Gujarat NGO reviews national policy for children

The Centre for Health Education, Training and Nutrition Awareness (CHETNA), a non-government organisation (NGO), organised a state-level consultation on Saturday to review the national policy for children and generated a set of recommendations for the new policy which is expected to be announced by the centre on Children’s Day, November 14 in New
Delhi.

A team of 26 experts from city's various NGOs and educational institutes including Dr. Vikasben Desai, technical director of Mahila Sahkari Udyog Mandir, Prof KV Ramani, from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Dr. Indu Kapoor and Minaxi Shukla from CHETNA, and Dr. Jayendra Gohil, from Govt Medical College, were present at a meeting organised by CHETNA at Khadia.

Reviewing the national policy for children that the government formed in 1974, the team listed recommendations which they would be submitting to the national core group on June 30.
Minakshi Shukla, deputy director for CHETNA, said, "The increasing percentage of under-nutrition citizens and deterioration in the condition of children persists in every state in the country, which proves that the national policy for children that was formed in 1974 has serious flaws and requires major alterations. The list of recommendations would be handed over to the authorities at the centre on June 30."

The experts recommended that for drafting the new policy, the centre must refer to the latest policy of The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). "According to UNCRC, the age to consider a person a child is 18 years," added Shukla. "In India, there is no uniform age bar for children. Under child labour laws, the age for child is 14 years, while for legal matters, the age bar is 18. Under the new policy, there must be a uniform age bar for children in India applicable for all policies ," said Shukla.

The second alteration that the team recommended is to make registration of birth and death of a child compulsory.