RECOGNITION: Legislative Assembly Speaker Krishna and UNICEF representative for Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh Michel Saint-Lot with children at a function in Bangalore on Thursday to felicitate legislators who raised, in the legislature, issues concer ning children. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE : Are our legislators child sensitive? Apparently not. Only 40 legislators asked questions related to children and their problems in the legislature in 2006.

Only three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs asked questions running into double figures. They were Mallikarjuna Sidramappa Khuba representing Basavakalyan (11), Prabhakar Bangera representing Belthangady and Appasaheb Mallappa Pattanashetty, now Minister for Textiles, representing Bijapur (10 each). Congress MLAs asked the highest number of questions on child-centred issues (100).

Research

Research conducted by Child Rights Trust, Bangalore, with the support of UNICEF, revealed that the Legislative Assembly had devoted 15.07 per cent of its time to children's issues with 252 questions (68 questions during the budget session and 184 questions during the monsoon session) in 2006.

Congress MLAs asked 100 questions while BJP MLAs came second with 79 questions. The break-up for the other parties was: Janata Dal (S) - 32, independents - 17, Janata Dal (U) - 6, Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha - 8, Republican Party of India - 3, CPM - 4 and nominated member - 3.

The study titled "Are There Children in the Vidhana Soudha?" by Child Rights Trust found that MLCs asked 192 children-related questions in 2006, accounting for 14.36 per cent of Question Hour. Seventy-three queries were raised during the budget session and 192 during the monsoon session.

Again, Congress MLCs took the lead with 115 questions followed by the BJP with 39. JD(S) MLCs asked 12 questions, JD (U) MLCs asked 11 and independents asked 15 questions.

To encourage those legislators who are sensitive to child rights issues, Child Rights Trust and UNICEF honoured 40 child-friendly legislators: 22 MLAs and 18 MLCs. Legislative Assembly speaker Krishna felicitated them at a function organised at the Legislators' Home on Thursday.

The MLAs honoured were Mallikarjuna Khooba, Prabhakar Bangera, Appasaheb Patil, Shivananda S. Patil, K. Gopala Poojary, Vatal Nagaraj, Honnali Jabarkhan Hayatkhan, R. Dhruvanarayana, H.S. Shankaralinge Gowda, Araga Jnanendra, S.S. Patil, Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli, M. Vishwanath Karabasappa, K. Jayaprakash Hegde, S. Kumar Bangarappa, J. Krishna Palemar, Narasimha Swamy, Padmanabha Kottari, Siddu Savadi, A. Mallijkarjuna Sahadevappa, C.T. Ravi and G. Gaddayya Gurumurthy.

The MLCs honoured were Saleem Ahmed, Marithibe Gowda, Pratapchandra Shetty, Vimala Gowda, M.P. Nadagouda, Winifred F. Fernandes, D. Made Gowda, Aravind Limbavali, `Mukhyamantri' Chandru, Munivenkata Reddy, N. Manjunath, L. Hanumanthaiah, K.C. Kondaiah, Shoba Karandlaje, Arun Machaiah, S.M. Anand and B.R Gurudev.

Michel Saint-Lot, UNICEF representative for Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, called upon the legislators to address child-centric issues such as schooling, health camps, child labour, issuing of birth certificates and drinking water and sanitation in schools.

Reading difficulties

He said nearly 50 per cent of fifth standard children in the State found it difficult to read second standard textbooks.

Vasudeva Sharma, director, Child Rights Trust spoke. Schoolchildren from various districts participated in the function.

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