The State has rolled out a parenting campaign 'Namukku valaram, nannayi valartham’ to redefine parenting in modern times.
An initiative of the Women and Child Development Department, the campaign urges parents, teachers, and society to ‘grow up’ for healthy upbringing of children.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, in a Facebook post on Friday, said problems in families and in schools had an impact on children’s mental health. Issues created by parents’ actions or words or lack of attention should not be ignored. The aim is to help parents with parenting.
The campaign comes after a survey conducted by the department among 70,000 parents to understand their approach to parenting and the problems they perceived that their children faced. The findings of the survey were factored in while deciding what areas to focus on and for framing various messages as part of the campaign, which addresses various issues such as body shaming, alcohol and drug abuse, depression, academic pressures, cartoon and internet addiction.
Kick-started with a series of social media posters, the campaign helps plant positive thoughts in children. It also inculcates values such as gender equality and mutual respect by catching them young.
The next phase of the campaign will focus on mass media and include videos featuring film actors. Shirt films and documentaries are also planned. Later, anganwadi and ASHA workers will go the field to directly interact with parents and distribute an illustrated handbook on parenting.
After six months, another survey will be conducted to gauge any changes.
Women and Child Development Director Anupama T.V. said field-level activities such as parenting sessions in anganwadis that were planned as part of Karuthal Sparsham, the responsible parenting campaign launched by the government last year, could not be taken up owing to COVID-19.
However, as problems faced by children kept on increasing, the field-level component of Karuthal Sparsham was transformed into a mass and social media campaign. The campaign material prepared earlier was adapted to posters and the like targeted at mass and social media. The parenting campaign was not new; however, the period from October 11 to November 11, was an intensive campaign period under 'Namukku valaram, nannayi valartham,’ Ms. Anupama said.
