Founders
Nandana Reddy- founder and director development
Nandana is one of the founders of the Concerned for Working Children (CWC) and is now the Director Development, while heading the consultancy wing Dhruva. She was the Chairperson of the International Working Group on Child Labour (IWGCL). She has inputted extensively into international and national policies, drafted child related legislation and has set up structures and mechanisms in the field for making children’s rights a reality. She has many years of training experience and has designed and conducted training programmes on child labour, children’s participation, protagonism and governance in several countries. She has been a consultant for international NGOs, organisations and Multinational Corporations. She is one of the founding members of the AIT-NGDO CHAKRA Consortium.
Nandana began her work as a trade unionist in the late 1970s and is founder member of the PUCL or Peoples Union of Civil Liberties set up in India post ‘Emergency’ to protect Human Rights and Civil Liberties in India and monitor and redress violations thereof. She was instrumental in setting up a Task Force Chaired by Dr. L.M. Shingvi under the auspices of the India International Centre – New Delhi to critique the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act – 1986. Along with children and other colleagues, she drafted the Child Labour (Employment, regulation, training and development) Bill that was presented to the Governments of Karnataka and India and later adopted with changes as the Government Bill
on Child Labour.
Damodar Acharya – founder and executive director
Damodar is one of the founder members of the Concerned for Working Children (CWC) and is presently the Executive Director. His activism began in the trade union movement during the early 80’s. He has more than 15 years of field experience in implementing programmes that have enabled children to organise themselves and participate at all levels of decision making. He has facilitated children’s Protagonism and Governance strengthening children’s agency. He is also one of the members of the CHAKRA Network set up by Prof. Hiran Dias of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok.
