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   500 child soldiers in northeast, J&K: Report
   GUWAHATI, May 11, 2013: The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) in its report, "India's Child Soldiers", released on Thursday, said at least 3,000 children are members of militant outfits and 500 of them are in the northeast and Jammu and Kashmir. ACHR director Suhas Chakma, said, "The recruitment of child soldiers by armed groups, including Naxalites, is rampant and at least 3,000 children, i.e. 500 in the northeast and Jammu and Kashmir and about 2,500 in
Naxal-affected states, currently remain involved in armed conflicts.
  This estimate is conservative considering that the Maoists follow a policy of forcibly recruiting at least one cadre from each adivasi family."  This report, which is the first-ever comprehensive study on the subject in the country, has accused the Centre of defending the records of the armed opposition groups, officially designated as terrorist groups, on the recruitment of child soldiers before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. "India, in its first report to the UN Committee in 2011 on the implementation of the optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict stated that there is no recruitment of child soldiers even by the armed
groups in India," the report states.
  The ACHR has provided 11 cases of forcible recruitment of child soldiers by armed groups and a number of photographs of child soldiers surrendering their arms to the then home minister P Chidambaram and Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi in 2011 and 2012. "This position of the Centre is not only bizarre but also a case where it is actually defending the records of the armed groups on recruitment of child soldiers before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
India effectively protected the officially designated terror groups from condemnation of the UN for the recruitment of child soldiers, a war crime under the international law," Chakma said. Source: The Times of India 



    Apps to monitor your children on Internet 
  
TORONTO, April 2, 2013: With smartphone and tablet users getting younger, new apps can help parents of 2-to-13-year-olds monitor and control their children's use of the Internet. A Pew Research Center study shows that more than one-third of American teenagers own a smartphone, up from more than a fifth in 2011. For nearly half of these users, the phone is their main way of getting online, making it difficult for parents to supervise their behavior.
  "When you have a smart phone, you basically have the Internet in your pocket wherever you are - away from your parents' eyes," said Anooj Shah, a partner in Toronto-based company Kytephone, which develops apps. Kytephone's namesake app allows parents to control the apps and sites their children use and the people they receive texts and calls from. The company on Monday released Kytetime for 13-to-17-year-olds. The new app has many of the same features as Kytephone but does not include the ability to block calls.Earlier this month, Net Nanny, a monitoring software company, released a browser app for Apple Inc's iOS devices to filter Web content and block profanity.
  "Smart phones and tablets have added new technology, with new challenges (for parents) - full Web browsing capability, unlimited texting, access to hundreds of thousands of good, bad and malicious apps," said Russ Warner, chief executive officer of the Salt Lake City-based company. The Android version of Net Nanny, which sells for $12.99, can control which apps a child uses. The app is also available for iOS devices, with fewer applications, for $4.99.
  The company is also introducing Net Nanny Social, a subscription, Web-based tool to help parents monitor problems such as cyberbullying, sexual predators and identity theft on social networks including Facebook and Twitter. The service costs $19.99 per year. For parents of 2-to-8-year-olds, Boston-based Playrific has a free app with a locked browser that allows only content suitable for children, including educational videos, interactive games and books.The app, available for Android, iPad and on the Web, curates content based on a child's interests, which it learns over time. Source: The Times of India  

  
Three students chained, forced to clean toilets by teachers in Mumbai     
   Mumbai, March 18, 2013 (PTI): A teacher and the headmistress of a school in Mumbai have been booked for allegedly chaining and parading three students after they were found fighting in the classroom last week and were also forced to clean toilets, police said. "We have registered a case against the school headmistress and teacher under the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act. We will see (if) some other charges can be invoked. We have not arrested them yet," deputy commissioner of police Dhananjay Kulkarni said. The official said that the police plans to speak to other students before taking any action.
  After the incident came to light on Wednesday, the boy's father Prakash Gandhi visited the school to complain against the teacher. However, after not getting a satisfactory response from the school authorities, he lodged a police complaint at the Dadar police station. In his police complaint, he alleged that the three boys were called out of the classroom, following which their hands were tied and then paraded in classrooms.
  "They were also asked to clean school toilets", Gandhi said, adding that the case was registered on Friday evening. The school authorities or the accused could not be contacted despite repeated attempts. Source: Hindustan Times

   
Rajasthan police rescue 50 children living with little food
   Jaipur , March 14, 2013: Nearly 50 children, who were kept in two illegal children's home here for months with little food amid pathetic living conditions, have been rescued by a team of Rajasthan Commission for Protection of Child Rights, police said today. On a tip off from Delhi, the team led by the Commission Chairperson Deepak Kalra raided a home in Mansarover area last night where 27 girls and two boys, aged between 5 and 17, were found. They were lodged in an illegal children's home run by one Jacob John. 
  The children are from various states like Punjab, Manipur, Nagaland, Jharkhand and were in the house for several months. Empty liquor bottles, stale food and fungus covered vegetables were found in the home, police said.
  "The children's home was running without permission. The children lived in a poor state and they were given stale food. They did not have proper food for the last few days and were hungry," the police said. Another such child home was also raided and 20 boys rescued in Jawahar Nagar locality, they said. The children were brought here on the pretext of providing them education were never sent to school and not allowed to go out of the home. Jacob has been arrested for illegal confinement of kids and he is being quizzed, they said. Source: The Indian Express

