By Monika Weber

Steinen, November 27, 2019: Indian Catholic priest Edwin John wants children to come together in parliaments. So they should be able to solve problems better. The idea now arrived at a workshop in Steinen, Germany.

In 1977, Father John had an idea. He wanted children to come together as parliaments to shape their living environment and solve problems as well.

At the end of the 1990s, the idea became reality, initially at the southern tip of India, where children from six to eighteen years are politically involved. Since then, the idea has spread throughout the world – now it has arrived in the Wiesental, Germany. There was also a workshop in Steinen.

John has been traveling with Austria, Germany and Switzerland since October, together with Joseph Rathinam, head of the Adjacent Parliaments Academy, and presents the concept of children’s parliaments through workshops.

On November 22, the two were first in Schopfheim at the Theodor-Heuss-Gymnasium and then in stones at the Meret-Oppenheim-Schulzentrum. The bilingual 9th class of Renate Bächle, representatives of the SMV and some interested students took part in it.

Because the Indian guests do not speak German, the workshop was mostly in English. Also in attendance was Daniela Gütlin of the Sociocracy Center Switzerland, which is also responsible for the Southern Baden area across borders. The project day was supported by the Schöpflin Foundation.

The wishes of the students
With the introductory question: “In what kind of world do you want to live?” John started his talk—a world of peace and freedom, which should also be clean and healthy, in which all are equal and where solidarity and helpfulness prevail instead of violence were the wishes of the students.

“Who wants to help build a new and better world?” was John’s next question, where he wanted to see as many hands as possible because who should create a world according to our ideas, if not ourselves, he explained.

In the Indian parliaments’ children and adolescents from their neighborhoods meet regularly to solve their problems together where they arise. This begins with the selection of relevant topics and includes joint solution finding and implementation.

In India, children are helping to bring hospitals and water services to their villages or to attend school, prevent child marriages and resolve caste issues at their meetings, so that all are treated equally.

In stones environmental issues dominate
In stones, the predominant themes of the students were mostly environmental issues. So they want to collect waste, which lies in the countryside, shopping with bags more sustainable, to protect the ocean from all the plastic, recycle plastics and introduce an environmental day. For the climate protection trees are to be planted and above all the pupils want to spread the idea further and find as many as possible fellow combatants.

Elections and decisions have been taking place in the Indian children’s parliaments for ten years according to Socrates’ principles. Thus in sociocracy decisions are made in the so-called consent. Unlike the consensus, where everyone agrees with the decision, a consensus is that no one has a serious substantiated objection. In a democracy governed by majority rule, some are happy but others are not.

In the sociocracy, which works on the consensus principle, everyone is happy, says John.

Elections take place openly and first of all, requirements for the position are clarified. Everyone then names the person of their choice and justifies the decision.

The parliaments at local level elect representatives for parliaments at supraregional and national levels. At work, the children’s and neighborhood parliaments are also guided by the UN’s global sustainability goals. For each of the 17 goals an authorized person is chosen.

There are also ministries
There are, for example, ministers of finance, peace, education, the disabled and others who take care of their respective areas of specialization. “In the beginning, there is a dream,” said Joseph Rathinam, “now it is up to us to make this reality”.

Before the two Indians came to Germany, they visited the United States and there also a congress of the United Nations. Afterward, it goes to Mexico. When asked the last question, who was involved in shaping the world, all hands went up.

(Source: Badische Zeitung)