Prof. (Dr.) Dharmakanta Kumbhakar
(drkdharmakanta1@gmail.com)
November 14, the birthday of India’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, is being celebrated all over India as Children’s Day. It is celebrated on his birthday because of his endless love and affection for children. It is one of the best days of the year for the children in India. It is celebrated with lots of events and activities performed by kids. We organise various programmes and different activities to cheer up children and make the day special for them.
India has about 437 million children. The country has adopted several policies and acts for protection of child rights, but in reality, it is a fact that millions of children are being deprived of their fundamental rights; they are abused, neglected, and exploited in India. Every child, irrespective of economic status, has rights in the areas of survival, identity, development, protection, and participation, including in urban, rural, and tribal settings.
High infant and neonatal mortality rate, serious threats by infectious diseases, gender inequality, pre-birth sex selections, prevention of girl childbirth, and female feticide are major concerns in child survival. Data of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) 2019-20 shows that 38.4 percent of children under the age of 5 years are stunted (height for age), 19.3 percent of children under the age of 5 years are wasted (weight-for-height), 7.7 percent of children under the age of 5 years are severely wasted (weight-for-height), 32.1 percent of children under the age of 5 years are underweight (weight-for-age), 3.4 percent of children under the age of 5 years are overweight (weight- for height), and 67.1 percent of children under the age of 5 years are anaemic in India. Girls are denied an equal right to life. Millions of children lack protection against hunger. The government must invest in child survival. Children should have access to preventive, protective, and curative services ensuring good quality health needs, nutrition, education, and universal immunisation against preventable diseases. They have to provide better public health services like safe drinking water, sanitation, environmental protection, and combat hunger and malnutrition by ensuring food security for families and nutritional security for children.
Birth registration and identity are a child’s first civil rights. India acknowledged the international standards that recognise all people up to 18 years old as children in 1992. Every child should receive services that support early childhood care and development. They have the right to adequate housing and shelter.
Though free and compulsory education is a fundamental right for children in the 6 to 14 year age group according to the 86th Constitutional Amendment, it is not being protected as many of India’s children of school-going age are not in school. Children with disabilities or special needs are seriously underserved, and only 5 percent of them receive services of any kind, and 2 percent of them can access schooling. Healthcare, nutrition, shelter, and security should be provided for the underserved children. In India, the problems of socially marginalised and economically backward groups are immense, particularly amongst children in urban slums, street and working children, children of construction workers, etc. These children cannot avail themselves of the benefits of development opportunities. They become addicted to psychoactive substances and get involved in antisocial activities. They should be provided with safe shelter services and opportunities for relevant education and vocational training. The budget allocation for children must be enhanced. Government agencies need to increase investment in primary education. Quality standards of education, teaching content and methods, and curriculum reforms should be ensured.
Child abuse is a basic violation of child rights. The World Health Organisation defines child abuse as a form of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, and development. Child abuse is more than bruises and broken bones. While physical abuses are shocking due to the scars left behind, emotional and sexual abuses also leave deep and lasting scars. Ignoring children’s needs, putting them in unsupervised dangerous situations, and making a child worthless or stupid is also child abuse. Regardless of the type of child abuse, it causes great harm to the child. All forms of child labour are the worst kind of child abuse and negation of the basic child rights. At the age of playing and learning, they need to work as labour for hunger. Some of them need to take care of their houses, treat sick parents, and look after their brothers and sisters. They have to work in unhealthy and unhygienic conditions in other families, tea stalls, city buses, trackers, garages, and industries at minimum wages. Some of them are being physically tortured and mentally abused. Although child labour cannot be abolished in the presence of poverty, it is necessary to ensure that working children are not exploited. They must get time for education and must receive healthcare.
Children have the right to be protected against all forms of abuse, neglect, exploitation, and corporal punishment. The state needs effective legislation to punish and deter all forms of abuse, exploitation, and trafficking in children, as well as prenatal sex determination, feticide, and infanticide. The physicians in developed countries are required by law to report cases of child abuse and neglect. A similar legislation in India that makes child abuse reporting mandatory for physicians is welcome.
Not only atrocities against children are on the rise, they are also targeted in communal violence and insurgency as never before. They also suffer discrimination and denial in post-riot situations. Children of indigenous and tribal communities suffer neglect, discrimination, and alienation and are affected by armed conflict and other civil violence. They become orphans, losing their parents or relatives in communal violence and insurgency. Lack of family or adult support results in their denial of basic services. Children have the right to special protection against trafficking, communal and political violence, arm conflict, terrorist activities, and migrant situations.
Children should have access to contact services to help them in case of emergency or distress. The emergency toll-free phone service for children in distress (Child Line 1098) should be expanded and awareness generated about such help lines. Orphanages and shelter homes are required to assist children without families. Adoption should give first priority to the best interests of the child concerned.
The child protection services must reach the rural areas, where a large proportion of the population resides. In villages, the panchayat officials should be given responsibility to ensure that the basic education, nutrition, healthcare, and sanitation are available for the proper development of every child in their villages. The panchayat should be duty-bound to ensure that every child is in school and thus protected from agrarian and allied rural occupations as a part of family or individual child labour.
The NGOs and administrators of government should reach out to the neglected, deprived, and abused children for their comprehensive needs that include education, healthcare, protection, and rehabilitation. Celebrating Children’s Day only on November 14 cannot protect children’s rights in India. The celebration of Children’s Day is just a call to every Indian to protect our little ones from any harm and save their future for the bright future of our country. There is an urgent need to create an enabling environment through legislation, schemes, and an enhanced budget to address the problem of child abuse and neglect and to protect the fundamental rights of children in India, and then only the relevance of celebrating Children’s Day will be successful. Today on Children’s Day, let us join our hands together to make people aware of the need to protect the fundamental rights of children in India.