‘Govt should take greater role in ensuring child rights’ Kolkata, 21 November: The government being the main player in the realm of child rights amongst all of the stakeholders, speakers at a discussion held by United Nations International Childrens Emergency Fund (Unicef), urged the government to take a greater role in the same. The Unicef discussion dubbed ‘Convention on the rights of the child was held in the city today. The government can ask other stakeholders to get involved in ensuring child rights but the role and responsibilities of government cannot be substituted by any other stakeholder, said Ms T K Rajalakshmi, deputy editor, Frontline, here today at the event marking 25 years of the Convention on rights of the child (CRC). Ms Rajalakshmi further added that political leaders often try to pass the buck by saying that the government cannot be expected to do everything. Citing an example, chief, Unicef, of the state Mr M Asadur Rahman mentioned that in the districts villagers often refuse to co-operate, on account of the infrastructural problems of the locality such as road connectivity, water facilities, electricity and so on. We work with the government for the prevalence child rights, however, we cannot fix these problems which act as barriers for us to implement our plans and programmes, Mr Rahman. There was also a suggestion to make children aware about the policies of child rights through inclusion of the same in school syllabus, as such a measure would give them an understanding of their rights, violations of such rights and what needed to be done in case of violations or denial of his or her rights at an early age. The event focussed on the journey of CRC specifically in the state of West Bengal. Participation of children in the process of formulating policies of child rights will prove to be important and positive. Implementation of child rights is a far cry in the tribal and schedule caste community and is an important area that needs to be focused and worked upon said Mr M Asadur Rahman, chief, Unicef office of West Bengal. sns
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 10:44:28 +0000