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Sonia asks states to provide children with education

Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday asked the state governments to hasten the process of enacting a law for endowing children with the right to education.

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NEW DELHI: Expressing concern over a large number of children still dropping out of school, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday asked the state governments to hasten the process of enacting a law for endowing children with the right to education.
    
"There has been an improvement in the enrolment of children in schools. But a large number of children drop out of school and many do not even finish primary education," Gandhi said inaugurating a national conference on child rights organised on the occasion of International Child Rights Day.
    
The Centre has circulated a model right to education bill to the states.
    
"There is no room for complacency. The state governments should bring in the right to education," she said, urging for greater participation of the private sector in the field of education.
    
She also suggested making primary school education more interesting so that the creativity and imagination of children were not stifled.
    
Gandhi noted that there were huge challenges facing the country with regard to welfare of children that included malnutrition, female foeticide, infanticide and exploitation.
    
Stressing on the need to improve the lot of the girl child, she said girls, right from the time of the birth, were in a social environment that undermined them and did not give them equal opportunities.
    
She also expressed concern over children being forced into labour and becoming victims of violence, trafficking and abuse at the hands of the agencies who are supposed to protect them.

    
Gandhi said several initiatives of the government have started showing results, such as the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), expanded anganwadi, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the mid-day meal scheme.
    
Addressing the function, organised by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury said the government hoped to implement the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) in the 11th Five Year Plan.
    
"We have to ensure that every child grows up in an environment that is holistic," she said.
    
NCPCR Chairperson Shantha Sinha noted that India had a share in the global commitment to fulfilling the objectives of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
    
"I hope that we can today individually and collectively take another step forward in developing impactful solutions which can help achieve our shared vision for children, including the eradication of child labour, child marriage and trafficking and violence as also realisation of schooling and nutrition and health for all," Sinha said.

 

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