indiachildwire

Newswatch - 10 lakhs girls missing, Cash to stop abortions

2008-03-21T06:03:00.002+05:30

Indian families offered cash to stop abortion of girl foetuses
The scheme announced by the Indian authorities will carry a number of requirements if families are to receive the money. The lump sum will be paid once the daughter reaches the age of 18 and can prove that she has been to school. Her nutrition and health will also be checked and for the family to receive the money, the young woman must not be married

70% children in India anaemic
Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss told Lok Sabha on Wednesday that 69.5 percent of children in the age group of six to 59 months are suffering from anaemia of which 63 percent are in the urban areas and 71.5 percent in the rural areas.

'10 lakh girls missing from Indian population'
"Female foeticide is an extreme manifestation of violence against women. Female fetuses are selectively aborted after pre-natal sex determination, thus avoiding the birth of girls. As a result of selective abortion, about 10 lakh girls are missing from the Indian Population,"

News Watch - PC's budget and children

2008-03-07T03:06:00.004+05:30

Money for the children
The saddest thing in this state of affairs is that India has had a programme working in the villages and towns for the last three decades to address this window of opportunity as a solution for the vicious cycle of poverty, malnutrition of mothers and the resultant death of children under five—the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).

Budget Wishlist |Child Protection to get priority within Child Budget: Unicef
It is expected that while Union Budget 2008 will see a quantum jump in social sector spending and specifically education, child protection will continue to remain largely unacknowledged. This component of child budgeting that covers the wide spectrum of trafficking, child labour, street children, orphan and vulnerable children, institutional care and adoption and care of homelessness is not likely to be adequately addressed.

Women and child schemes get the priority
He also allocated Rs 16,202 crore for 100% women specific schemes and Rs 16,202 crore for 30% women specific scheme. Further, the FM allocated Rs 7,200 crore in 2008-09 to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, representing an increase of 24% over the allocation in 2007-08.

Budget Shows Children not 'Politically Important'
World Vision India, however is concerned about the marked neglect of children and issues related to them in this budget, such as education, Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and health.

News Watch - Kids Sold as Donors?

2008-02-27T03:25:00.002+05:30

Kids Sold as Donors ?
"If you have baby markets, you cannot stop people from exposing those children to harm," the Organs Watch director said. "There could be real instrumental reasons of wanting that child, which could include wanting that child to serve as a donor to an older child."

Wealth 'may not lead to health'
"The figures for child mortality in India are shocking," said Shireen Miller, from Save the Children India. "They are close to sub-Saharan Africa, and one does ask that if we can make such rapid development economically then why can we not do the same socially?

Nutrition plan way off target, report finds
According to Saxena, the poorest compliance is in states that need the programme the most: “25% of India’s districts are responsible for more than 50% of malnourished children, and these districts are mostly located in the poorer states. Yet, the poorest states and those with the highest levels of under-nutrition have the lowest levels of programme funding, supervisory staff, capacity to utilize funds and monitor progress, resulting in poor outcomes.”

‘Malnutrition should be tackled in first two years’
“Malnutrition must be addressed in the first two years of life, the crucial period for a child’s physical and cognitive development,” according to Marie Ruel, lead author of The Lancet article and director of the Food Consumption and Nutrition Division at IFPRI. “If nutrition programmes wait until children have already become malnourished, their benefits are significantly diminished.”

Move to make primary education a fundamental right
"The main component of this legislation will be 'free and compulsory' education. This was the main problem faced by the flagship Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Education for All programme)," said a senior official in the Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD).

News watch - Child Labour

2008-02-18T04:53:00.002+05:30

Child Labor
Even as India gallops toward First World status--with its booming economy, roaring stock market and rapid progress in autos and steel--it is still a giant back-yard sweatshop to the world, staffed by underage boys and girls.

PM calls for investment, reform in national education system
"We need a system that is both compassionate and demanding. No child should ever feel left out for no fault of his or her. No child should nurse a grievance that his creativity has been suppressed. We need a humane, creative and forward-looking system," he said.

CHILD TRAFFICKING: An awakening
The trafficking of human beings is a persistent and wide-reaching phenomenon, and in an increasingly integrated world of interconnected communications and commerce it truly represents a violation of human rights on a global scale. A lucrative market, the trade in human flesh is a multi-billion dollar industry that amounts to a modern-day slave trade.

Child scheme fine on ‘casual’ states
The idea is to affix responsibility on states. “Currently, we fund the scheme, but also get all the blame, particularly from the Supreme Court. If they can’t share the blame, let them at least share the funds,” a senior official in the women and child development ministry said.

Delhi to set up commission for children`s welfare
`We have realised that there is a need for a forum to look into the welfare of children. The cabinet has given its nod to a state commission for the protection of children`s rights. And Delhi will soon have one,` Raghuraman said on the sidelines of the national consultative meet organised by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).

Child marriage is one of the biggest injustices: Patil
"Child marriage is one of the biggest injustices committed against a minor and adversely affects a girl child turning her into a baby-producing machine," Patil said here after launching the 'Mukhya Mantri Kanya Vivah Yojana'.

News Watch - 77% caste groups in MP still marry off children

2008-02-08T05:30:00.000+05:30

77% caste groups in MP still marry off children
According to a recent study by the Delhi-based Centre for Social Research (CSR), the proportion of people whose caste/community still practises child marriage is 41% in Rajasthan and only 10% in Uttar Pradesh. "Enforcement of the Child Marriage Prohibition Act continues to be a major problem," says the study conducted in two districts in each of the three states.

Children of a lesser god
Child trafficking is rife in India but the law on trafficking is still ambiguous. A new law that’s in the works may, however, change this, reports Amrita Johri.

Know disaster, no disaster
Over 400 children from 36 schools in Pune participated in the two-day event on 'Children - Disasters and Sustainable Futures' on 4-5 January this year. They gathered knowledge about disasters and how to best manage in such situations, ensuring minimum loss of life and property.

Mr Finance Minister, Lend Your Ear To The Children, Please!
ICDS was started more than 32 years back in 1975, in pursuance to the adoption of the National Policy for Children in 1974. This Policy recognised children as the ‘nation’s supremely important asset’ and called upon the state ‘to provide adequate services to children, both before and after birth and through the period of growth, to ensure their full physical, mental and social development’ and to cover ‘all children in the country’ ‘within a reasonable time’.

News Watch - Taking baby steps around the holy fire

2008-02-03T11:46:00.000+05:30

Taking baby steps around the holy fire
When the child brides and grooms were asked what marriage meant to them, nearly 67 per cent in UP said it was “celebrating a festival”, 42 out of 100 said it was about “being the centre of attraction” and 25 per cent it was an “occasion to get new clothes”. These were the common responses received from the married children in the other two states as well.

India home to a quarter of world's hungry
Ironically, people who grow the food we eat are fighting hunger. If the faces of the poor and the figures on the official documents are anything to go by, India is losing its most important battle, the battle against hunger

Without a home
n Delhi, shifting or closure of industries, relocation of slum-dwellers far away from their place of employment, sealing operations to curb commercial activities in residential areas have all contributed to a livelihood crisis, fuelling the problem of homelessness.

How to Get 100 Million Children in India Reading
The difference that an education, literacy and competency in English makes in the future of a child cannot be overestimated – especially a marginalized or disadvantaged child; a child like Santosh. One of the main factors that makes children vulnerable to street life, trafficking, early marriage, child labor or adult unemployment is lack of education.

