Manipur Alliance for Child Rights: Kidnappers In Khaki

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Kidnappers In Khaki

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| TEHELKA INITIATIVES: Critical Futures | Tehelka Foundation

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 6, Issue 35, Dated September 05, 2009

CURRENT AFFAIRS

child rights

Kidnappers In Khaki

Manipur’s security forces detain an 11-year-old girl to force her parents out of hiding. TERESA REHMAN reports on the insurgency’s latest victim

Battlelines The unending clash between security forces and civilians in Manipur has ruined the fabric of the state
Photo: SHAILENDRA PANDEY

FOUR DAYS after personnel from a combined team of the Imphal West Commandoes and 12th Maratha Light Infantry picked her up from her home in Imphal Mayang, 11-year-old Salam Bidyarani Devi lies listless at the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Imphal. Tended to by five aged women, Bidyarani complains of breathlessness, murmurs incoherently and stares into nothingness. She’s so afraid of strangers that she refuses to let the five women — one of whom is her grandmother — leave her bedside.

Bidyarani, a Class VI student of Immanuel Grace Academy in Nongmaikhong was picked up by security forces on August 14 when they came looking for her parents for allegedly harbouring militants and hiding their ammunition. Since her parents were not at home at the time of the incident, Bidyarani was taken to the Imphal Mayang police station and later admitted to a private clinic at night. She was released on August 18 after police arrested her parents.

The Bidyarani case has attracted global attention and Amnesty International has called for an immediate investigation and action against the policemen involved in the incident. “The targeting of a minor by armed forces is a shameful act. It is a direct violation of the Child Rights Convention. All law enforcement agencies should be trained to deal with children. A lot of things could have been avoided in this case,” said Madhu Malhotra, a Deputy Program Director of Amnesty International to TEHELKA.

Salam Bidyarani was released on August 18 only after police arrested her parents

The police, however, maintain that the girl was not arrested. They claim she was hospitalised after she fainted on seeing the team arrive at her house to search it. They say that because her parents had fled and there was nobody to attend to her, she was accompanied by her grandmother to the clinic. The police statement further states that at about 3:30pm on August 15, when the girl’s condition improved, she was brought to Imphal Mayang police station along with her grandmother for safe custody. Police claim that since nobody came to ask for Bidyarani and because her grandmother refused to take her home “fearing a gun battle between the security forces and militants,” she stayed at the police station till August 18 when she was finally handed her over to her maternal uncle.

But the police version is questionable. A joint team of Childline Imphal, the Child Welfare Committees of Imphal West and Thoubal district and a representative of the state’s Social Welfare Department on August 19 conducted an on-the-spot enquiry. A copy of the findings of the enquiry (available with TEHELKA) clearly states that Bidyarani was forcefully picked up by the security forces after a prolonged scuffle between them and the women of the neighbourhood. Women constables were called only when the combined team was about to leave the place with the detained child. The report also states that though she was detained at about 9:30am, she was admitted at the clinic only at 3:00 pm (as per the clinic’s record). In the five-and-a-half hours she was with the security forces, she remained unconscious. Even though she urgently needed medical attention, the 11-year-old was kept at the police station. What is startling is that Bidyarani was admitted to a private clinic instead of the government primary health centre, which is much closer to the police station.

‘THE POLICE VIOLATED THE JUVENILE JUSTICE ACT. SHE IS COMPLETELY TRAUMATISED.’

ANNIE NANGSATABAM,
Chairperson, Child Welfare Committee

AFTER SHE WAS discharged from the clinic on the following day (August 15) at about 9:00 am, Bidyarani was taken to the Imphal Mayang Police Station by some uniformed women constables. When she and her grandmother insisted that they be allowed to return home, they were told that she would be freed only after her parents were handed over to the police. When the investigating team visited the Imphal Mayang Police Station where Bidyarani was detained, they found out that she had been made to stay in a cramped room. She was released on August 18, 2009 – only after her parents were arrested.

On August 23, a protest rally was taken out in Nongmaikhong area by school students denouncing Bidyarani’s detention. They demanded that the government rehabilitate the girl and bear the cost of her treatment. They also called for a judicial inquiry into the incident.

Annie Nangsatabam, chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee, Imphal West who was part of the enquiry team told TEHELKA that this was a clear case of police highhandedness. “She was kept in conditions not permitted by the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2006. It’s a violation of her rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. She is completely traumatised,” she says. Nangsatabam adds that they would pressurise the government to ensure that the rights of children are not violated like this anymore and stated that the use of children as pawns in counter-insurgency operations must end.

