Manipur Alliance for Child Rights: April 2014

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Churachandpur gets JJB office

LAMKA, March 4: The office of the Juvenile Justice Board, Churachandpur constituted undet the JJ (Care and protection of children) Act, 2000 was inaugurated by the chief judicial magistrate, CCpur, Y Lothar today at Khomoi Ramthar, CCpur observatory home.

The home run by rev Nicky Thanga also serves as the centre for the CWC and MACR Ccpur chapters.

A study on legal right aspect was also held during the program.

Y Lothar who is also the principal magistrate of the JJB lectured on the importance of the public to be aware of the law of the land. The people are ignorant of the law and its implications, the CJM said before offering all possible help to the people.

The public need to be aware that there are many provisions of the government which provides free legal aid to separate sections of the people like ST/SC, women, children/juveniles and others whose family income lies under Rs one lakh.

Speaking as the resource person, the CJM further elaborated on the presence of bailable and non-bailable offences.

Further elaborating, he said everybody has the right to demand that they be produced in court within 24 hrs of their arrest after which, with the permission of the magistrate, the police can remand them for a maximum period of 15 days only.

The CJM said time allotted for investigation of minor cases is just one month while serious cases like rape and murder can go as long as 10 year or more.

He further stated the presence of a child protection officer in every district and the CWC cells in major police stations.

Meanwhile, on the question of customary law and its relation to the law of the land, Y Lothar said practice of customary law in minor cases is permissible; however, in major cases like murder, rape, etc, it is not permissible even if the parties involved had settled the case based on customary law.

He said anyone or the police can still open such cases.

Regarding the main concern of the day that are the juveniles, the CJM said the purpose of opening such an office is aimed at rehabilitation of the juveniles whom the police cannot arrest unless it is a special case.

Juveniles can be kept only in an observatory home and even chargesheeting against them in not allowed, he said.

Under the juvenile comes not only those who are in conflict with the law, but also those who have no one to look after them like the children affected by ethnic violence, he continued.

The JJB office was inaugurated in the presence of representatives from various NGO’s related to child and women ,philanthropic organisation, chief of Ramthar village and JJB member led by the facilitator rev Nicky Thanga who is the converor of MACR CCpur chapter and core member of CWC CCpur.

Student hospitalised after enduring corporal punishment

By Alex Guite

LAMKA, March 7: In a blatant disregard for the law and the Right to Education (RTE) a prominent school in Lamka, Blue Star Academy, administered corporal punishment to one of its class nine student who had to be admitted at the surgical ward of CCpur District Hospital.

He was awarded the punishment for his failure to complete his class work.

The student told the MACR, Ccpur Chapter that it was not the first time he was given corporal punishment.

Meanwhile, his parents complained that the MACR, that the school should be made accountable for the crime that led to their son being admitted to a hospital.

MACR, CCpur convenor Dr Nicky while inspecting the child, said that the matter will be pursued taking into account the version of the concerned school.

He however added that the punishment was of serious concern considering the provisions of the Right to Education Act.

Discussion on Child Welfare Scheme in Manipur held

IMPHAL, March 29: A one-day discussion on the Child Welfare Scheme in Manipur, organised by Wide Angles Social Development in collaboration with Child Rights and You (CRY), was held on Saturday at Hotel Imphal Classic.

Nandini Thokchom, Director of Indigenous Perspective, Woman and Child Unit; K Pradip, Convenor of MACR; Mala Laishram, State Programme Co-ordinator of ICPS; Dr Usha Khundrakpam, the Joint Director of Dept of Family Welfare; Ashim Ghosh of CRY and Y Rupachandra, the Editor In-Chief of Impact TV took part in the deliberation.

The Convener of MACR said that enforceable law is needed for children, which is still missing in the Indian context, adding that the policy has been drafted but there is no proper implementation of child protection laws. The early childhood care (ECC) and education is not delivered to the child.

Continuing that Anganwadi centre is the earliest stage for a child to develop their knowledge and 80% of their brain development should begin at the centre, he lamented the neglect of such centres of learning for the child. Even though various funds for nutrition and other facilities were allocated to the department by the Ministry of India, it was yet to be delivered to children who still haven’t benefited from the child nutrition programme.

To provide nourishment to the child, the centre can link with the various farms to buy vegetables, eggs and others for cooked and fresh food.