News Watch: Case of the missing daughter

2008-01-26T17:59:00.000+05:30

Case of the missing daughter
Unwanted — that’s the plight of the girl child in many parts of India. It doesn’t quite matter where she lives — in a shanty or mansion, a village or city, India or Canada — she’s often a minority, perched precariously between life and death.

Child Deaths Down, But Still Too Many: UNICEF
The report, entitled, "State of the World's Children 2008," points out that each day at least 26,000 children under the age of five die from preventable diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea, and malaria.

Data and statistics on education in India

Mother and Child
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/Mother_and_Child/articleshow/2725901.cms
Of the 9.7 million child deaths worldwide annually, one-third occur in India. Unesco's 2008 report on the state of the world's children presents an acutely embarrassing picture of infant and child mortality in the country.

The starvelings
Hunger has an even bigger impact on children's health than was thought. Hunger causes disease as well as death. According to the Lancet, malnutrition in the first two years is irreversible. Malnourished children grow up with worse health and lower educational achievements. Their own children also tend to be smaller.

When hunger kills
Of the ones that are lucky enough to survive, 8.3 million are babies born underweight. The situation worsens as these babies grow older. Every third child who is underweight, and under five, in the world is an Indian.

Community to be involved in bringing children to school
The larger community needs to be convinced that it is a “vibrant player” in ensuring educational access to all, she added. Though the number of out-of-school children had gone down from 10 lakh in 2000 to about one lakh in 2007, those who had remained out of the ambit of SSA programmes were “a matter of serious concern”, said Ms. Sharma.

Where is the space for children?
Article 31 of UN convention on child rights state, “Every child has a right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.” However, fulfillment of this right is a dubious dream.

News Watch - Love, hope for shunned kids in India AIDS school

2008-01-22T14:08:00.002+05:30

Love, hope for shunned kids in India AIDS school
They used to throw water on me and tear up my books," Komal said as she reminisced about her days at a regular school. "Still, I wanted to go to school, but one day my teacher said don't come back."

A take on the reality bites of child labour [Blog: Opinion]
Progressive step of expanding the scope of law to include Child labour prohibition law to include the child labour at hotels, dhabas and as house hold workers is much appreciated. But the same old story of legislation’s continue, though the laws are present, no one seems bothered about the enforcement, they are just meant to be black letters at the Government Gazette.

NUEPA's Educational Development Index (EDI) for states - southern states on top
The top 8 states include the five southern states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and the three northern states - Delhi, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh.

Poor Nutrition Causes One-Third of Child Deaths, Lancet Says
A quarter of those lives could be saved through simple programs such as promoting breast-feeding and handing out vitamin supplements, researchers including Zulfiqar Bhutta, a professor of child medicine at Pakistan's Aga Khan University, wrote in the Lancet today.

Needed: Legislation against child abuse
Though India claims to have achieved development goals in many sectors, it is yet to adopt a legislation against child abuse and there is no mandatory reporting and available infrastructure to curb the unfortunate practice.

Child scheme: Yechury asks PM to ensure Rs 12,000 cr in Budget
Sitaram Yechury said this amount should include Rs 2,500 crore “exclusively for improving the conditions of the Anganwadi employees and for providing them pension and other social security benefits.”

Women to have greater say in planning through gender-budgeting
The policy would be about incorporating a gender perspective and sensitiveness at all levels and stages of the developmental planning, policy and programme formulation.

The age of labour
Government officials and NGOs in Maharashtra want the Centre to increase the age limit for child labour to 18, up from 14 at present, which they feel will help curtail the exploitation of children in all kinds of business establishments.

News Watch - Babalog see Orissa hunger first hand

2008-01-17T19:09:00.000+05:30

Babalog see Orissa hunger first hand
Sachin Pilot of Congress, Supriya Sule of NCP, Jay Panda, BJD, Shyam Benegal, nominated member to Rajya Sabha, and Shahnawaz Hussain from BJP made up the political quorum of the alliance — Feroze Gujaral and Gauri Karnik added the celebrity factor to the group. Supported by Unicef, the group visited four villages in two blocks of Cuttack district — Salehpur and Tangi. The first two were villages planned for a visit in advance.

Experts stress on importance of breast-feeding
Bhanu, a lactating mother, who works as a teacher in a private school maintained that after the two months maternity leave given to them which also are varies from one school to another, it is difficult for them to breast-feed their children properly and regularly.

A Democracy called India (Blog: opinion)
One such problem is child labour. The Parliament has banned all forms of Child Labour under an Act and yet this loss of innocence continues. While traveling to college everyday I come across a little girl less than ten years old standing beneath the familiar traffic light. Everyday she hurtles towards halted cars as soon as the traffic light turns to flaming red. She begs for money using steel can wrapped with marigold flowers and adorned with Lord Shiva idols.

Kid organises computers for tribals
Karan's dream of teaching computers to these underprivileged kids has been realized, with HP agreeing to sponsor 30 computers through the Sankya project of Rotary Club, Bangalore South.

New Research Shows Nutrition Programs Targeting Pregnancy and First 24 Months of Life Dramatically Improve Child Survival and Overall Health
A landmark series of research papers on maternal and child undernutrition published in the leading international medical journal The Lancet today shows that children will suffer irreversible damage into their adult life if proper nutrition interventions are not delivered before the age of 24 months.

Image courtest Hindu Businessline

News Watch: Delay in Child Rights Panel - Govt. rapped

2008-01-14T04:23:00.000+05:30

Government rapped for delay in forming children's panel
The powers of the commission, comprising six people, would involve launching an inquiry into "any violation of child rights" and "protect" children requiring special care, minors in distress, juveniles, children in conflict with law and those affected by HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, riots, communal violence and terrorism.

Why India’s future may rest on Eggs, Condoms
The working group on children under six, set up at the behest of the government’s economic planning agency, estimates the cost of reaching out to 80 million children and 10 million pregnant and breast-feeding women with day-care centres, medicines, counselling and nutrition—including eggs for a protein-rich diet—at Rs30,000 crore a year.

Get ready to pay more to domestic help, you will get trained hands
“According to labour laws, children under the age of 14 cannot be employed legally. We will be targeting adolescents between the age groups of 14 and 18 years. Domestic workers are not considered professionals in the country and we are trying to change this mindset. Once these workers are trained they will have to be paid according to wage structures decided by us. There will be different categories of domestic helps according to the skills acquired and certification, such as ‘certificate I’ or ‘certificate II domestic help’. Their salaries will depend accordingly,” senior Labour department officials said.

Diagnostic guidelines can save infant lives worldwide: study
A simple checklist of symptoms for severe illness could save tens of thousands of newborns in poor countries, according to a study published Thursday. The guidelines could help village caregivers make speedy, accurate diagnoses of ailing infants, helping to identify those who need urgent hospitalisation, it says.

Tracking India’s progress on MDGs
“With the growth taking place in the country unless there is a targeted expenditure, we will not be able to see the results which have been designed to be achieved as part of the MDG campaign,” warned Jagadananda, Convener of WNTA.

Got You! - An interesting take on HIV and AIDS and stigma.

2008-01-11T19:30:00.000+05:30

Scripted by children, 'Got You!' or 'Aemanthutingala!' is a World Vision India - Nalandaway co-production of a script created by children.

