bhubaneswar they came from all parts of the country ragpickers labourers in stone quarries and open cast mines helpers at salt pans oddjob boys at dhabas domestic helps workers in textile units and students but for three days ending thursday this bunch of 700 became what they actually are just children they played drew pictures sang songs and danced but they also seriously discussed the child labour problem in their areas and in the countrythe threeday national convention of children organized by the campaign against child labour cacl a network that claims support of 6000 ngos social groups and individuals ended here with a declaration by child delegates on the root causes of child labour in the country among other things they castigated the government for its failure to provide universal education and check unemployment among adults the two main factors they said which leads to children giving up their childhood and being forced into adult occupations the children a majority of them present or former child labourers from 16 states also chose a 16member national committee of children which would raise these issues in different ways during the convention the children were divided into 35 groups with the help of adult facilitators each one of them helped make a problem tree for the group denoting the hurdles in the way of their education they also made a rainbow that stood for a society of their dreams the kids then brainstormed to make a bridge linking the two through which they came up with steps and solutions leading to an ideal environment for children we used this method to sensitize the children and draw out solutions from their own experiences said an organizer