The Hindu : New Delhi News : Child scribes show the way

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Saturday, Jun 21, 2008
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Child scribes show the way

Madhur Tankha

Their report on child rights will be submitted to the UN’s Convention for
the Rights of the Child soon

NEW DELHI: In a unique initiative, child reporters from 13 districts of Uttarakhand have chosen such contentious issues as primary education, birth registration and discrimination of all kind to come out with a report on child rights that will soon be submitted to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

Last year when the Uttarakhand Government was preparing its report, child reporters under the Unique Media Approach of New Generation (UMANG) programme supported by Plan India and Shri Bhuvaneshwari Mahila Ashram decided to use media tools to submit their own report to UNCRC on the ground situation in the State.

The child reporters, aged between 12 and 18 years, along with youth facilitators from each district of the State received composite training in writing for newspapers, clicking photographs, drawing cartoons and even making radio programmes.

In fact, the child reporters spent a good part of the past six months discussing with community members, officials and children while juggling with their studies, household chores and looking after their siblings in Nainital, Almora, Bageshwar, Pithoragarh, Champawat, Udhamsingh Nagar, Hardwar, Dehra Dun, Uttarkashi, Tehri, Pauri, Rudraprayag and Chamoli.

Uttarakhand’s children

According to the alternative report, most children in Uttarakhand were deprived of a childhood due to poverty, marginalisation and lack of infrastructure. “Within the rural communities, children are primary resource users. Water, fuel and fodder collection are among the jobs assigned to them at a very early age. That the government schemes are finally reaching them is a good indication for the future and the children are acquiring the capacity to assess them and demand proper action on them,” it says. The child reporters found that teachers were hard pressed for time due to demands like census data collection and book-keeping. In a bitter indictment of the education system in Uttarakhand, the report says that most teachers in government schools were sending their own children to private schools.

According to child reporter Pankaj Kumar, schemes such as provision of midday meals and toilet facilities were well intended but partially successful: “The schemes have been implemented to some extent, but they highlight the discrepancy between intention and execution. This alternative report brings to light this short-sightedness and disregard for ground realities that government schemes suffer from.”

Pointing out that discrimination exists in several forms, another child reporter, Akansha Gehorla, said discrimination against the girl child starts at home and the centuries-old caste system is still rampant in most places. She said that the State Government had already submitted its report to UNCRC.

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