|
|
|
Toxic toys on sale, no brand safe: NGO study
New Delhi, January 15, 2010: Even branded plastic toys sold in India markets cause asthma, lung
problems and reproductive problems in children due to high toxic levels, says a
study conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). In its latest study released on Friday, CSE's pollution
monitoring laboratory found high levels of phthalates, a chemical used to soften plastic, in all
samples of toys it tested. Over 45 percent of the samples exceeded the
internationally accepted safety limits for phthalates. "We randomly purchased 24 toys from different parts of Delhi, especially those
toys that children are more likely to chew and suck. Out of 24 toys, 15 were
soft and nine were hard. These toys were manufactured in China (14), India (7),
Taiwan (2) and Thailand (1)," said CSE Associate Director Chandra Bhushan.
"The sample included major brands like Funskool and Mattel. In our test we
detected one or more phthalates in all toys. Taiwanese and Chinese toys were the
most contaminated. Taiwan toys exceeded the safe limits by 100 percent. While
eight out of 14 toys manufactured in China exceeded the limits," he said.According to Bhushan, only one Indian toy manufacturer exceeded the safety limits.
Over 400,000 babies die within day of birth in India
New Delhi, October 5, 2009 (IANS): More than 400,000 children die within 24 hours of their
birth in India every year - the highest anywhere in the world, a study by an
international charity said. While globally this figure stands at two million babies dying within a day of
their birth, the shocking and tragic fact is that the reason for these deaths
are diseases and infections that are easily treatable, and therefore the deaths
are preventable. Launching their 'Everyone' campaign which seeks commitment from
individuals to save the lives of millions of children under the age of five,
Thomas Chandy, CEO of Save the Children said: 'Every child deserves a chance to
survive. And every one of us has a moral responsibility to act.'
Despite rapid economic growth, India accounts for one-fifth of newborn deaths in
the world. Though the country has made significant progress in reducing child
mortality, the newborn mortality rate at 39 per 1,000 live births and child
mortality rate at 72 per 1,000 live births are shocking, said the study by Save
the Children.
46 pc Indian children suffer from
malnutrition
London, Sept 17, 2009 (PTI) : Despite India's recent economic boom, at least 46 per cent
of its children up to the age of 3 still suffer from malnutrition making the
country home to a third of the world's malnourished children, a study said.
Noting that the country is an "economic powerhouse but a nutritional weakling",
the report by the British-based Institute of Development Studies (IDS), which
incorporated papers by more than 20 India analysts, said "at least 46 per cent
of children? upto the age of 3 in India still suffer from malnutrition."
"It's the contrast between India's fantastic economic growth and its persistent
malnutrition which is so shocking," Lawrence Haddad, director of the IDS said.
The UN defines malnutrition as a state in which an individual can no longer
maintain natural bodily capacities such as growth, pregnancy, lactation,
learning abilities, physical work and resisting and recovering from disease.
India's generation of children crippled by uranium waste
The Observer, Sunday 30 August 2009: Health workers in the Punjabi cities of Bathinda and Faridkot knew something was
terribly wrong when they saw a sharp increase in the number of birth defects,
physical and mental abnormalities, and cancers. They suspected that children
were being slowly poisoned. But it was only when a visiting scientist arranged for tests to be carried out
at a German laboratory that the true nature of their plight became clear. The
results were unequivocal. The children had massive levels of uranium in their
bodies, in one case more than 60 times the maximum safe limit.
The results were both momentous and mysterious. Uranium occurs naturally
throughout the world, but is normally only present in low background levels
which pose no threat to human health. There was no obvious source in the Punjab
that could account for such high levels of contamination. And if a few
hundred children – spread over a large area – were contaminated,
how many thousands more might also be affected? Those are questions the Indian
authorities appear determined not to answer. Staff at the clinics say they were
visited and threatened with closure if they spoke out. The South African
scientist whose curiosity exposed the scandal says she has been warned by the
authorities that she may not be allowed back into the country.
But an Observer investigation has now uncovered disturbing evidence to suggest a
link between the contamination and the region's coal-fired power stations. It is
already known that the fine fly ash produced when coal is burned contains
concentrated levels of uranium and a new report published by Russia's leading
nuclear research institution warns of an increased radiation hazard to people
living near coal-fired thermal power stations.