Synopsis:

One day in the life of a perky young girl who is HIV positive. The girl, though mischievous is smart and independent. In one of the normal physical education classes she has a small accident, gets hurt and starts to bleed. The physical education teacher comes to her help, but she refuses his help and tells him that she is HIV positive. The teacher though initially rubbishes it as one of her many, pranks is shattered when she shows her medical records. The film shows how the teacher’s ignorance takes him through a torturous time, till the child teaches the “teacher” a lesson for life.

For more info about World Vision India / Nalandaway Foundation

News Watch - Child labour: Govt to expand list of hazardous jobs

2008-01-10T04:40:00.000+05:30

Child labour: Govt to expand list of hazardous jobs, amend law
The Union Labour Ministry is about to notify a significant expansion of the list of hazardous processes and occupations where the employment of children below 18 years of age is strictly prohibited, even as it is working towards comprehensively reviewing and amending the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986.

Supply chains – Indian child labour slips through the Gap
Sean Ansett, managing partner of At Stake Advisors and former global partnerships director at Gap, believes that no company, even the most responsible, is immune to child labour in its supplhey chain.

Our unlucky children
Our children can buy potato chips in 40 flavours, but are denied an education tailored to their needs. Aamir Khan’s film is about a dyslexic boy let down by his school. His teachers do not recognize what makes him different and treat him as if he is stupid, shattering his self-esteem. Then Khan comes in as a sensitive teacher and turns things around.

Cartoon courtesy Suman

News watch: Eggs and Condoms to save India

2008-01-08T15:32:00.000+05:30

India's Future May Depend on Eggs and Condoms: Andy Mukherjee
This isn't to say Indian taxpayers should resent paying for an egg in each young child's meal every other day, which is what the committee recommends. But surely provision of clean water, for which the panel has very little advice to offer, should take precedence

Discrimination in MP schools alive and kicking, reveals public hearing
“When we raised our voice against this partial treatment, we were threatened and beaten badly by the teacher. Non-dalit students also refuse to sit with us,” said 13 year old Pooja, a Dalit student from the same school. She feels humiliated by her teacher and classmates.

"Transporting" people out of poverty
There is a clear link between levels of infant and child mortality and accessibility to health services. The success of national immunisation programmes, for which repeat visits are often required, depends on the availability of affordable transport services to the poor.

Image courtesy Bloomberg

Media watch - In 2007, India let its children down

2008-01-04T05:51:00.000+05:30

In 2007, India let its children down
For a country with a child population of over 445 million, of whom 126 million are less than five years old, the unearthing of 20 dismembered bodies of missing kids at the fag end of 2006 was a shocking revelation of how India neglects its children. Most of children had been sexually abused and mutilated. One year later, India continues to be among the worst performers in the world in terms of ensuring that children have the basic right to survive, even though policies and processes for their protection and development are in place.

'Biscuits can't replace mid-day meals in schools'
In what could strengthen the government's case in not letting "100 gram biscuit packs" replace hot cooked mid-day meals in schools, the Supreme Court-appointed special commissioners have slammed the lobbying by members of Parliament to undo the current scheme.

Missing Children in India Status Report NHRC (Blog post)
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has published a new report on Missing Children in India. It gave a number of recommendations. It can be downloaded from their website http://nhrc.nic.in/

Including the disabled
The World Bank report 2006 (forthcoming) states that both educational attainment of all persons with disability and the attendance of Children With Disability (CWD) are far below national averages. Thirty-eight per cent of CWD aged 6-13 are out of schools. Almost three quarters of all children with severe disabilities are illiterate and do not attend school.

Lekhpals told to prevent malnutrition
Moreover, facts like 74.7% of pregnant women had never gone for the three mandatory ante natal care visits, close to 92% mothers never consumed iron folic acid tablets for 90 days and about 71.8% women didn’t go in for institutional deliveries reflect inter-generational transfer of malnutrition.

2007 in retrospect - But the children cannot wait

2008-01-01T08:42:00.000+05:30

“We are guilty of many errors and many faults, but our worst crime is abandoning the children, neglecting the fountain of life. Many of the things we need can wait, the child cannot,” said to Gabriela Mistral, Nobel Prize winner.

India’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru set a great example by expressing his love for children. So much so that he was called ‘Chaacha Nehru’ and his birthday is still celebrated as Children’s Day.

But as each New Year and yet another Children’s Day comes along, the celebrations ring hollow in the face of the growing atrocities that are committed against children. Some of our happy memories are that of being a child. But, being a child in India may not be such a great thing after all. The figures below speak for themselves.

If you are child below the age of three there is a 50 % change that you are malnourished – if you are not one of the 10 % who do not live to see their first birthday.

If you survive this age, and somehow get into school there is a 30 % chance that you will drop out of school – the probability is even higher if you are a girl. And you have to do all of this on your own, without support from the state, as it has no constitutional obligation to educate you till you are six years old.

Wait. There is more.

There is a 41% chance that you will be sexually abused or molested, most probably by a close family member or friend. Again, the chances are higher if you are a girl.

While recent figures show that around 70,000 children in India are HIV positive, a seemingly low number – uncounted are the number of children whose parents are infected or dead from AIDS making them vulnerable to child labour, trafficking and abuse.

While we know to the minute how high or low the sensex rises and the reasons behind the same, we are still arguing on how many child labourers there are in our blessed country. Estimates range from 10 – 100 million children – and recent reports about widespread child labour in the cotton and garment industries seem to favour the higher figure.

And in a country where every day there is a natural disaster, the impact it has on children is unknown.

The horror that is Nithari should have brought us to our feet in anger. But all we have left is despair at the speed with which enquiries move in India as the main perpetrator (or the politically correct “accused”) is languishing in a ‘first-class’ cell.

What is wrong with us?

Just a case in point – child related issues were allocated only a measly 1.2% of the total budget from 1990 – 98 on average according to a HAQ: Centre for Child Rights report. India ratified the UN convention on the rights of the child in 1990 and still we do not have comprehensive legislation that makes the convention a reality for children.

The image that comes to mind is that of an Ostrich with its head stuck firmly in the ground as the world around it crumbles. And maybe if we keep our head down long enough, the children will get tired of waiting and create a revolution. For that is what we need.

Photo courtesy: Anish Premson@World Vision

Horror stories - India top child trafficking nation

2007-10-15T05:29:00.000+05:30

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has reported that India tops as the list of countries that are source, transit and destination for human trafficking. Namita Kohli of the Hinudstan Times has a powerful report that starts by saying "It’s(Human trafficking) a two-way street: of greed and need. When traffic flows, at the dead end are unsuspecting people, bartered every day in a consumerist society."

Horror stories on trafficking, especialy of children by the same reporter should compel the government to take action. Urgently.

Links courtesy: N-CAT

Aggregator: 4 lakh child labourers in cotton industry

2007-10-02T11:16:00.001+05:30

Growing cotton nowadays is a very risky business. While farmers suicides in cotton-growing areas have been a long running phenomenon, a new report by the India Committee of Netherlands reveals that a shocking 400,000 children are involved as child labourers in the cotton industry in India. Multinationals Monsanto and Bayer as well as 13 big indian companies are also implicated in this supporting this "modern form of child slavery"

Discrimination and stigma against people living with HIV and AIDS reached a new low in Rajasthan when the courts denied a mother custody of her child because she had the virus, something her soldier husband gave her.