  168 child labourers rescued from Rajasthan
 
  New Delhi, March 11 (IANS) A Delhi-based voluntary organisation has rescued 168 child labourers from Rajasthan while they were being trafficked out of the state, an NGO official said Sunday."The children were rescued from the Bharatpur railway station by NGO  CHETNA Saturday while they were being taken from Jaipur to an unknown destination," Sanjay Gupta, director of Childline Agra, which is run by NGO Childhood Enhancement Through Training and Action (CHETNA), told IANS. Gupta said the rescued children work in various bangle factories across Rajasthan, and are employed through child traffickers who bring them into the state.
  The children were moved out of the state in view of a police warning that threatened action if child labourers working in the state's bangle industry are not removed in 10 days. On Friday, 60 such children in the age group of 8-10 years were rescued from the Agra railway station by Childline Agra. Gupta said: "There are around 60,000 child labourers working in the bangle industry across the state. Strict action should be initiated against child traffickers."
  As police failed to initiate action against those found involved in child trafficking, a team was sent by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to Bharatpur. "When we reached early today (Sunday), we found that no FIR (first information report) was filed against those who were moving the children. We have lodged an FIR and about 39 people have been arrested in the case," Neena Naik, a member of the NCPCR team, said over telephone."Most of these children hail from Bihar and had been working in the bangle industry ranging from two months to two years," she added. Naik said the team would engage the local administration, police and NGOs to rehabilitate the rescued children. - IANS

   Delhi protest over 'sex attack' on seven-year-old girl
  
New Delhi, March 2, 2013: People stand next to a bus that was damaged by the demonstrators during a protest in New Delhi March 1, 2013. Protesters threw stones at passing buses. There have been violent protests in the Indian capital, Delhi, after reports that a seven-year-old girl was sexually assaulted at school. Police used batons to break up angry crowds outside a hospital where the girl had been taken for treatment. Teachers and security guards at the government school are being questioned over the alleged assault, police said. The gang rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus in December sparked protests across India.
  Hundreds of people gathered to protest outside the Sanjay Gandhi hospital in the Mangolpuri area of north-eastern Delhi as news of the alleged sex attack in a local school spread. Protesters attacked buses and pelted police with stones. The protests came as India's parliament held an angry debate over the rape and murder of three sisters in the state of Maharashtra.The issue of sexual violence against women and girls has been under intense scrutiny in India following the rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus in December. Source: BBC News
    
   1.7 lakh kids missing in India: SC raps states 
  
New Delhi, February 3, 2013: Figures are shocking. Statistics say that around 177,600 children in India went missing between 2009 and 2011, out of whom 55,450 are yet to be traced. Finally, Supreme Court has taken note on the issue. The apex court has instructed the chief secretaries of all the states and Union territories to ask all the police stations to register an FIR and start an investigation in cases of missing children Most of the NGOs working for child rights allege that police often hesitate to register FIR on missing children.  
   Activists say that police negligence has increased the problem. The Supreme Court also directed that all police stations should have a special juvenile police officer to deal with the cases of missing children. The apex court’s order came in the wake of a PIL filed by NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, which works for underprivileged children. The NGO in its PIL stated that over 1.7 lakh children have gone missing in the country between January 2008-2010. In the PIL, it was also mentioned that they fear that many of the missing kids were kidnapped for trafficking in flesh trade and child labor. The petitioner said: “The instances of missing children are highest in Maharashtra followed by West Bengal, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh. The number of untraced missing children is highest in West Bengal followed by Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh The apex court has also ordered the chief secretaries of Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Goa to be present in court on February 5. The chief secretaries of West Bengal and Karnataka got an exemption after their respective counsels pleaded miscommunication. India Tribune

   
Babysitter gadgets up speech problem in kids
   LONDON, January 04, 2013: The number of children in the United Kingdom with speech difficulties has leapt 70% in six years and the growing use of screen-based gadgets is being blamed for it, according to a new study. As many as 1.2 million young Britons struggle with speech and half of pupils in some areas start school not being able to put sentences together . The rise is being blamed on the growing use of screen-based gadgets as convenient "babysitters" and a trend for hard-working parents to spend less time with their children, the 'Daily Mail' reported.
  The findings from a new government-funded study show the number of schoolchildren needing expert help for speech and language difficulties rose 71% between 2005 and 2011. The analysis found that 2.25 of youngsters aged five to 16 were classified as having difficulties in 2011. However, the figures do not capture pupils who are identified as having speech difficulties and are helped within their schools without recourse to specialists. The children's charity 'I CAN' said other studies had suggested that 1.2 million youngsters of all ages across the UK have some form of communication problem. They include children with specific conditions that lead to speech problems and others whose environment may play a part in their language difficulties. As many as 50% of children in some parts of the UK   particularly areas of social disadvantage start school with delayed language, the charity said.
  The sharp rise in cases of speech difficulties was likely to be down to 21st century living , as well as better identification by parents and schools, said Jean Gross, former government speech and language tsar and a trustee of I CAN. Gross warned that screen based technology  including TVs, games consoles, smart phones and computers - was increasingly used to occupy children instead of traditional family activities such as learning nursery rhymes. "Head teachers are telling me they are seeing a real increase in the number of children who struggle to string words together," she said. Source: Times of India

  
 

 

 

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