Charter
MVF strongly believes that to be replicable, it must work through existing institutions. The support of the community needs to be mobilized to strengthen the capacities of these institutions and to ensure their commitment to protection of child rights and education.
MVF also attributes much of its replicability to its “Non-Negotiables”. The Non-Negotiables are a set of principles that have evolved over time and reflect the spirit of the organization.
The Non-Negotiables
● All children must attend formal full-time day schools, not night schools or non-formal education centers.
● All work/labour is hazardous and harms the overall growth and development of the child.
● There must be a total abolition of child labour. Any law regulating child work is unacceptable.
● Any justification perpetuating the existence of child labour must be condemned.
● Any child out of school is considered a child labourer. The definition of child labour therefore encompasses every non-school-going child, irrespective of whether the child is engaged in wage or non-wage work, working for the family or for others, employed in hazardous or non-hazardous occupations, employed on daily wages or on a contract bases as bonded labour
Arguments about the “harsh reality” of the family, poverty, the necessity of children’s earnings for the family, lack of interest among parents, poor quality of teachers and schools, irrelevance of education in providing education, loss of relevant skills among educated children, are all anti-children and go against their development