Climate change has been on the agenda for sometime now. So we knew it would not be long before children get dragged into the game. NGOs working to offset carbon footprints generated in the west with development activities in the west become controversial with this foot operated pump that forces children into child labour, according to Times online.

Back after a hiatus

2007-10-02T10:37:00.000+05:30

The Indiachildwire blog has been in Hiatus for almost half a year now. We hope to start posting regularly from today onwards with renewed vigour.

The blog posts will be in the form of twice weekly aggregation of media on issues of children titled the 'Childmedia aggregator' - this will replace the media watch. We will also have regular contributory opinions and features by experts and group journalist on issues facing children in India.

India’s ‘common’ child abuse problem needs a community-based response

2007-04-19T17:30:00.000+05:30

India’s child abuse report released by Ms. Renuka Chowdry, Union Minister for Women and Child Development department, on Monday was a body blow. The survey found that two in three of the over 12,000 child surveyed in 13 states across the country have suffered some form of abuse. More than half of the children surveyed reported having been sexually abused and 50% of these children reported that the abuse was from a ‘persons known to the child or in a position of trust and responsibility’. More often than not, the child did not report the abuse at all.

There have been warning signs. In July 2006 Reuters released a survey that found India to be the sixth most dangerous place for children. India fared worse than conflict hotspots like Afghanistan, Palestinian territories, Myanmar and Chechnya because of the high incidence of child labour as well as female foeticide and infanticide.

Then the ‘Horror of Nithari’ happened. The country and the world watched in horror and disgust as the remains of 34 children and youth were pulled out of the gutter of a high value suburb close to the national capital, New Delhi. These were children from the nearby village of Nithari that were lured by sweets and other platitudes, abused, sexually assaulted and killed with impunity.

“We always say our children are safe, we take good care of them, these bad things don't happen here. We never had any kind of introspection that this is not true," said Ms. Chowdry according to the English service of Al-jazeera.

In the wake of Nithari the government framed legislation that would strengthen child protection in the country. The initiative envisages creation of child protection units at the state and district levels and more involvement with the families and children of the community to create a safety net for children in crisis.

The saying ‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ cannot be more poignant than in dealing with cases of child abuse. This latest report calls for stiffer penalties and a better system for dealing with cases of child abuse quickly that children will feel secure to come out and report abuse. While legislation and fast-track courts address the governance issues, the capacity of communities to protect children needs to be built up so that we nip this challenge in the bud.

World Vision has been responding as a priority to the rising incidence of child labour, child trafficking and other violence against children. In communities where World Vision works, child protection committees have been created to monitor children’s well being and protect them. Every village has a child protection committee consisting of community leaders, especially women, children, district and Panchayat (grass roots governance body) leaders and is tasked with making sure that children in the community are safe and secure from abuse, trafficking, violence and are educated and protected.

More is needed. It is not very often that any government would bring out a report that tells such a negative story. “The courage of our Women and Child development minister is to be appreciated,” says Dr, Jayakumar Christian, National Director, World Vision India, “But, if we do not move urgently to reverse these findings, the next such report may tell an even more dismal story.”

And by that time we may have lost another generation of our children.

Media watch - Budgeting with a compassion deficit

2007-03-06T09:32:00.000+05:30

Sources: various blogs, FE, Guardian, Businesswireindia, Reuters, Telegraphindia, TOI, BBC

What is the future of the street children?
Well, the government is admitting that it is in a big quandry. What is most likely to happen is that eventually this brouhaha about child beggars will die down and these children will be allowed to go - with stern warnings.

Budgeting with a compassion deficit
But nothing highlights the tokenism of the budget to equity concerns more than the statement of the Finance Minister that ‘the issue of urban poverty and unemployment is equally critical’, but the Budget increases actual allocations for employement generation in urban areas from an incredibly low Rs 250 crore to Rs 344 crore for the whole country, and continues to exclude urban homeless, migrant, and slum dwellers from the national rural health mission and the NREGS.

Hindu India Aborts Females Illegally
Some in today’s India decided to expose the abortion atrocity. They masterminded an ingenious plan to film those in the medical “profession” breaking the law by killing female unborns.

ERADICATING MALNUTRITION: AN AGENDA FOR ACTION
In the ultimate analysis, we must recognise that malnutrition is a human problem that can be addressed by human solutions, provided the requisite social will exists to bring about enduring change for the better.

India's missing girls
Daughters aren't wanted in India. So many female foetuses are illegally aborted that baby boys now hugely outnumber baby girls, while a government minister has begged parents to abandon their children rather than kill them.

The Budget and the Missing Child
CRY asks that the government make the rights of children the focus and the key evaluation criteria of economic policy. At just over 4%, state investments in children are grossly inadequate, considering that they are 45% of our citizens, or even in comparison with other emerging economies.

Poor question "Shining India" as budget eyes growth
But behind the headlines of "Shining India" are worries that growth is failing to trickle down to the poor and the communist-backed government is concerned that a by-product of the boom -- a rising inflation rate -- is making many people poorer.

SHOCKING LOW
How a society treats its children, its poor and its terminally ill is a certain measure of its level of civilization. On each of these counts, Bengal hit a new and inhuman low recently when a series of government hospitals in Calcutta refused to operate on a seriously ill child because he was found out to be HIV+.

Kids get a raw deal in budgets
A quick glance of the social sector indices reveals that despite rapid growth in GDP and per capita income, children's health and education has not received the desired attention which reflects in the high levels of foeticide, malnutrition, illiteracy and child labour rampant across the country.

March denounces child trafficking
Kailash Satyarthi, chairman of the Global March Against Child Labour, says South Asia is a major source, destination and transit area for child trafficking of all forms.

Media Watch - Where every child doesn’t get her due

2007-02-23T14:39:00.000+05:30

Sources: HT, ToI, Indian Express, Outlook, Telegraph, Central Chronicle, IBNlive, Alertnet

Facts hard to digest
Consequently, child malnutrition is not only responsible for 22 per cent of India’s disease burden and half of the 2.3 million child deaths annually, but it also costs India at least $ 10 billion annually in terms of lost productivity, illness and death. Such a colossal loss is unacceptable for a growing global power like India.

Poor child care in 'rich' states too
Unlike Bihar and Uttar Pradesh that have poor health and nutritional status, the immunisation cover for children has actually declined in 11 states, including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

Where every child doesn’t get her due
The damage to physical growth and brain development due to malnutrition is maximum when the infant is under two years and that damage is largely irreversible. While intervention in providing fortified foods should logically focus most on this window of opportunity, our food supplementary schemes are directed at older school-going children.

Child Labour: India’s Greatest Shame
‘Seven days a week, 8-year-old Jasmina Khatoon rises before dawn to fetch water for the household where she works as a maid. She washes, sweeps and hauls until about 11 at night, when she lies down to sleep on the floor by the bathroom door.’

WITHOUT CARE
Ms Renuka Chowdhury, the Union minister of state for women and child development, has her heart in the right place. As part of her unflagging effort to save the girl child, she has enticed parents with cash incentives, and now proposes that the state does their job of parenting for them.

Some 50 per cent of India's children are abused - survey
New Delhi-based Outlook magazine said in its 26 February issue that "hidden from the media glare, millions of children [in India] suffer abuse in silence". The survey indicates that the extent of abuse of children saturates throughout many different aspects of Indian society, not just amongst orphanages, juvenile homes and street children.

