I am Anna Kersting and
I am the director and producer of the movie film "Power to the Children”.
A documentary about children's parliaments in India.
And in 2012, I discovered the topic during a research period on child labor.
Someone in Chennay told me that there is a congress
where children come together from their different cities and villages,
as delegates of children's parliaments.
And these children come together for several days
and talk all day about politics,
about child marriage, environmental issues,
child labour
and search for solutions
and plan campaigns.
And then I went to the villages and saw what they were changing.
Then it became clear to me that I will make a film about children's parliaments.
Only afterwards I did really understood
that what the children are doing is sociocracy, lived sociocracy.
So the children vote sociocratically. That means,
they choose someone exactly.
Everyone has to introduce themselves, in this parliament
and everyone has to say what position he wants.
If someone wants to be minister of education,
then he says: "I want, I make myself available as Minister of Education."
Then others question them: "What is your contribution?"
"How did you want to do this? Do you even have the abilities?"
Next everyone is questioned
whether they have the abilities at all
and they are questioned more detailed about what they want to change and how they want to do it.
Everything is completely open,
no one can just come and say
"I want to become minister of education." And everyone
is asked to say yes or no,
but they have to elaborate on their reasons.
I thought that in these elections it is great
when they elect their children's parliaments,
that everything is disclosed.
It is also taken into account, how the last legislative period was like, so to speak.
If someone was not that successful as a minister and
has not changed so many things, then they will not be re-elected so quickly.
So they take a very close look. I think that is important.
Well, we don't know any children's parliaments as they exist in India.
This is important for now.
And with these parliaments,
the first thing that is important is that everything should be made public.
So when they
nominate their ministers, everyone has to
justify why they want to become minister and what they want to change.
And how they will achieve that.
This means he has to explain himself in front of others.
And
the elections are partly public.
So one publicly speaks for or against someone.
That’s something we don't know at all here, this process usually happens in private.
This is very important and
what else is important regarding the children's parliaments?
I think it's very important, how they gather, these meetings,
that they take place with such mutual respect.
They let each other finish their sentences.
That’s wonderful.
The children are children as soon as they are out on the street playing with each other.
They fight with each other and everything.
But the moment they sit in the children's parliament,
they are so in their roles
and they take it so seriously.
The communication between each other is wonderful,
they respect each other,
everyone gets a chance to speak
and there is simply a very special atmosphere.
Yes, of course
there are
organisations behind all this
which of course teach this concept to the children.
They are mostly local NGOs,
which either advocate for human rights or for the environment
and start with the children to inform the children about their rights,
because the children in India don't know at all that they have rights.
And that's why the children are really
encouraged to take a closer look
at what their rights are
and how democracy works.
And once they have understood this,
then they do their own work.
And carry out their parliaments independently.
Yes, but they work quite differently.
So for now the model as it is in India does not even exist.
That’s new. And I think we can learn something from them.
There is no model here where children have so much co-determination
and it is not just a role play what they play at home in their village.
but they are really connected to politics.
Because even if you become a minister, a judge comes.
This is very important
or another kind of an important person, but mostly they are judges.
They come to swear them in.
The children then have to take an oath.
That's very clever. Politicians get invited
who swear them in.
Through this procedure, comes acceptance for children's parliaments.
And power. That's important
to get the power
and do not only play children's games there.
Because this changes society
and you see that in these children's parliaments what they have changed.
They have restructured whole villages.
Villages where there was no water before,
no electricity etc.,
no rubbish collection.
The children took care and made it happen.
And that's why the adults think what the children do is so great.
Because the adults did not manage to do it,
but the children did.
Maybe not yet. But this can happen.
We don't know the model at all.
I myself was surprised by it.
We don't know it. It's completely new
and I'm curious now how our
teachers and schools will react when they hear that it's possible, isn't it?
And also our politicians.
So I have been on the road with it for a year now
and we have wonderful discussions about it
and there is also a lot of interest
from communities that are interested in building such childrens’ parliaments.
Very positive.
From the children and the adults.
Children are totally into this film
because they see what is possible
and there are always discussions afterwards with
„Would that be possible here as well?" It always boils down to that.
At the end of the film:
„Can we also imagine this?“
And these discussions are exciting,
because the children want more participation,
Much more.
And amazingly enough, teachers like that.
We have fantastic teachers,
I didn't know that.
They were all in favor of more child participation.
Even head teachers think it's great.
So if everything they say is true,
then there is a lot of potential for change here
and children will have more opportunities to participate soon.
They need more opportunities for co-determination.
They simply have to be allowed to make their own decisions, right from the start.
They should be allowed to have a say in decisions about the timetable.
Yes, that is very important.
And about which teachers are hired
and which are not.
You can see that in free schools where participation is already lived
that it works fantastically
if students have the right to have a say from the beginning.
Yes and what would be my vision.
Of course,
I think that we could also create such neighbourhood parliaments here.
And thus give children more opportunities for participation.
Not only in school,
but also in private, leisure time, everything that concerns them. Of course.
I think we have to adapt it, the system.
Yes, in any case.
Certainly not one-to-one,
we have a completely different situation here.
But I think that the basic idea,
the willingness should be there first with politicians.
to give children the possibility to co-determine.
So there is this group 9 is mine,
which also goes to the UN in New York.
In this group it really happened that
all children have learned sign language.
And I think that's fantastic. That's what they taught each other.
That means they don't have any problems of communication at all.
In one group they all speak sign language.
That's also part of it, so that those who can't speak can get in, yes.
So that somehow is a great example for me
of how it works.
One adjusts to those who have a disability,
so they are simply taken in
and if they can't express themselves so well, then you try to
go down to their level so that they can understand that.
It is very loving.
In the film we have the situation that there are some
dropouts in the village - that is, the people who refuse to go to school
and the children try to bring them back to school.
But they always hide,
so they don't want to go back to school at all
and the children in the children's parliament themselves were overwhelmed with the situation,
but still know what to do.
They call the Childline in India
and they take care of the children.
And it actually happened in the village that Childline
contacted the parents and the children
and made sure that the children went back to school.
So if the children don't know what to do, then they know where they can get help.
That's important. You can't expect the children to solve all the problems themselves.
They just need to know who their contact persons are, who they can approach, who can then help them further.
Yes, of course. Lots of them,
especially those who are already organized in the sociocratic movement now.
They see the potential here.
How this can be applied very practically.
And I hope that there will soon be many pilot projects of communities
trying to establish these children parliaments.
Not only childrens’ parliaments. Also neighbourhood parliaments.
Because it's not just about children.
It's about much more participation from below
and that means in neighbourhoods and there are adults as well.
So one can make exactly these parliaments also for adults.
So that there is simply more participation happening.
I don't know any in Germany, no.
But in India there are thousands.
And I think from them we can learn such things to do it here as well.