The Hindu : New Delhi News : Children submit 300,001 signatures to Plan panel

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Wednesday, Nov 14, 2007
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New Delhi

Children submit 300,001 signatures to Plan panel

Staff Reporter

“Nine is mine” team meets Chairperson of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights

— Photo: S. Subramanium

JOINT INITIATIVE: Laxmi Gudillu, one of the ’Nine is Mine’ campaigners, signing the 300,001st signature on a giant replica of the postcard, along with some other children, to be given to the Finance Minister, in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: On the eve of Children’s Day, hundreds of children asserting their right to quality education and health care sought an increase in allocation of funds for the two sectors in the 11th Plan.

At a function in the Capital on Tuesday, the children submitted 300,001 signatures to Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen and demanded investment of nine per cent of the Gross Domestic Product in the health and education sectors.

Status report released

A status report on “Ensuring Universal Access to Health and Education in India” drafted by “Wada Na Todo Abhiyan”, a campaign aimed at pressurising the Central Government to deliver the promises it made in its National Common Minimum Programme and the Planning Commission’s National Development Goals, was also released at the function.

“Unlikely this year”

Accepting the demand for an increase in the funds for education and health, Mr. Sen said: “The allocation of nine per cent is unlikely to happen by the end of this year, but more likely to happen at the end of the 11th Plan. There is going to be a substantial expansion on investment in health and education.”

Urging the Government to look at education as a whole instead of focusing on elementary education alone, Vimala Ramachandran, who has co-authored the report with Imrana Qadeer, said: “Elementary education does not stand alone.

“For every three primary schools, there is one upper primary and for every six upper primary schools there is one high school.

“Even if a student wants to complete education, there is a lack of schools.”

Dr. Ramachandran said the Government needs to work on this flawed system and invest in middle and high schools as well.

Medical tourism criticised

Prof. Qadeer regretted that the Government was encouraging “medical tourism” even as the country’s poor continue to suffer in the absence of quality health care in the public sector.

“We still have children dying because of diarrhoea, vector-borne diseases and pneumonia.

Biggest policy flaw

“The biggest policy flaw has been rampant privatisation, there is no regulatory mechanism and subsidies are being given to the private players,” said Prof. Qadeer.

A delegation of children under the “Nine is mine” campaign also met Shanta Sinha, Chairperson of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights.

The children, who have already met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other senior leaders as part of their campaign, will now urge Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to fulfil the “Wada Na Todo Abhiyan”.

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