Take care of the kids: Monitor anganbadis
India ranks along with small nations like Cambodia, Burkino Faso taking the weight of kids against their age.

Govt to raise abandoned girl children
"We want to put a cradle or Palna in every district headquarters. What we are saying to the people is have your children, don't kill them. And if you don't want a girl child, leave her to us," Minister of State for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury told PTI in an interview.

From street child to surgeon, Indian girl follows dream
And the 16-year-old girl is bright enough to realise her dream, according to the charity that 10 years ago rescued her from the teeming streets of the northern Indian city of Jaipur with a population of some three million people.

'Don't kill your daughter, the Govt will raise her'
In a bid to check the alarming rate of female feticide, the ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) has proposed to set up an orphanage in each district of the country where parents can leave their girl child, if they don't want to bring them up.

Students to run for a cause
The Dream Run, organised by the Students Social Responsibility Cell will bringing students together to promote a world free from physical, emotional and intellectual deprivation of children by fighting child sex abuse, malnutrition, and child labour, and encouraging education.

Media Watch - Children of a lesser god?

2007-02-17T10:26:00.000+05:30

Sources: Business Standard, TOI, RXPGnews, HT, Hindu

Children of a lesser god?
In cities and towns like Mumbai, Agra, Kanpur, Firozabad and Moradabad, to name just a few, where one face of Indian youth is flourishing in the multiplex-mall culture, there is another side where children in the same age group are probably working 18 hours in factories which fail to provide even basic comfort levels.

Give details of missing kids: HC to DGP
Taking serious note of 712 children missing from various areas in the state for the last one year, the Allahabad High Court directed the DGP to provide their disaggregate district-wise gender and age details on the next date.

When street kids smile through the lens
The exhibition titled 'Children of the world', being held in the city, has 40 photographs of street children from nine countries, including India. It is not the usual kind of exhibition where you step around to look at the portraits on the walls.

CBI to inquire into alleged child adoption racket
The Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA), an autonomous Body under the Ministry of Women & Child Development, responsible for keeping a check on international adoption has suspended Preet Mandir's license last July after the with immediate effect after it was reported that the adoption home was allegedly involved in selling babies to foreigners for $12,000.

New light on child labour
Highlighting the plight of children working in hazardous industries, the film intends to sensitise society and the parents who send their young children to work in order to "augment" their income.

Media Watch - 5 kids will go missing the next hour

2007-02-12T14:48:00.000+05:30

Sources: TOI, Hindu, NYTimes, HT, IE, Indiatogether, Hardnewsmedia, Indian Catholic, NDTV

200 bonded labourers freed in Hazaribagh
Nearly 100 child labourers along with another 100 bonded adults including women, were freed from a brick kiln near Ramgarh in Hazaribagh district on Saturday and brought to Ranchi from where they boarded trains to their respective states.

Girl child unspoken curse
The situation has worsened since 2003, when ultra-sonography and sex-determination technology became accessible to the remotest parts of Chambal, one of the most backward areas in the country.

Beyond punishment
A considerable body of research shows that corporal punishment can never make a child learn or behave better. Yet, the practice is widely prevalent.

Even Amid Its Wealth, India Finds, Half Its Small Children Are Malnourished
In this young nation, where 40 percent of the people are under 18, figures released by the government on Friday offered an alarming portrait of child health: Among children under 3, nearly half are clinically underweight, the most reliable measure of malnutrition.

Website to track missing children launched
Launched by Don Bosco National Forum for Youth at Risk in association with UNICEF, www.missingchildsearch.net will be closely watched and monitored by child welfare organisations in all major cities in the country and a search will be generated immediately.

Largest children population state lagging in childcare
child security had become an important concern in the post Nithari scenario but the issue was a broader one, involving the rights of the young child in the framework of security, protection, development and participation.

Ultrasound may result in `misguided treatment'
The available imaging technologies employed during pregnancy may not always be accurate, and therefore, may not enable correction of birth defects, feels a group of dedicated paediatric surgeons.

Flesh trade to beggar mafia: Mumbai capital for missing children
Maximum city Mumbai is also number one when it comes to missing children. In 2006 alone, Mumbai’s missing minor registers recorded 948 children as untraced.

5 kids will go missing the next hour
In fact, missing children is the veritable black hole in law-enforcement. As an investigative series from several states will show, just like Nithari, where police failed to even acknowledge the problem, elsewhere, too, the typical police response is: the missing child is the parents’ problem, not ours.

Paying a steep price for motherhood
The deaths come at a time when the state government of Madhya Pradesh is strongly advocating institutional deliveries as the mantra to combat high rates of maternal deaths in the state. Unfortunately in the state the campaign exists in the advertisement hoardings, newspaper advertisements and in media, thanks to efforts of public relation department of the state.

Indian PM meets 9-is-Mine delegates
20 children led the 9-Is-Mine delegation to the Prime Minister on 1st February, 2006. The Prime Minister received them at his residence on 7 Race Course Road, and spent exclusive time with the children.

Nithari’s Auschwitz
How many more Nitharis will have to happen to change the way the police and administration function in our ‘incredible, superpower’ India? Are the children of the poor in India eternally condemned in abject poverty, often homeless, without a childhood, trapped as child labour and now guinea pigs of perverse psychopaths, murdered and raped and chopped up in many parts, while the stunningly insensitive nexus of the police and the government plays footsie?

Children in India yearn for better future
India’s constitution is termed as best written human rights documents with several articles on children’s welfare and development. Alas, despite quantum jump on several fronts during last five decades most children are yet to become national priority and many provisions remains on the papers only

Corruption in ICDS schemes
The villagers say the Anganwadi centre does not function and the anganwadi worker goes missing for most part of the year. For example, it's already 9.30 and it's still closed. It's supposed to open at 7.

Media Watch - ICDS scheme: A success story from TN

2007-01-31T22:19:00.000+05:30

Raipur in a fix over ‘boy orderlies’
A police force’s job scheme for children of its dead personnel is earning it praise, and some legal trouble, with human rights activists saying that employing the youngsters for a charitable reason is still a violation of child labour laws.

`Plan to make Delhi hunger-free'
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Sunday said her Government is formulating a food guarantee programme that would ensure food for all in Delhi and make it a hunger-free State.

Malnutrition a reality in Mumbai
That hunger exists in Mumbai is hardly a fact that needs to be established. And so, armed with a weighing scale, NDTV team visited the pavements of the city to randomly select and weigh children below the age of three

Can Indian laws adequately prevent child trafficking?
Every year lakhs of children go missing throughout India. A number of children are lured away from home and suffer abuse and torture. So what innovations are needed to change how we view our little ones?

Child trafficking is increasing in India
India harbours 19 per cent of world’s child population and almost 42 % of total population (1100 million) are children. And yet total expenditure on children in health, education, development and protection together is only 4.9 % of India’s total budget outlet.

Brave woman makes ICDS work
t's the anganwadi workers' personal motivation and dynamism which can really help the battle against hunger. NDTV's team traveled to Bikaner in Rajasthan to bring the story of Geeta Godaran, whose work has created a minor revolution in her village.

ICDS scheme: A success story from TN
At every anganwadi in Tamil Nadu, there is hot lunch, apart from satturundai, that's freshly cooked at the centre. Twice a week, egg is on the menu and on three days a week there will be vegetables, green gram or moong.

