Children’s Day: Child rights activist, painter and poet; kids with never-say-die approach!

These are special children, with a never-say-die approach. Not just academically, these kids are doing great in field of art, social work, literature and more.

HT spoke to a few such children.

Therapy turned to profession

Ansh Batra, 15, is an autistic child, who has made and sold nearly 500 paintings so far. In last five years, he has graduated from water colours and moved on to abstract art. He is also exploring new textures in his paintings. Ansh, who started training at an art school in Noida when he was just 10 years, now paints most of his work in acrylic colours and is foraying into fine art too.

He had entered a Noida-based art school, as his mother in order to manage his tendency to be hyperactive, decided to try an alternative to the regular therapies recommended for autistic children. Considering his limitations in speaking and communication, Ansh often channeled his energy by doing intense physical activity. Practicing art for 2-3 hours helped him in soothing his nerves and eventually emerged as an activity he could even think of taking up professionally.

Artist Rahul Thakur, Ansh’s Noida-based teacher, was the first to display Ansh’s work on Facebook. Soon, requests started pouring in. Today, Ansh’s paintings are sold for ₹5000 and more and orders are placed from across the country.

“I feel that Ansh turns to painting when he finds it difficult to communicate. It has become a way for him to put his thoughts out into the world for he cannot express his feelings by speaking like most of us,” said Anshul Batra, his mother.

Meet this 9-year-old writer of poetry and prose!

“Age is just a number, sans limitations! All limitations are self-imposed,” says nine-year old Abhijita Gupta, recognised by the International Book of Records as the world’s youngest writer.

Abhijita who started writing poetry and prose when she was just five years, first got published at 7.

So far, she has written three books: “Happiness All Around”, “We Will Surely Sustain” and “To Begin with…The Little Things’’. More than 10,700 copies of these books have been sold by now. The digital launch of “To Begin with…The Little Things” took place at the Oxford Bookstore and she has also got ₹3 lakh as royalty in advance though 90 per cent of the amount has been invested in charity.

This Ghaziabad resident, holds 6 records in all, including ‘Grandmaster of Writing’ by the Asia Book of Records, International Book of Records, World Book of Records, UK, and India Book of Records for being the youngest author to write poetry and prose as well as for being the youngest to write nonfiction on the pandemic.

Writing is in her blood, says Abhijita, who hails from the family of legendary poets Maithlisharan Gupta and Siyaramsharan. Fan of Ruskin Bond, Abhijita says she wants to become a doctor and do good for the society.

She is among the 40 youth icons who are selected by the ministry of culture to be the part of “Mauka Hai” song written by Manoj Muntashir, composed by Rochak Kohli and sung by B Praak as part of “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav”.

A 17-year-old child rights activist!

Kartik Verma, 17, a Bhadohi resident, is the child advisor to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), representing all of South Asia.

Having experienced, bullying and sexual harassment, he decided to take up the issue of child rights and later added climate change, to the list too.

When he was merely 12 years of age (2017), Verma started with the ‘Voice to People’ campaign, in which he would deliver speeches in public to raise awareness. Despite a shocking sexual assault episode, he encountered inside a bus, he took the experience in his stride and continued to work for the rights of children.

“Now, I can do something to make sure that no child has to experience this (sexual assault),” he said. He created his Twitter account soon after and was followed by Youngo, the UN youth constituency for climate change, soon got a membership. “I started a campaign called ‘Knowledge for Nature’ in 2021 and for this I visited over 20 government schools so that I could speak to children about climate change and child rights,” he said.

Verma is one of 13 child advisors to the UN and has even represented South Asia at the General Comment 26 conducted by the UN high commissioner’s office, for the purpose of discussing children’s rights and the environment.