum schools, rural schools and working children who had been freed from child labiur bondage for the two day camp" Sanjhi Khoj-Sanjhi Samaj". The teleconferencing event was the high point of the two days. It just proved once again that these borders are just rubbish "aur dilo mein border nahin hain"

The telephone siezed to be an audio instrument the moment Suman a child who had been to Karachi as part of "cricket for peace" last year discovered that he was talking to Bhairu in Hyderabad, Sindh who was in the same group. It was like a hindi film surprise and evreybody got so excited. Next we saw Omprakash who had also been to Karachi jump on the stage to talk.

Aslam Khwaja also mentioned that during the hour long chat, the Indian children expressed their solidarity and support to the Pakistani children vis-à-vis the death and suffering after the quake.

The enthusiasm of the calls has been catching. Aslam Khwaja, one of the organizers of the World Social Forum in Karachi is planning to have a multiparty call connecting children from different parts of the world during WSF.

Meanwhile, other organizers from India and Pakistan are trying to figure out how best this process could be decentralized so that just about anyone can connect and make friends with ones neighbour.

Related Links
Peace Process Needs to Go On
Decentralization Key to South Asia Peace
Pakistani Peacenik writes on Visit to India
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