Children do not vote
As a nation we are not overtly mindful about protecting and nourishing our children who shall inherit this country from us. And, since children do not vote, they do not exist for political parties, although children under six years comprise 20 per cent of the population.

Indian children adding more blood to tainted diamonds?

2007-01-23T08:40:00.001+05:30

Leonardo di Caprio may well be nominated for the Oscar for his role as the South African diamond smuggler in ‘Blood Diamond’, a film attempting to lay bare the thriving international trade in conflict diamonds that fuels wars and conflicts in several part of Africa. The movie, supported by Global Witness and Amnesty International, opened in India a few weeks ago and is showing in glittering multiplexes in the heart of Mumbai, just around the corner from the diamond markets of this bustling ‘financiapolis’ of India.

Over 90% of the world’s rough diamonds pass through these markets on their journey to Surat, the biggest small-diamond processing centre in the world 326 kms by road from the city. A Guardian Observer investigation alleges that ‘blood diamonds’ from Ivory Coast and Liberia are being illegally processed here.

According to the article, “The stones brought in by dhows and fishing boats through the shallow waters of Gujarat's ungovernable west coast make a laughing stock of attempts to stem the global flow of blood diamonds.” The Kimberly Process, set up by diamond merchants, NGOs, governments and the UN in 2003 governs, albeit loosely the trade in diamonds and should help prevent the use of diamonds to fuel conflicts.

But the Kimberly process does not make any mention of child labour that is reported to be so prevalent in Surat, adding more blood the already tainted stones. Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Children Foundation) alleges that over 30,000 children are stuck in this trade in Dickensian conditions. These claims are stoutly denied by the industry.

And why not? Reports [1, 2] allege that over the years the diamond cutting industry has resisted unionisation or bringing itself under the purview of the Indian Factory Act that promised minimum wages and benefits for its workers. This is done by keeping the number of workers in each unit under nine (the legal limit requiring registration under the Act) and registering hundreds of small units. And it is in these units that the children are lost without a trace.

Diamond cutting is on the top of the list of ‘hazardous work’ that the law prohibits children from work in. And these are the children who sweat and toil, losing out on their childhood to add small value the ‘bling, bling’ that is the fad. The Kimberly process is meeting at this time to review the working of the ban.

Would they stop to consider for a moment the children in Surat, who are churning out these diamonds, paying with their own blood?

Media Watch - Millions of children undernourished: India PM

2007-01-21T16:41:00.000+05:30

Journeying into dark lives of India's street kids
These poor kids flee their homes for a better life in the huge metros and get gobbled up in the narrow by-lanes, or stinking sewers of the railway stations or bus-stops which are, according to one estimate, home to some 3,000-odd poor young runaways.

Indian PM says millions of children undernourished
Some 50 million children aged below six are covered under the 45 billion rupees ($1 billion) Integrated Child Development Services scheme, but it has been poorly implemented, Singh said in a letter to state chief ministers after an adverse health ministry report said.

Britain boosts funding of India`s `Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan`
Under the new programme, Britain wants to get every primary-aged child in India into school. It is part of Gordon Brown`s dream to persuade developed countries to pull their weight to get every child in the world into primary school, sources said.

Madhya Pradesh has India's most malnourished kids
The government and other agencies have launched many programmes. However, tribal areas remain largely untouched. The much-hyped Bal Sanjeevni Abhiyan scheme launched in the state has, many say, failed to ensure nutritional security to tribal children.

Surviving child labour with optimism
'The zari work does not require child labour,' says Mohammad Saddam Hussain, 12, with a lightness that is indicative of his natural age. His insight, however, has a richness of an aspiring insider. 'The zari work is so tedious that no adult will take it up if he is not trained early in childhood.'

Media Watch - 18 million street children and Nithari surprises you?

2007-01-19T08:32:00.000+05:30

18 million street children and Nithari surprises you?
Paedophilia in Goa, organ trafficking in Nithari, gang rape in Bhiwandi - it's just the first week of the year. I think we need more than a dance on stage and a hush hush bash. We need schools

Child tracking system on govt radar to slash missing cases
The UNICEF has also come up with a proposal for child tracking system, with a pilot-testing project already underway in Lalitpur district in Bundelkhand region. According to UNICEF officials, the project revolves around maintaining a baseline date related to children and, also, providing and assisting in all services for children.

Child murders show India's poor live below justice
"The police said 'you people just give birth to children and leave them on the streets -- and then you want police to find them when they go missing'", Lal said, outside the house where his daughter's skull, bones and clothes were found eight months later.

Noida — The mirror of Indian society
What is worrying about the Nithari killings is that nobody seems to have fully understood that Noida holds a mirror up to Indian society in which we should all be able to see our faces. In that mirror, if we dare to look, we will see a society that has long accepted that India is a country in which there are civil privileges and not civil rights.

Media Watch - Putting child at risk

2007-01-13T17:12:00.000+05:30

Noida — The mirror of Indian society
If you are poor, nameless and living in one of the shantytowns that border glittering new towns like Noida then the police will not bother to even register a case because they know your child counts for nothing.

PROGRAMMES AND POLICY MEASURES FOR CHILD WELFARE
Children constitute principle assets of any country. Children’s development is very important for the overall development of society and the best way to develop national human resources is to take care of children.

Sunil Jain: In school, but not really learning
At the all-India level, it found the proportion of children in the first and second standard who could read the alphabet in their native languages is up by 4.2 percentage points, from 70.3 last year to 74.5 per cent this year.

Putting children at risk
Physically and emotionally immature in comparison to adults, and without representation in a democracy, children certainly deserve more than the average protection from our welfare state.

Oprah's academy: Why educating girls pays off more
the benefits of girls' education, in terms of improving health, women's empowerment, and family well-being, probably does make girls' education the highest-returning social investment in the world.

Toys 'could help 200m children'
Programmes using basic toys could boost educational achievement of 200 million developing world children not reaching their potential, a report says.

Web plea rescues Canadian child
Canadian police have taken a child from an allegedly sexually abusive situation after the child's anonymous e-mail plea for help was picked up in Australia.

Media Watch - SOS for Children

2007-01-10T14:12:00.000+05:30

An SOS for children
Without safety nets for the poor that would enable them to access basic health and education facilities for their children, it would be well nigh impossible to save our children from the malaise of trafficking, abuse and child labour. Indeed, as our economy takes huge strides forward, we cannot forget the vulnerable need special attention.

Siddharth Agarwal: Fixing ICDS
The need is to focus our attention on the delivery of the public health system to the millions of underprivileged city dwellers who despite being in the neighbourhood of India’s growing millionaires, continue to suffer social, nutritional, health and capability deprivation.

Government continues to sit on policy for child development
A majority of the recommendations of the policy — child crisis intervention centres, special coaching for slow learners, recreational facilities, free legal services for children who get into trouble with the law — have yet to be discussed by the various agencies likely to coordinate in the implementation of the policy.

Centre to create database on missing children
"We will create a database about missing children based on the records that we get from the states," Minister of State for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury told reporters here today. The ministry of women and child development has written to all state governments, seeking data on missing children.

Mumbai’s street fighters
They are the street children of Mumbai, numbering in thousands. Local NGOs put their number at 20,000, but the United Nations estimates that there are about 2.5 lakh street children in Mumbai.