On a mission to teach 1m children
BANGALORE, August 7, 2009: The Lok Sabha may have cleared the Right to Education Bill 2009 two days ago, but Round Table India has already set its target of providing education to 1 million
underprivileged children by the end of 2010. As a first step, the organization adopted the Kannada-Tamil primary school model at Cleveland Town. "As a part of our project, we built numerous school blocks and buildings along with providing proper toilets and other infrastructure facilities. The school has 650 poor
children whose parents cannot afford fees, books or uniform,'' said Rajesh Madaan of Bangalore City Round Table
(BCRT). The firm has constructed at least 20 classrooms in four years, built toilet blocks and provided computers. They have also distributed 550 shoes, socks, school bags and 1,800 notebooks to students at a cost of Rs 1.5 lakh. - The Times of India
Over half of street children sexually abused
New Delhi, July 31, 2009: Saying it has no authentic data on street children in India, the Government today said a sample survey carried out in 13 states in 2007, however, revealed their number at 18.6 per cent with more than half of them having been sexually abused. The Government also informed the Lok Sabha it has received complaints regarding sexual harassment of women at work places but it has no authentic data available in this case either.
In a written reply in the House, Minister of State for Women and Child Develoment Krishna Tirath said of the 18.6 per cent street children in 13 states --Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Delhi,
Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharasthra,
Mizoram, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal--54.51 per cent were absused sexually. The overall physical abuse of such children in the 5-12 age group was as high as 66.8 per cent, she added. While the Government is working for the welfare and rehabilitation
of street children through an integrated programme for them, in the case of women a draft bill ''The Protection of Women Against Sexual Harassment at Workplace'' is under consideration, she added.
Source: United News of India
Kids are dying, why can't we move faster: Gates
NEW DELHI, July 24, 2009: Many of us dream of changing the world
through our work. Well, Bill Gates — Microsoft co-founder, software whiz, frequent No. 1 on wealth charts — has been there, done that. So what's he doing in his second life, the one after Microsoft? Trying to change the world all over again. Only, this time, he doesn't want to put a computer on every desk and in every home. His mission now is simpler, starker, more imperative: save lives.
The former IT whiz is in India to receive the Indira Gandhi prize for
peace, disarmament and development on behalf of his $38 billion charitable foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — which has given India Rs 1,650 crore so far to combat HIV. He said ``It gives me a chance to learn new things along with raising my family. It's totally fulfilling. I'm driven by the urgency that children are dying. Why can't we move faster or make interventions available quickly?'' |
|
|
Indian teen to attend Junior 8 youth summit in Italy
NEW DELHI, July 10, 2009 (Xinhua): A sixteen-year-old Indian girl, Sanjukta
Pangi, from a small village of Karanjaguda, Orissa, went to
L'Aguila, Italy, to attend a Junior 8 (J-8) youth summit held this week in
parallel to the G-8 summit meeting, said local TV reports. Sanjukta met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to express the wishes of millions of Indian girls still living in poverty -- having a good education. "Children in developed countries have time for playing and having fun, because they take their education for granted. But kids in developing countries, like India, have to struggle to go to school," she told local TV. "I had to myself struggle a lot to go to school. If I hadn't convinced my father to let me continue going to school I would not be at the J-8," she said.
Young people from India, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, Britain, the United States, Brazil, China, Egypt, Mexico and South Africa have been attending the week-long event.
The 52 members of the J-8 on Friday released a declaration and plan calling for action to address issues in education, climate change, children's rights in the context of the global financial crisis and poverty and development in Africa. The J-8 aims to make sure that the G8 and non-G8 leaders listen to young people's voices when they make decisions that affect them. While Sanjukta travelled to L'Aquila, her two other team members,
14-year-old Narendra Kumar from Pure Gosain, Uttar Pradesh and 17- year-old Samuel Venkatesen, from Shoolagiri, Tamil Nadu, met with members of the Italian Parliament.
Mittal, Hussain to raise one million pounds for India's children
London June 30, 2009 (PTI) :More than 200 philanthropists including eminent Indians like L N
Mittal, M F Hussain, G P Hinduja, have donated £5,000 each to help educate underprivileged children in India. "Only through education can we bring India's poorer communities out of poverty. Education breaks through the awful cycle of poverty. It opens new horizons, it brings confidence, knowledge and most importantly, expertise", said G P Hinduja,
President of the Hinduja Group at an event organised here by
Pratham, an NGO for underprivileged children in India. "The biggest challenge that India faces is educating the masses. If India wants to
become a truly global player, it must reach the same figure as the rest of Asia," he added.
