An 18 years old law student, Babita Pariyar, is a child rights activist from Tokha who has been fighting for fundamental child rights since she was only 13 years old. When she saw children around her community lagging behind in right to information and also being victims of sexual harassment, she took a vow to work for these children. She is a part of different promotional programs, and campaigns and works with different organizations.
Her Journey
Babita lives in Tokha, suburban area of Kathmandu, where there are many problems. Since eighth grade, she had this deep urge to solve these problems especially in Child Rights sector. She started working from the ‘Baudeshowr Briyasheel bal club’, a bal club of her school and then later joined the club of her ward which is ‘Tokha nagarpalika bal sanjaal’. Likewise, she is also a part of organizations like “Jagriti Child and Youth Concern Nepal”, ‘World Vision Nepal’, and ‘SAFA CLUB’. Through these organizations and club she conducts awareness programs to protect children and teens of her community from different types of hazards. “I teach about fundamental rights, aware children about sexual harassments and also give classes to young girls on menstruation.” said Babita. She is also planning to have self defense classes in near future. She has also convinced her school management to make sanitary pads available in school and gave several classes on use and disposal of sanitary napkins to young girls of her school. She also has interest in writing poetry and has recited some of her works in one of her clubs- Jagriti Child and Youth Concern Nepal. She has got utmost support from the members of these clubs and organizations.
“I have also faced some hurdles while running these awareness programs. It is difficult to work when you don’t get much support from teachers because they tell you to prioritize studies than activism rather than taking both hand in hand.” said Babita when asked about the difficulties she faced. Being a minority in her community, she also faced some discriminatory attitudes along with criticisms from some people of her community. “I take all these criticisms positively and push myself to do better for the children of my community” said Babita.
Her parents, whereas, support her fully and she wants to credit them for everything she has achieved till now.
Glocal Teen Hero and Her future plans
She first heard about glocal teen hero from Bipana Sharma, teen hero alumni. She also considers the child right activist Bipana to be one of her biggest inspirations. Babita also watched her child friendly movie- Jyoti and got even more encouraged to work on Child Rights sector after watching the movie
She aspires to be a lawyer in future and wants to make far-reaching positive impacts all over Nepal. Currently a plus two student, Babita, wants to continue studying law to be an advocate for change. She wants to fight for the vulnerable victims and children and help them get justice. Alongside practicing law, Babita is also planning to open an NGO which will reach out to vulnerable people and help them. Likewise, she wants to uplift dalit community whose voices are suppressed because of internalized discrimination.
Babita Pariyar was selected among the 20 brightest young entrepreneurs, innovators and game changers below the age of 20 in Nepal, for the year 2019. This annual list is the ultimate honor roll of young game changers reshaping Nepal for the better. The platform seeks to encourage the youths to share their initiation, creativity, and enthusiasm which will then motivate them and more of the other youths in the nation to develop an entrepreneurial thinking.