Eagle's Eye: Get an anganwadi on demand
The government has to set up an anganwadi centre within three months of demand from a settlement that has at least 40 children under six but no centre to cater to the nutritional needs of the children.

Commission for protection of children by January-end
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, that will comprise a chairperson and six members, will have the power, among others, to enquire into violation of child rights and recommend initiation of proceedings in such cases.

Child killer suspects undergo ‘truth’ tests
Forensic experts prepared to apply truth serum to a businessman and his domestic help who are charged with killing at least 17 people, mainly children, officials said.

Threatened childhood : Millions In India Deprived Of Their Right To Survival
Over one billion children, half of the world’s population of children, have been denied their childhood. Poverty and AIDS have prevented the world to meet the goals on their improvement. Their rights to a healthy life as adopted in the 1989 convention are often endangered due to the failure of governments to carry out human rights and economic reforms. It is reported that some 540 million children lack adequate shelter; 400 million have no access to safe drinking water; 270 million lack health care amenities and 140 million ~ mostly girls ~ have never been to school.

Rescued child workers benefit from NGO’s outreach programme
Until the law was passed recently, it was legal to employ children of any age as domestic servants in India. Now anyone employing a servant younger than 14 faces up to a year in prison.

Media Watch - Nithari: Whose children where they?

2007-01-06T21:21:00.000+05:30

New law to ensure against repeat of Noida child killings
The proposed law provides protection against sexual abuse as stipulated under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Sexual offences in the draft bill include sodomy or manipulation of the child’s body for penetration, oral sex, fondling, display of private parts and exposing him/her to pornography.

Whose children were they?
And who will acknowledge that in some way each one of us was responsible for what happened to the children of Nithari village?

India orders high-level probe into child killings
India ordered a high-level probe on Wednesday into the discovery of skulls and bones of at least 17 people, many of them children, at a house outside New Delhi which police say is a gruesome case of serial killing.

80% of India's districts have declining sex ratios
India already abysmal sex ratio figures are getting worse by the day, with 80% of its districts recording declining child sex ratios since 1991, as thousands of girl-children are killed before or at birth.

Poor kids appeal to Prez to ensure safety
In a memorandum submitted to the President, 'Badhte Kadam', an organisation of street children asked the government to ensure the effective implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) regulations.

NHRC raps Delhi Government for Child labour
The National Human Rights Commission has asked the Chief Secretary and Secretary, Labour Department, NCT of Delhi to respond to a news published in a leading English daily stating that children are being employed at a number of places in Delhi, despite prohibition.

Media Watch - India’s children at bottom of hunger heap

2007-01-03T06:16:00.000+05:30

Independent Appeal: Children in slavery
Until the law was passed recently, it was legal to employ children of any age as domestic servants in India. Now anyone employing a servant younger than 14 faces up to a year in prison.

Kids often hungry as India grows richer
while new money and new foods transform the eating habits of some of India's youngest citizens, gnawing destitution continues to plague millions of others. Taken together, it is a picture of plenty and want, each producing its own set of afflictions.

Imminent work ban a ray of hope for child labourers
The Orissa government has set up a ministerial committee headed by Chief Minister Navin Patnaik to study child labour problems and look into rehabilitation aspects. The panel was formed in the wake of the central government ban on employment of workers below 14 years in 'dhabas' (roadside eateries), restaurants, hotels, motels, resorts, spas or other recreational centres or as domestic helps.

Expo for `little arts'
The exhibition was part of the prize distribution function of the 41st All-India Child Art Competitions-2006 organised by city-based Child Art Club at Ravindra Bharathi.

Children done the role of social reformers
They may be young but they are well informed and articulate. On being asked what is the biggest concern facing the children today, they say without hesitation - child labour.

India’s children at bottom of hunger heap
Indian children are worse than the United Nation’s sub-Saharan poster boy with rickety arms, swollen belly and protruding eyes symbolising malnutrition and hunger.

Indian NGO frees 50 bonded child labourers
The children, all boys aged between eight and 14, children of poor farm labourers in the eastern Indian state of Bihar had been brought to New Delhi to work in small factories making elaborately embroidered fabric called ‘zari’.

Dalits discriminated against in ICDS
Caste discrimination continues to hamper the objectives of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). This has been pointed out by a report — “Focus on children under six”, brought out by Right to Food Campaign, highlighting the pitiable condition of children below six years and the need for balanced nutrition, health and pre-school education for them.

Malnutrition kills two kids in Madhya Pradesh
Rs.3 billion was earmarked for providing nutritious diet to undernourished women and children - Rs.1.9 billion more than the previous year. But according to the government's Child Growth Monitoring Drive, 80,000 children in the state continued to suffer from severe malnutrition.

YEAR-END REVIEW - TOWARDS MORE ACCESSIBLE, INCLUSIVE AND QUALITY EDUCATION
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the flagship programme to achieve the goal of Universalization of Elementary Education for all children between 6 to 14 years, has a budget provision of Rs. 11000 crores in 2006-07. The goal of SSA is Universal Retention by 2010.

Media Watch - "Indian Children are undernourished" - The Hindu

2006-12-29T16:00:00.000+05:30

Caring for children - The ones who make a better day
The real bad news is the data on underweight children, which does nothing to help India escape the ignominy of being the world’s worst performer on this score, its share of such children being nearly double that of sub-Saharan Africa.

Bihar third among Indian states in child marriage
In Bihar, the average age of a girl at marriage is 17.2 years, third after Rajasthan (16.6 years) and Madhya Pradesh (17 years), according to a recent report of the UNICEF.

India’s endangered species: girls
Scratch the surface of Indian society, and you’ll find powerful social prejudice, to the point of female devaluation. And now, that devaluation is seen in the destruction of unborn and newly born girls: as technology increases, so does selective killing… inordinately biased against girls.

"Indian children are undernourished"
Despite India having an annual economic growth rate of 8.5 per cent, six per cent of the babies in this country die before their first birthday and nearly half of all children are undernourished, a new report has said.

PM asks states to check labour law violation
While the Centre is aiming to enforce labour laws in all states effectively, minister of state for labour and employment Oscar Fernandes said only few states were actually implementing labour legislations, ensuring right work environment and wages for the workforce.

Tough child labour laws proposed
The Indian government is proposing a complete ban on employing children below the age of 11.

Indian Child Labour: More than 'tough stances' needed

2006-12-27T10:52:00.000+05:30

BBC News reported recently that India is taking a tougher stance on child labour. Tougher than government notification issued by the Ministry of Labour and Employment this August, that prohibited and made liable for punishment those who employed "children as domestic servants or servants or in dhabas (roadside eateries), restaurants, hotels, motels, teashops, resorts, spas or in other recreational centres" and restricted the age of children allowed to work in these places to above 14 years.

Defining child labour in a way that everyone agrees has always been a challenge. The closest one comes to consensus on this issue is through the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) Convention No. 182 that defines worst forms of child labour. The interesting thing is that India is one for the few countries that has not ratified the convention.

The convention acknowledges that in some countries and contexts children may need to contribute economically to the family's needs, but seeks to safeguard their rights by listing the 'worst forms of child labour' that children should not be engaged in. And the ban mentioned above brings domestic labour and work in 'recreational centres' into the cover of India's Child Labour (Prohibition and Enforecement) Act 1986.