He said that the political leadership in the state is minimal and corruption is high in the state. 45% of the state’s population were below poverty line and it is only going to increase as the state is in conflict zone. Less political participation results in lack of accountability for the child rights. A comprehensive continues evaluation is needed for the right to education for the children to work in the state. Teachers need to support those students who failed. Lack of proper education in the last 60 years is a reason why no good leaders emerge from the state and why it a fertile ground for corruption.

Nandini said that there are lot of changes in the welfare of the people but the word ‘scheme’ is negative because due to workloads and malnutrition, women in the state suffered a lot. In a conflict zone, domestic violence increases against women.

Continuing that JSSK is a good scheme but it leads to corruption as a normal family has to pay a bribe to avail the benefits of such schemes, she said people in the hilly areas face difficulties in reaching the nearest primary health centres due to the deplorable conditions of the roads in remote areas.

She said that there are other factors such as lack of hygienic sensitisation, safe drinking water. There should be a specific indicator for the child and for the women in the state.

Mala Laishram, the state programme co-ordinator of ICPS said that out of 43 Integrate Child Development Schemes (ICDS) in Manipur, 42 are functioning in the state. Continuing that the state health and nutrition policy of those below six years, lactic mothers, pregnant women and adolescents are undertaken from anganwadi centres, she said that the centres try to make the mothers aware of the nutrition and health care facilities for both mother and child.

Localities need to support the anganwadi centres. There is a room for the improvement and monthly discussions with anganwadi centres and ICDS should be held in the state.

She continued that the Integrate Child Protection Scheme was initiated on 5 Nov, 2009 for the development of a safe environment and well being of children in different circumstances and also to reduce their vulnerability and actions that lead to their abuse, neglect, exploitation and separation from their families.

She said that all the districts except Tamelong and Chandel have Juvenile Justice Courts and Justice N Kotiswar of the High Court of Manipur have visited all the seven districts.

She continued that several activities are being done such as the monitoring of JJA, sponsoring publication of awareness materials on trafficking and also awareness and sensitization programmes in Ukhrul and Chandels district.

Status of Child Welfare Schemes discussed

dated- 30/03/2014

A One-Day State level discussion on the status of Child Welfare Scheme in Manipur organized by Wide Angle Social Development Organization was held at Hotel Imphal Classic on Saturday.

Editor-in-Chief of Impact TV News, Y Rupachandra acted as moderator of the discussion held under the sponsorship of Child Rights and You (CRY).

Attending the discussion, Convenor of Manipur Alliance for Child Rights, K Pradip spoke on the gaps and challenges in Child Welfare Scheme. He said even though various schemes and act existed for the welfare of the children, there is no adequate legislation and policy of the Central Government for the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE).

ECCE is a part of the fundamental right and is included in the Article 45 of the Directive Principles of State Policy and hence it is not enforcible. Stating this he stressed the need of the conversion of the Article 45 into Article 21 of the Directive principles of State Policy. He also questioned the reason for not including the ECCE in the Right to Education Act (RTE).

Highlighting the programs of ICDS (Integrated Child Development Scheme) and ICPS (Integrated Child Protection Scheme) State Program Officer ICPS, Social Welfare Department, Mala Lisham stated that ICDS was implemented in the country on October 2, 1975. The scheme was implemented in the state on November 2, 1975 at Ukhrul Tribal Development Block. At present 43 different projects are taken up in the country under the ICDS program. She also informed that presently 9057 Anganwadi centers and 298 mini Anganwadi center have been established in the state and facilities of health, nutrition and education are provided by Anganwadi centers to the children, lactating and expectant mothers of the state.

Mala also elaborated on the ICPS scheme, the central sponsored scheme which was launched in the year 2009 for the safety of all children across the country. The objective of the scheme is to provide a safe environment for the development and well-being of children in different circumstances. The scheme also seeks to reduce vulnerabilities to the situation and actions that led to abuse, neglect, exploitation and so on.

Child in Need of Care and Protection (CNCP), Juvenile in Conflict with Law (JCL), Children in Contact with Law (CCL) and other vulnerable group are the targeted group covered under ICPS. Stating this she added monitoring of Juvenile Justice System in coordination with High Court, organizing state level training on adoption, training at NIPCCD, publication of awareness material on human trafficking are some of the present status of ICPS scheme.

The discussion was also attended by Associate General Manager CRY, Ashim Ghosh; Joint Director of Family Welfare, Dr Kh Usha and Director, Indigenous Perspective Director of Women and Child Unit, Nandini Thokchom. They spoke on ‘Need for Convergence’, ‘Hhighlight of NRHM and perspective of mother and child health’.

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.