(ANS – Guwahati) – The Don Bosco University in Guwahati, the first Indian Catholic University, has launched a post graduate course on child rights and development. Classes will start on Monday 19th August 2013.

“The course focuses upon child rights, as outlined in the UN Convention,” said Fr. Stephen Mavely, SDB, university vice-chancellor. “In the context of development using innovative research, education and capacity building, the course seeks to draw on the strengths of children, their families, communities and culture,” he said.

The program, organized in collaboration with and conducted at the Snehalaya Centre for Child Rights and Research Guwahati, is the seventh post graduate course program at the Assam Don Bosco University (ADBU).

The priest said that the course aims to enhance the capacity of individuals, organizations and governments to effectively use the existing legal provisions, insights from developmental psychology and the findings of contemporary research to transform systems and create peace and dignity for children and the world - moving child rights from rhetoric to reality.

Explaining the course methodology, Fr. Mavely adds, “assignments, presentations, field work and workshops and debates are key components of the program.”

Fr. Lukose Cheruvalel, director of Snehalaya Centre for Child Rights said the practical involvement of the students builds upon a strong foundation given through theoretical inputs.

He further states that in this program, students are exposed to the ground realities to give them a better understanding of the issues concerning them.

Snehalaya (House of Love) is a social service project for the care and rehabilitation of children in distress in Guwahati, run by the Don Bosco Society since 2000.

Published 06/08/2013