The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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Centre for Applied Research and Documentation (CARD) - Bangalore, India

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The Centre for Applied Research and Documentation (CARD) was established in 1989 in response to the need for an information base on the issue of child labour. Closely associated with the NGO The Concerned for Working Children (CWC), CARD works in 5 districts in Bangalore in an effort to consolidate the work experience of the CWC and other grassroots organisations into transferable forms of information and to keep the issue of child labour alive. Strategies include seeking short- and long-term solutions to the problem of child labour in partnership with children, as well as redefining commonly-held notions of child labour in the words of the children themselves. In short, CARD aims to highlight labour-related research conducted and monitored by working children, for working children.
Communication Strategies
CARD works toward full participation of children in child labour-related research. Specifically, the group enables Bangalore's children to research, document, and use information for their active participation as partners in change and for programme intervention. Children in 8 Panchayats (clusters of villages) have conducted a socio-economic survey of their regions, using a form that they themselves designed and administered.

Other examples of CARD activities include:
  • Updating CWC's Toofan database - Toofan is a programme of comprehensive development with primary focus on the empowerment of children. It aims at enabling children to play a proactive role in decision-making and governance.
  • Documenting the work and structure of Makkala Panchayats (children's Village Council or parallel government of children, set up jointly by Bhima Sangha - click here for a Programme Description - and CWC. It is a forum for all children to participate in decision-making and governance at the Panchayat level). These organisations have databases based on the indicators they require to monitor the status of children. They update their information on a monthly basis so that they have the latest information to identify and act on any emerging or ongoing concerns. Facilitation of this process also includes developing improved data collection and reporting systems. To conduct this documentation, a series of consultative workshops was carried out with members of Bhima Sangha who represent the different chapters.
  • Publishing research in books such as:
    • Work We Can and Cannot Do: Children of 8 Panchayats in Karnataka formulated their own definitions of the occupations they are engaged in and the type of conditions they should enjoy. Formulated by the Makkala Panchayat, these definitions form the basis of all the interventions in a Panchayat. These conditions are specific to each of the 8 Panchayats, and were formulated on the basis of factors such as age, gender, ability and conditions of work. On this basis, the children classified certain occupations/operations as harmful and others as non-harmful. The definitions were then ratified in the Makkala Panchayat and at the Panchayat and Taluk-level task forces. On an ongoing basis, these committees conduct field investigations to investigate whether any child is engaged in harmful work as per the criteria laid down by children before a village is declared "child labour free".
    • Children and their Research - A Process Document: Bhima Sangha (click here for a Programme Description) and Makkala Panchayats of the 8 Toofan Panchayats conducted a house-to-house socio-economic survey in 1998. This book is a documentation of the process of the survey, laying out the process and methodology of facilitating research by children. The document is intended to guide adults' and children's organisations that are interested in facilitating participatory processes with children and other marginalised groups.
Development Issues
Children, Rights.
Key Points
CWC describes itself as a secular, democratic development agency committed to the empowerment of children, especially working and other marginalised children and their communities through their participation in decision making and governance on all matters that concern them. CWC has been actively involved in this cause since 1980.
Sources

Letters sent from CWC to The Communication Initiative on March 17 2004 and June 1 2004; and CWC website.