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The right
to Education: 50% of Indian children aged 6-18
do not go to school
Dropout rates increase alarmingly in class III to V, its
50% for boys, 58% for girls.
The right to Expression: Every child has
a right to express himself freely in which ever way he likes.
Majority of children however are exploited by their elders
and not allowed to express.
The right to Information:
Every child has a right to know his basic rights and his
position in the society. High incidence of illiteracy and
ignorance among the deprived and underprivileged children
prevents them from having access to information about them
and their society.
The right to Nutrition: More than 50% of
India's children are malnourished. While one in every five
adolescent boys is malnourished, one in every two girls
in India is undernourished.
The right to Health & Care: 58% of India's
children below the age of 2 years are not fully vaccinated.
And 24% of these children do not receive any form of vaccination.
Over 60% of children in India are anemic. 95 in every 1000
children born in India, do not see their fifth birthday.
70 in every 1000 children born in India, do not see their
first birthday.
The right to protection from Abuse: There
are approximately 2 million child commercial sex workers
between the age of 5 and 15 years and about 3.3 million
between 15 and 18 years. They form 40% of the total population
of commercial sex workers in India. 500,000 children are
forced into this trade every year.
The right to protection from Exploitation:
17 million children in India work as per official estimates.
A study found that children were sent to work by compulsion
and not by choice, mostly by parents, but with
recruiter playing a crucial role in influencing decision.
When working outside the family, children put in an average
of 21 hours of labour per week. Poor and bonded families
often "sell" their children to contractors who
promise lucrative jobs in the cities and the children end
up being employed in brothels, hotels and domestic work.
Many run away and find a life on the streets.
The right to protection from Neglect: Every
child has a right to lead a well protected and secure life
away from neglect. However, children working under exploitative
and inhuman conditions get neglected badly.
The right to Development: Every child has
the right to development that lets the child explore her/his
full potential. Unfavourable living conditions of underprivileged
children prevents them from growing in a free and uninhibited
way.
The right to Recreation: Every child has
a right to spend some time on recreational pursuits like
sports, entertainment and hobbies to explore and develop.
Majority of poor children in India do not get time to spend
on recreational activities.
The right to Name & Nationality: Every
child has a right to identify himself with a nation. A vast
majority of underprivileged children in India are treated
like commodities and exported to other countries as labour
or prostitutes.
The right to Survival: Of the 12 million
girls born in India, 3 million do not see their fifteenth
birthday, and a million of them are unable to survive even
their first birthday. Every sixth girl child's death is
due to gender discrimination.
Child Rights
in India: An Introduction
India is a party to the
UN declaration on the Rights of the Child 1959. Accordingly,
it adopted a National Policy on Children in 1974. The policy
reaffirmed the constitutional provisions for adequate services
to children, both before and after birth and through the
period of growth to ensure their full physical, mental and
social development.
Accordingly, the government is taking action to review the
national and state legislation and bring it in line with
the provisions of the Convention. It has also developed
appropriate monitoring procedures to assess progress in
implementing the Convention-involving various stake holders
in the society.
India is also a signatory to the World Declaration on the
Survival, Protection and Development of Children. In pursuance
of the commitment made at the World Summit, the Department
of Women and Child Development under the Ministry of Human
Resource Development has formulated a National Plan of Action
for Children. Most of the recommendations of the World Summit
Action Plan are reflected in India's National Plan of Action-
keeping in mind the needs, rights and aspirations of 300
million children in the country.
The priority areas in the Plan are health, nutrition, education,
water, sanitation and environment. The Plan gives special
consideration to children in difficult circumstances and
aims at providing a framework, for actualization of the
objectives of the Convention in the Indian context.
Status of Children
in India
Recent UNICEF (2005) report
on the state of the world’s children under the title
“Childhood Under Threat” , speaking about India,
states that millions of Indian children are equally deprived
of their rights to survival, health, nutrition, education
and safe drinking water. It is reported that 63 per cent
of them go to bed hungry and 53 per cent suffer from chronic
malnutrition.
The report says that 147
million children live in kuchcha houses, 77 million do not
use drinking water from a tap, 85 million are not being
immunized, 27 million are severely underweight and 33 million
have never been to school. It estimates that 72 million
children in India between five and 14 years do not have
access to basic education. A girl child is the worst victim
as she is often neglected and is discriminated against because
of the preference for a boy child.
National Commission
for Protection of Child Rights
In order to ensure child
rights practices and in response to India’s commitment
to UN declaration to this effect, the government of India
set up a National Commission for Protection of Child
Rights.
The Commission is a statutory body notified under an Act
of the Parliament on December 29, 2006. Besides the chairperson,
it will have six members from the fields of child health,
education, childcare and development, juvenile justice,
children with disabilities, elimination of child labour,
child psychology or sociology and laws relating to children.
The Commission has the power to inquire into complaints
and take suo motu notice of matters relating to
deprivation of child's rights and non-implementation of
laws providing for protection and development of children
among other things.
Aimed at examining and reviewing the safeguards provided
by the law to protect child rights, the Commission will
recommend measures for their effective implementation. It
will suggest amendments, if needed, and look into complaints
or take suo motu notice of cases of violation of
the constitutional and legal rights of children.
The Commission is to ensure proper enforcement of child
rights and effective implementation of laws and programmes
relating to children- enquiring into complaints and take
suo motu cognizance of matters relating to deprivation
of child rights; non-implementation of laws providing for
protection and development of children and non-compliance
of policy decisions, guidelines or instructions aimed at
their welfare and announcing relief for children and issuing
remedial measures to the state governments.
Child
Rights Articles & Preamble
Convention on the Rights
of the Child
Adopted and opened for signature,
ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution
44/25 of 20 November 1989
entry into force 2 September 1990, in accordance
with article 49
[Credited to Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights]
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