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ShareHyderabad: Andhra Pradesh chief minister K Rosaiah today released the "State of the World's Children" report (special edition) brought out by the Unicef, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Unicef field chief for AP and Karnataka Michel Saint-Lot, principal secretary for Women Development and Child Welfare Chaya Ratan, principal secretary to chief minister K Raju and other officials were present on the occasion.
Rosaiah said that Andhra Pradesh has taken a lead in implementing the regulations adopted by Parliament on prevention of child marriages, Right to Education, Right to Information and prevention of child labour. He said the state would continue to work diligently for survival, development, education and participation of all children.
Rosaiah expressed happiness over the partnership between the state government and the Unicef which was working towards concrete projects focused on health, education, HIV\AIDS and child protection to address a comprehensive approach towards women empowerment and improved service delivery.
Rosaiah said that over the past two decades since its adoption, one of the Convention's positive impacts has been the legislative changes which have enhanced care and protection of children.
The chief minister congratulated Unicef for its focus on the issues faced by children of the state and hoped that continued efforts to throw light on the burning issues faced by the children would help lay a solid foundation for actions by the stakeholders.
Reading out statistics, Unicef representative Michel Saint-Lot said mortality of children under the age of five fell from 94.2 per 1000 live births in 1990 to 63.2 in 2007. At the national level the mortality rate fell from 117 to 72 during the same period.
More girls went to primary school as attendance rates in the 6-10 age group increased to 98.1 per cent in AP compared with 81 per cent in the country.
Saint-Lot appealed to the chief minister to set up a state-level Commission for protection of child rights. While the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights was established in March 2007, Goa, Sikkim, Maharashtra, Delhi and Karnataka have set up similar commissions at the state-level.
