Manipur Alliance for Child Rights: December 2010

Monday, December 13, 2010

MACR approach NCPCR for intervention and justice to JNV student suicide case

IMPHAL, Dec 11: The Manipur Alliance for Child Rights MACR, has drawn the attention of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights NCPCR to intervene and deliver justice to the recent incident of suicide of a student of class XII Science of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Umathel Thoubal district on November 29 last month.

In an official memorandum of MACR submitted to the chairperson, NCPCR Dr Shantha Sinha yesterday, elaborated that the victim of the corporal punishment meted out by the authority of JNV, Umathel Thoubal district, Chingkham Brington, 17, son of Ch Ibohal of Kakching Makha Leikai Naodam bazaar committed suicide and very suicidal case has been taken as an example of practicing corporal punishment and abetment to committing suicide of an innocent brilliant student.

The memorandum further recalled that, on November 29 last the deceased, a student of class – XII science, of JNV, Umathel Thoubal district, engaged into a friendly conversation with one girl student inside the classroom at around 9am some minutes before the class hour. On seeing the duo already inside the classroom, some classmates decided to make fun of the situation. They mokingly said, ‘We would not let you come out from the room’ and shut up the door of the room from outside. Brington also reacted with flash of humor and said, “Then, we would not allow you all to enter inside” the same door was shut up from inside.

It further recalled that, incidentally, one Chongtham Babita, one of the teacher, came there, however, she could not sense the humorous situation. Rather, she interpreted the situation very differently and charged the two students inside the room of indulging gross moral misconduct. Surprisingly, the said teacher did not listen to the statement and clarifications given by the eyewitness students who stood around the classroom. She even slapped twice to a student who tried to convince her about the truth behind the incident.

The official memorandum further mentioned that, instead of enquiring the matter calmly, Chongtham Babita immediately rushed to the principal and lodged a complaint against the two students. The principal also did not listen either statement of the eye witnesses or explanations from the two students in question. Chongtham Babita the teacher, scolded the two with accusation and abusive words continuously. Mayengbam Raghumani, the principal took a harsh decision and sent back the two students to their respective homes at around 11.30 am of the same day. On the other hand, student Brington, who could not bear the humiliation meted out to him in presence of his classmates, committed suicide at a nearby place at his village, on the same day.

The memorandum of the MACR further mentioned that after a fact finding visit, MACR is of the opinion that the opinion that the way the school authority dealt the case was totally non child friendly, stigmatizing, and unfair. Since school authority did not take time to consider either for cross verification with eyewitness or self explanations from the two students, it was a stark example of overriding the principles of fair ahd humane dealing with juvenile or child. Dignity and worth of the said two students were seriously hurt by the humiliation meted out by the school authority. Therefore, the MACR requested chairperson of the NCPCR to intervene the JNV Umathel suicide case, in order to deliver justice to the bereaved family and not to repeat such case of corporal punishment which gravely inflicting dignity, sentiment and emotion of children.

The memorandum further urged to take up necessary stern action, so that the NCPCR guidelines on prohibiting corporal punishment and the subsequent letter to chief secretaries of the state also the Ministry of Women and Child Development’s Guidelines and ruling of the Supreme Court on December, 1 2000 banning corporal punishment, are really followed and properly implemented in the state of Manipur.

The memorandum further urged specifically, to give direction to all concerned authority of educational institutions that a child rights cell/forum having facilities for child counseling in every schools is set-up so that children could lodge their complaints.

Finally, the official memorandum of the MACR requested the chairman NCPCR to give directions to the state government again to set up State Commission for Protection of child rights without further delay, since many child rights violation cases including child trafficking, child soldier, child abuse, atrocities to children living with HIV/AIDS are occurring so frequently in the state. Besides, the rights of children to free and compulsory Act, 2009 cannot be properly implemented without the state Commission for Protection of Child Rights in the trouble torn Manipur state, the memorandum added.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

CCRP fact finding team on JNV student death case

Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, December 06 2010: A fact finding team comprising members of the Coalition on Children's Right to Protection (CCRP) Manipur and Manipur Alliance for Child Rights (MACRT) led by CCRP Core Working Group member AK Sanaton today started investigation into the suicide incident of a student of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Umathel in Thoubal district.

Seventeen year old Ch Briton, a student of the JNV Umathel, committed suicide on November 29 allegedly after he was scolded by the teachers on the charge of sleeping together with a girl student lodging in the hostel of the same school.

Taking serious note on the suicide of the boy, the fact finding team of the CCRP Core Working Group today started investigating into the incident to find out the truth behind the student committing suicide.

The team recorded revelation made by the families of the victim student and the girl who was charged of sleeping together with the deceased boy, their close friends in the school, officers of the police station concerned, principal and teachers of the school as well as representatives of the Parents' Association during the visit.

During an interaction with, Additional SP Thoubal, Th Shyamsunder said that police registered an UD (Unnatural Death) case and investigating into the case.

Police has so far taken statements of the principal, teachers and girl students of the school and also examining the post mortem report of the dead body.

If any suspect of outside influence in the death of the student, police will convert the UD case into an FIR case.

He also informed that Thoubal DC has already ordered a magisterial inquiry into the death of the student.

Kakching SDC has been entrusted to conduct the inquiry.

Convener of the Manipur Alliance for Child Rights (MACR), Keisham Pradipkumar who was part of the fact finding team observed that while imparting education to the students, teachers should not give physical and mental violence to them.