The guest list included Indian steel tycoon L N Mittal, renowned artist M F Hussain, British directors Stephen Frears and Gurinder Chadha, writer Hanif Kureshi, head of Global markets Deutsche Bank, Anshu Jain; Lord and Lady Mitchell among others. The philanthropists also pledged to raise £one million for Pratham to educate 100 million children in India.
'Slumdog' kids back on Mumbai streets
MUMBAI, May 14, 2009 (IANS): Nearly 20 children who acted in the Oscar-winning
"Slumdog Millionaire" have been thrown on the streets after Mumbai civic authorities on Thursday morning demolished nearly 50 huts in a slum here, terming the slum unauthorised.
Azharuddin Ismail M. Shaikh, the main child star of the movie, said a team of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) came unannounced this morning, ordered them to move out of their shanties
in Garib Nagar slum of Bandra East and demolished them. "We have nowhere to go. We are just sitting on the road in the blazing sun right now. All our belongings and other household goods have either been thrown out or damaged. We don't know what we will eat today," Azhar, crying inconsolably, told IANS.
Punishment Without Crime in Delhi School
Delhi, May 4, 2009: Delhi is a shame capital where flouting the rules and going against the law is flaunted without hesitation by the high and mighty as well as the lowly. Corporal punishment was ‘banned’ by the Delhi High Court in 2001. The latest instance of how this court order is being brazenly abused came in the horrible form of the death of an 11-year-old girl, Shanno Khan, who was a Class II student of a school run by the Delhi Municipal Corporation.
That her ‘crime’ was merely her inability to spell some words in English makes it more shameful. Not because it shows a ‘colonial’ mindset of our schools but because the education policy remains deeply flawed, unrelated to the ground realities. It should be common knowledge that the child from a poor family, with parents who are barely literate, cannot be expected to have a natural flair for education, much less a ‘foreign’ language which requires some extra ability to quickly grasp its intricacies.
Source: Asian Tribune
Indian, Chinese kids outperforming Americans:
Obama
Washington, March 20, 2009: The US President Barack Obama said children in India and China are outperforming
their American counterparts even if they do not have access to the facilities
and resources equal to that of the United States.
At a town hall meeting in Los Angeles, Obama chided American parents for
comparatively lower performance of their kids despite having far better
resources and facilities than those available in countries like India and China.
“You (parents) can’t complain about the schools and complain about the teachers,
but when your child comes home, they’re playing video games and not doing
homework. And you don’t have time to go to your teacher -- in teacher-parent
meeting. Our parents have to instill a sense of excellence and a thirst for
knowledge,” Obama said.
“The truth of the matter is even as overcrowded as schools may be, as poor the
computer equipment may be, if you took a bunch of kids right now from China or
India and you put them in these classrooms, from their perspective these would
be unbelievable schools,” Obama argued. “I mean, they don’t have better facilities, but they’re out-performing us in
maths and science,” he said citing the reason that America parents do not insist
their kids for higher performance.- Press Trust Of India
Slum children stage a protest in Patna against exploitation
Patna, Jan 12, 2009 (ANI): Scores of slum children here took to the streets on Sunday
protesting against child labour demanding right to education. Children, under the aegis of 'Prayas Bharti Trust,' a voluntary group, raised
slogans against those who engage child labour.Despite the 1986 Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, child labour is
still rampant in India due to extreme poverty. Organisers said the purpose of the protest was to spread awareness on child
education.
"The main purpose behind organising such protest is to spread awareness
regarding child education. Instead of sending these slum children to brick
kilns, restaurants and other places, parents must send them to schools so that
they would become good citizens. These slum children are normal like our kids
and have full right to receive education," said Dipika, a counsellor with Prayas
Bharti Trust.
There are about 18 million street children and 22 million labourers in India.
