Born in a remote village of Bhokshing-VDC, Parbat District of western Nepal in the winter of 1982, Tilottam Paudel is one of the founding members of Jagriti Child Club, situated in Pragatinagar VDC of Nawalparasi District, which is known as the first ever registered child club in Nepal. Keeping children’s rights in mind and under the leadership of Mr. Paudel, a group of united children registered a case in the Supreme Court to demand the registration of a child club in the District Administration Office in 1997 under the Child Rights Convention of 1989. After three years of challenges in a serious legal battle, the verdict of the Supreme Court came in favor of the group of children.
Currently, Mr. Paudel is working as the president of Jagriti Child and Youth Concern Nepal (JCYCN), a non-governmental, non- political and non-profit making social organization working in the field of child rights’ protection and promotion.
Given his outstanding work, Tilottam was selected as the 2010-2014 General Secretary of the Association of Youth Organizations Nepal(AYON), which is an umbrella organization of 92 youth organizations working throughout Nepal. In the same period, he was also the coordinator of Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) Forum Nepal, a forum of more than 40 youth-led organizations working on community managed disaster risk reduction in the country. Similarly, he had worked as a core organizing member for the South Asia Youth for Peace Training from 2007 to 2009, and as one of the organizers of the Global Youth Peace Festival in India since 2013. Recently, he was also nominated as a member of the international steering group of the United Network of Youth (UNOY) Peace Builder placed in the Netherlands. Moreover, in recognition of his social contributions, he has been awarded various national and international honorary awards.
Regarding his previous experiences, he has worked as a District Program Coordinator for Child Workers in Nepal (CWIN) for Salyan an d Rolpa districts during the prime time of the rise of the armed conflict that was originated in these exact districts. During his tenure at CWIN, he has gained sound knowledge and skills in quality education, child-friendly education, model school and model village concept, and research works including field coordination, data analysis, and report writing. In the meantime, he has coordinated and facilitated various training and deploying international participants as multi cross-cultural development agent to attain their mission to carry out peace building.He has also contributed in many child protection researches during his work at CWIN and at various time frames with JCYCN involvement in joint collaborations. Moreover, he was actively involved in various human rights monitoring works, during armed conflict insurgence, second people’s movement in Nepal,Constituent Assembly election in 2008 and 2013, and at the Second Cycle for Nepal in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2015. Similarly,he was also assigned as a observer for Constituent Assembly 2008 and 2013. A writing enthusiast on the topics of Peace, Child and Youth Rights, Mr. Paudel has been able to publish more than a hundred articles. He is one of the leading youth activists to pressurize the Government to formulate youth friendly policies, and he has participated in various national and international training, workshops and programs. He has visited Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Netherlands, South Korea and Thailand in order to keep learning and sharing about child, youth and peace.
With more than 20 years of profession experience in children, youth and human rights, Tilottam Paudel has gain tremendous knowledge on child clubs formation, children in armed conflict, human rights monitoring, peace building, youth empowerment, networking, project management, facilitation and conduction of training. History will remember him as a prominent leader in child rights and participation, youth leadership and peace building movement in Nepal.