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 6, Issue 35, Dated September 05, 2009

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THE CHILD RIGHTS MANIFESTO

Today, unseen, ignored, almost half of all Indian children under
the age of five are underweight, millions die each year of easily preventable
diseases and 8 million children do not go to school. In the 21st century, in
one of the world's fastest growing economies, this is unacceptable.

CRY - Child Rights and You works to ensure lasting change in the
lives of underprivileged children and you can help - by making your vote
count. Get our leaders to do more for children. Create a vote bank big enough
for them to hear that we, the people. demand child rights - the rights to
education, safety, healthcare, and participation.

Pledge your support and wear the yellow ChildMark proudly on
your finger.

THE CHILD RIGHTS
MANIFESTO
16th General
Elections 2014
CRY - Child Rights and You calls on all political parties to
become campaigner of rights of all children in India.

India, with about 430 million children, has the world’s largest
child population with every sixth child in the world today referring to India
as ‘home’. Although children constitute over a third of India’s population,
they are accorded a low priority in national policy and governance decisions.
CRY urges political parties and governments in power to take heed and ‘Put children first’ and include the following commitment
suggestions that can impact over a third of this nation’s population, when
designing their own election agenda.
• Harmonize the age
definition for all child-related legislations in line with National Policy for
Children 2013 where child is any person below the age of eighteen years.
• Ensure Right to
Education is fully exercised as fundamental right and Amend and expand the
scope of Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 such that: All Children between 6-14 years
get enrolled, regularly attend Elementary
school and avail quality education. Also, all children from 0-6 years and 14-18 years should come under the purview of the Act.
• Strengthen
implementation of Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) such that all six services viz
Supplementary nutrition, Health Check-ups, Immunization, Nutrition & Health
Education, Pre-school non-formal education and referral services are
effectively functioning. Also ensure that there is an adequate investment
carried out in decentralized planning, universal coverage and trained
personnel.
• Reduce child mortality
and morbidity and ensure that no child remains malnourished through carrying out sustained efforts
towards complete immunization, regular health check-ups and growth monitoring,
proper nutritional support and health counselling of all children under 18
years.

• Declare access to
quality primary healthcare a Fundamental Right in the Constitution of India and strengthen Primary Health Care
systems and child health amongst the urban poor.
• Ensure Food security at
household level for all marginalized groups of people with proper implementation of the National
Food Security Act, 2013 and consider amendments (i) increasing the
protein/fat intake for pregnant mothers and children to 20-25 gms (according to
Supreme court order) instead of current provision of 18-20 gms (ii) including services such as immunization, health check-ups etc
which have been part of the ICDS as part of the Act (iii) making provision of supplementary
nutrition for children in the14-18 age group.
• Amend the Child Labour
(Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 2012: to abolish all forms of child labour by removing the distinction
between hazardous and non-hazardous categories of work for all children up to
18 years of age.
• Invest adequately in
ensuring protection for children by: (i) implementing policies and programme that protect children from
abuse, violence and exploitation; (ii) investing in
appropriate referral services for the recovery, rehabilitation and
reintegration of victims of abuse, violence and exploitation; investing in
creating a cadre of trained professional (iii) creating robust
monitoring of implementation of child protection mechanisms, schemes and
policies (iv) creating a proper database for child
trafficking, street children, missing children and ensuring a fully functional
newly developed child tracking system – ‘Track child’.
• Ensure Gender Parity,
Social Equity, and the rights of Children with disabilities with providing equal opportunities for all
social groups – SC, ST, Minority group and urban deprived groups. Become more responsive
to needs of girl children and children with disabilities.
• Allocate sufficient
Budget for Children (BfC) allocations by
increasing the allocation from 4.64% to at least 10% of total Union Budget. Also introduce a child budget component in the budget of all
allied Ministries and ensure effective National, State and District-level
management and utilization of outlays/ budgets.

The best interest of the child needs to be put at the centre of
all policy, legislation and practice affecting their young lives. India’s one
third population deserves demonstration of commitment as a nation. It calls for
action to express zero tolerance towards violation of children’s rights so that
every child attains happy, healthy and creative childhood.

MACR- Manipur Alliance for Child Rights- Charter of demand in Assembly elcetion, 2012

1. A strong political commitment to find out a political solution in place of repressive militarisation policy, to end the
long dawn armed conflict, that has been bringing out xtraordinary denial of the right to survival, development, and
protection of all the children in Manipur, including the children living with HIV/AIDS, by repealing the AFSPA which gives impunity extra judicial powers to the army.

