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.
Showing posts with label inaction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inaction. Show all posts
January 04, 2008
Media watch - In 2007, India let its children down
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.
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.
February 23, 2007
Media Watch - Where every child doesn’t get her due
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.
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.
February 12, 2007
Media Watch - 5 kids will go missing the next hour
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.
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.
January 10, 2007
Media Watch - SOS for Children
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.
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.
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