The current push in the form of a proposal sent around by Ms. Renuka Chowdary, Minister for Women and Child Development to legal experts and state governments seeks to completely ban any child below the age of 11 working. Period. According to the BBC, Ms. Chowdary said "The idea behind the proposal is to ensure the right to education and a life of dignity to every single child as enshrined in our constitution." The report does not explain how this suggestion will acheive this.

The Hindustan Times reports that the proposal also seeks to give "the government the power to notify rules to impart education to child labourer." While education is a right for every child embodied in the Indian Constitution, the mechanics of this have been stuck in the 'corridors of power' making education possible only for the children of the rich.

NGOs like World Vision and Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Child Movement) say that every child not in school is vulnerable to child labour, and hence are advocating for the immediate roll out of the 'Right to education' act. And the consensus is that these 'tough stances' are nothing but half measures. And what happens to the children who are not allowed to work as per law and cannot attend school?

Education made available free for every child is the only way to end child labour in India.

And if we look at the way education in India is going, that may never happen. Sorry about being a pessimistic cuss, but a quick look at the way the 'right to education' scenario is will bear out this comment. Article 21 of our constitution lays out that every Indian child has a right to free eduction up to the primary level. But what we have on the ground is a dysfunctional (at best) public school system and a burgeoning private school system that is beyond the reach of the children who need education the most - the children living below the poverty line.

The best way to address the issue of child labour is to adderss the issue of systemic poverty. This does not mean just education for children and legislation that keeps children out of child labour. It means making sure their parents earn enough to make sure their children stay in school and not force them to go to school. It means more schools and better curiculumm that makes sure that children finish a good education and come out with enough opportunities to find jobs or start their own enterprises. This means access to information, knowledge, know how, markets and credit - the five fingers the give a hand up to people living in poverty.

This means we have to fix our school system either through the much touted and equally maligned public school system or strengthening of the existing education system buttressed by a 'every child in school' campaign. We need to make sure that parents are committed, made responsible and are able to keep their committment to keep children in school.

Just 'tough stances' are not enough.

Media Watch: Govt. makes a meal of ICDS

2006-12-23T08:35:00.000+05:30

Media Watch - 23 December 2006

50 p.c fiscal aid provided for children welfare:MP
“government of India provides for 50 per cent of the expenditure requirements of State governments for establishing and maintaining homes under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 and up keep of children staying in these homes as per cost norms under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme “A Programme for Juvenile Justice” - Minister

Govt makes a meal of ICDS
For the entire Tenth Five Year Plan 2002-07, the government had ear-marked Rs 73.30 crore for providing supplementary nutrition under ICDS scheme. Till 2005-06 fiscal year, the government had been able to spend only 36.16% over four years.

Bill to make child marriages void gets Parliament nod
Chaudhary said every child marriage, whether solemnized before or after the commencement of this Act, would be void at the option of the contracting party.

The employers of children can be Jailed
The employer can be jailed for not less than 3 months but which may extend to one year or with fine which shall not be less than Rupees ten thousand but which may extend to Rupees Twenty thousand or both.

Two-thirds households lose 10 percent of income due to HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS also increases the work load on the elderly and girl children, said Dr. Bery. HIV households spend 400 percent more than non-HIV households on medical expenses and have a lower per-capita outlay on education

Implement Integrated Child Development Scheme: SC to Centre
Coming down heavily upon the 13 states that had failed to submit affidavits to the court in this regard, the apex court directed the Chief Secretaries of these defaulting states to personally appear before it and give reasons for not fulfilling the orders.

Govt for age cap on child labour
The Ministry for Women and Child Development has mooted a proposal to ban the employment of children below 11 years of age in any establishment.

‘Condition of kids a humanitarian emergency’
Prof Amartya Sen said: "The current state of India's children reflects the complete failure of Indian democracy on this front and this constitutes a gross violation of human rights."

Media Watch - India has killed 10 mln girls

2006-12-16T10:12:00.000+05:30

Media watch - current news stories on issues of children
16 December 2006

India has killed 10 mln girls in 20 years -minister
"We have more passion for tigers of this country. We have people fighting for stray dogs on the road. But you have a whole society that ruthlessly hunts down girl children."

India's Street Kids Find New Lives as Tour Guides
If the children are lucky, they make it to the fence beyond track No. 1. That's where the jurisdiction of the police officers assigned to the train station ends. If the children are unlucky, they run into a pimp, a child trader looking for new victims -- young girls and handsome boys.

Indian government confirms sex-selection abortion crisis
"Today, we have the odd distinction of having lost 10 million girl children in the past 20 years," Chowdhury told a seminar in Delhi. "Who has killed these girl children? Their own parents."

Media Watch - Street kids: Soft catch for cops, et al

2006-12-14T19:46:00.000+05:30

Media reports on issues of children for the day: 14 December 2006

1,672 cases of child labour act violations in India
Even though the law banning child labour in India came into effect two months ago, little has changed for the minors as 1,672 violations of the legislation have been reported by 13 state governments.

India's poor children raise their hopes
It is obvious that although India has one of the largest populations of young people in the world, it is starved of educational opportunity, and its youth do not have the skills they need to get jobs in the future.

Dangerous jobs for India's army of child workers
Across the country, children stuff explosives into fireworks to be lit during religious festivals and extravagant wedding celebrations, or weave carpets, sew textiles and make everything from footballs to cricket bats to sulphur-tipped matchsticks.

Indian school throws out HIV boy
Activists say one of the major problems in India's battle against HIV/Aids is lack of awareness about the disease and stigma associated with it.

Unicef report lauds role of women in Indian villages
"Study after study has taught us that there is no tool for development more effective than gender equality, and no other policy is likely to raise economic productivity, lower infant and maternal mortality, improve nutrition and promote health, including helping to prevent the spread of HIV-AIDS,"

Street kids: Soft catch for cops
Say boys who live life on the rough streets of the Capital that police routinely beat them with lathis and don't even spare the young ones - they either lock them up on some false charge or take away whatever money these children have.

State of the world's children 2007 - report released

2006-12-14T05:52:00.000+05:30

It is only appropriate that Indiachildwire is launched now - just a few days after the release of the 'State of the world's children - 2007' report. The launch of this report has become a very important event in the diaries of development professionals worldwide dealing with issues of children, but gets precious little play in media - especially Indian media.

The report's premise is that by empowering women helps children reach their fullest potiential. “Gender equality and the well-being of children are inextricably linked,” said UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman in a press release distributed around the launch of the report. “When women are empowered to lead full and productive lives, children and families prosper.”

And the report attempts to qualify 'empowerment' in terms of education, legislation that supports women, quotas for women, financial commitments towards gender equality and involving men and boys in this process. Even a quick look at this list shows that India is woefully lacking in its committment to gender equality - more girls drop out of school than boys; we are still wrangling over the women's bill; i am not sure if we can find what percentage of our GDP is spent on womens's empowerment; and men and boys are the worst perpetrators of violence against women.

Is there hope?

Well, we do have legislation that gives more option to women under the pall of domestic violence; we have legislation that envisages maximum penalty for rapists; we have more women in parliament than ever before and look at the number of women around the country who are part of self help groups (SHGs) - the ubiquitous empowerment model that is becoming (or has become) a replacement for moneylenders (that is an other story by itself). Not to mention the women CEOs of our nation.

But more needs to be done...so that we can continue building a nation that is fit for our children.