2. A holistic state policy for ensuring safe and secured environment, where each and every individual could enjoy the equal opportunity for economic, social and cultural development.

3. A mass employment policy for youths, providing employment opportunity within the state, not merely in state security forces but in welfare and other allied sectors.

4. Setting up of State Commission for Protection of Child Rights with the full strength of the members, free from any political interference, where independence of the commission members while providing justice to the aggrieved children is upheld.

5. A comprehensive State Children’s Policy, under which children are provided with all the entitled rights of survival,
development, protection and participation without any discrimination.

6. A commitment to announce the education institutions as completely free zone, free from any political interference, corruption, military occupation, economic hindrance, while
ensuring meaningful free and compulsory education to children.

7. A commitment for providing adequate budget for schools’ infrastructural development, with special provisions for accessing to barrier free for children with disability, creating an enabling environment, so- that teachers could attend the schools without any hindrance, adequate support and monitoring mechanism for complete implementation of Mid Day Meal scheme in Government Schools and Aided Private Schools in the state.

8. A commitment for adequate budget support for nfrastructural improvement of health institutions at Panchayat, Block and District level, accessible provisions
for institutional delivery in the PHCs with proper pre and ante natal care facilities.

9. A commitment to make all ICDS centres, accessible and functional, ensuring additional nutritional support to the Children Living with HIV/AIDS by linking with the existing
ICDS centres.

10. Commitment for timely disbursement of fund to the
Government sponsored children homes, proper implementation of Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS). Opening of Girls Shelter homes and Girls Children Homes
in the state on priority basis.

11. To set up Integrated Trauma Counselling cum Life skill Centres in all districts, for victims of child trafficking, rape,
conflict inflicted children, and other Child in Need of Care and
Protection and Juvenile in Conflict with
Law.

12. A commitment to ensure regular supply of safe
drinking water and uninterrupted power supply to every village and household, by acknowledging that without regular water and electricity supply, realisation of basic rights including right to life, right to education, right to health and development are not possible.

CRY- CHILD RIGHTS and YOU appeals to the people of Manipur on the event of Assembly election

1. Political and social stability in the state where people can be engaged in peaceful social and cultural life. Each and every individual, especially children could feel secure and protected. There must be ample opportunity for children and the youth to enjoy a happy and healthy life.
2. Children should be completely immunised at the community level. Government health services must reach every community so that each and every child can access basic Government health services.
3. Children below 6 years must be enrolled in ICDS centres and must get a midday meal along with additional food nutrient support. ICDS centres must be opened everyday for the children.
4. HIV positive children must get additional nutritional support, regular health check ups and ART treatment. Families of HIV positive children must get additional economic support from the state.
5. All children must get free and compulsory education at the community level. Government schools must be easily accessible and should have properly trained and qualified teachers.
6. Children must not be trafficked; it is the responsibility of the state to be alert on the issue of child trafficking, and ensure the protection of children at the community level.
7. All efforts must be made to rescue and rehabilitate trafficked children into society and through Government sponsored homes/institutions.
8. Children who are engaged as child labourers or as domestic workers must be rescued by the state and rehabilitated through proper legal actions by the state authority.

CRY- Child Rights & You Charter of demand on the occassion of 10th ManipurAssemble election

1. All political parties should commit to ensuring a safe and secured social environment, where each and every individual, especially children can enjoy a peaceful and healthy life; all individuals must get equal opportunity for economic, social and cultural development.
2. All political parties should commit to setting up a State Commission for Child Rights to protect the rights of children in the state. The Commission should be kept free from any political interference.
3. All political parties should commit to drawing up a clear-cut policy for children at the state level, where children will be provided with the rights to survival, development, protection and participation.
4. All political parties should commit to announce all educational institutions as zones free from political unrest, and ensure free and compulsory education to all the children.
5. All political parties should commit to allocate adequate budgetary provisions for building basic infrastructure for schools, with special provisions for disabled children.
6. All political parties should commit to make provisions for adequate budget support to develop infrastructure of health institutions at Panchayat, Block and District level. They must ensure that all children in the state can avail of free Government health services.
7. Long-term conflict has resulted in the unprecedented denial of the right to health, survival and development for all children in Manipur, including HIV positive children. The government should push for a permanent end to the armed conflict as it is one of the major reasons behind the poor access to healthcare.