Teachers and school managements are seemed to forget this at certain instances.

Right to education not fully implemented

Source: Hueiyen News Service / Basanta Thokchom

Imphal, December 05 2010: Even though the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE) was extended in the state too, children are yet enjoy the same as government is yet to take up required steps to implement the Act.

The Act passed by parliament on August 4, 2009 describes the modalities of the provision of free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in India under Article 21-A of the Indian Constitution.

India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child when the act came into force on 1 April 2010 .

However, even after the six months time given by the Centre to the states for taking up necessary works for the implementation of the provisions of the Act, the work remains unimplemented till date.

The six month period given by the Centre expired in October.

Even after the expiry of the deadline, state government has neither made the rules needed for implementation of the Act nor adopted the Central rules which the state can adopt for some times till the state's own rules are framed.

The state commission for protection of child rights which the state government is to set up to overlook the implementation of the Act and to deal with cases coming up from time to time regarding the abuse of the children's rights is also yet to materialize.

The setting up of the commission is a must under section 14 and 24 of the provision of the Act.

Among the states in the northeastern region except Assam and Sikkim no other states have established the commission.

In the two states, functioning of the commissions have already started.

As there is no authority to deal with the complaints against violation of rights of the children under the Act, complaints are to be lodged at the National Commission for Child Rights Protection.

The state advisory council for smooth implementation of the rights to education is also yet to be set up.

Even notifications inviting suggestions from the general people and other concerned have not been issued till date.

Steps for declaring local bodies like the panchayat, municipal councils and village authorities as local authorities for looking after the implementation of the Act are also yet to be taken up.

With regard to how far the children of the state enjoy the right to education, convener of the Manipur Alliance for Child Rights (MACR), Keisham Pradipkumar said that MACR had submitted a memorandum to the state Education minister on September 20 urging him to take necessary steps for effective implementation of the Act.

But, no such necessary action has been taken up so far, he said insisting that as the Act is a constitutional right, there is the need for an effective implementation of the Act.

Children are to enjoy the right fully.

He also suggested that while framing the rules for the state, children who are victims of armed conflict, affected and infected by HIV/AIDS and should be taken into account.

Special provisions should be added so that special care can be taken up for them.

Children living with HIV, AIDS in Manipur

Growing up in a conflict zone, children living with HIV in the northeastern state of Manipur are deprived of more than their childhood.

Eleven-year-old Tina, who is HIV-positive, contracted measles and had to be taken to the far-off Imphal General Hospital. After initial treatment and medication was administered, the doctors referred her to an isolation ward of a neighbouring hospital.

When Tina and her mother arrived at the hospital, they found the isolation ward had been converted into staff quarters. So Tina returned home though her weakened condition demanded hospitalisation.

Consequently, she could not access the anti-retroviral therapy (ART) course either. She now lives in the shadow of death, without access to the only medication that promises survival.

According to the World Health Organisation, ART consists of the use of at least three anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs to maximally suppress the HIV virus and stop the progression of HIV disease.

Huge reductions have been seen in rates of death and suffering when use is made of a potent anti-retroviral regimen. The ongoing conflict within the state often leads to curfews and restrictions on movement, in turn cutting off access to ART.

Frequent shutdowns and blockades called by different actors add seriously to the problem. For HIV-positive children, it results in sporadic supply of medication to the hospitals and healthcare centres.

"Only two of the state-specified seven hospitals that offer ART are regularly stocked with the necessary medication," says Dipankar Majumder, director, development support, Child Rights and You (CRY).

"The hospital in Imphal gets overcrowded because people from all across the state come to it in the search of treatment."

CRY's Ashim Ghosh, who also works in the region, adds: "Patients have to travel for up to 40 km, in a place where public transport is non-existent, to access the central hospital. Even then, care is not guaranteed."

Staff absenteeism, especially in remote districts, is common, due to the frequent outbursts of violence. This means that even when people from remote areas manage to make the expensive trip to the city to get their monthly stock of ART medicines, they cannot always get a health check-up at the same time.

"The importance of a stable education environment as a nurturing setting in which children can be taught about HIV/AIDS is underrated. Schools can be, and often are, a place for peer-to-peer learning, myth-breaking and monitoring the spread of the disease in key populations at higher risk within the local community," says Majumder.

Lack of access to healthcare and education are not the only struggles in the lives of Manipur's HIV-positive children. Efforts to change people's existing perceptions of the disease remain woefully unaddressed.

The stigma attached to HIV and AIDS is still widely prevalent across all sectors of the Manipuri community.

There is little evidence pointing towards concentrated efforts by the government to address the issue of children living with HIV.

CRY partner CCRP (Coalition on Children's Right to Protection) works extensively to influence policies to benefit children in Manipur. It says that there is no adequate provision for shelter, education and food to deal with the emerging issues.

Key figures of the number of children living with HIV in India are not officially published. HIV-positive children don't even feature as a category in the Manipur AIDS Control Society (MACS) 2007 Sentinel Surveillance report on the rate of HIV prevalence among various categories of population.

Even though Manipur was the first state in the country to have its own policy statement on AIDS, it has yet to develop a comprehensive plan to provide support and protection to children, both infected and affected by the AIDS epidemic.

"The situation of children living with HIV and AIDS cannot be separated from the other challenges that children in general are coping with in the region," says Yogita Verma Saigal, director, CRY.

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.