Nearly 20 per cent of the children between the age group of 6-14 years have no
access to primary education. According to human rights groups, many children have been working since the age
of four or five, and by the time they reach adulthood, they may be irrevocably
sick or deformed. International agencies contend that there are far too many loopholes in the law
on trafficking in children, making it difficult to root out child labour. (ANI)
War against child labour yields good results
SALEM, December 15, 2008: Salem district has been in the forefront of the war against child labour in Tamil
Nadu. It has a dubious distinction of employing children below 14 in both hazardous and
non- hazardous industries such as silver anklet, weaving, construction, coir making, beedi rolling, brick kilns, automobile workshops, hotels and dhabas, stone quarries and in some industrial units thus forcing the government to launch an intense child labour eradication programme during 1995-1996.
To monitor and spearhead the movement against this social scourge, the Union Government, under its National Child Labour Programme, formed `SMILE’ (Society for Monitoring and Implementation of (Child) Labour Elimination) with the Collector as its chairman. Its main objective is to identify child labourers and help them join the mainstream in society by providing them quality education. According to Collector J.
Chandrakumar, since 1995-1996 the war against child labour has been going on in the district without a let-up. “So far 20,432 children have been rescued of whom 11,850 have been enrolled in SMILE’s special schools,” Mr. Chandrakumar said. A total of 40 such special schools are functioning in which 2,000 rescued children are studying.
Facilities such as Rs. 5 every day for a nutritious meal and Rs. 100 every month as stipend are being given along with free bus passes and uniforms. Many of these rehabilitated child labourers have been admitted to regular schools to enable them pursue higher education. Eight children have passed Plus II this year and two girls and one boy now study in an engineering college - all proud products of SMILE schools.
SMILE in co-ordination with revenue and labour departments have so far carried out 27,630 raids in various industrial units and firms and rescued many children.
Till today 99 cases out of total 629 have so far been cleared. The court found them guilty and fined to the tune of Rs 16.40 lakh along with a compensation amount of Rs 5.60
lakh.
Source: Hindu
Kids to get speedier justice
MUMBAI, November 5, 2008: Speedy punishment may now be meted out to those who commit crimes against children with the state calling for special courts across Maharashtra to deal with the offences. In Mumbai, all cases involving crimes against children before the Sessions Court will now be assigned to a single judge by the principal sessions judge.
The state released a notification on the `children's courts' recently and the Bombay High Court's
administration will set up the courts for different regions across the state soon. The courts will deal with all cases involving offences against children aged upto 18, including kidnap, child abuse (physical, mental or sexual) and violation of child rights.
Activists connected with rescuing minors from sex rings said that for the special courts to make a difference, the state ought to get serious about dealing with offences against pimps and hotel owners who allow and engage minor girls in sex rackets. "Drawing minors into the sex trade is a heinous crime that must be taken very seriously. An offence is committed at every stage: kidnapping, wrongful restraint and detention, procuring, rape and even statutory rape if the child is below 16,'' said advocate Michelle
Mendonca, who is connected with the NGO Internal Justice
Mission.
The Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act also provides for setting up state commissions and a central commission. In
Maharashtra, a commission has been set up under the jurisdiction of
the women and child welfare department. The Act itself was the outcome of the Convention on the Rights of
the Child (CRC), an international treaty which India acceded to in December 1992 following the 1990 United Nations General Assembly summit, which had adopted a declaration on survival, protection and development of children. Since India is a signatory to the CRC it had agreed to take steps to protect children's rights.
Source The Times of India
Importers of Rajasthan sandstone worried about child labour
London, July 18, 2008: (IANS) Reports that child labour may be in use in the quarrying
of the world- amous sandstone in Rajasthan has led some British companies to
tighten their import guidelines. B&Q, one of Britain’s top DIY (Do It Yourself) superstores, says it has adopted
strict buying standards and rigorous quality management processes to oversee the
suppliers of sandstone after hearing reports of use of child labour in
Rajasthan. Companies like B&Q are now using their India offices or NGOs to confirm the
reports that there are many illegal quarries in the Indian state where children
work.
A B&Q statement says: “B&Q requires all of its suppliers to provide evidence
that demonstrates they have a robust process of supply chain management that
assures their supply chains meet B&Q’s operational standards. In India
specifically, B&Q is working closely with its suppliers to ensure guidelines
addressing employment practices, health and safety, quality of product and
environmental performance are properly adhered to.”
India is the third largest exporter of sandstone in the world. Indian sandstone
has become popular in Britain for gardens because it is attractive and of good
quality. It is costly, when compared to local concrete slabs, primarily because
of the transport expenses involved. The Herald reports that the British companies are already looking for
alternatives to sandstone, given the controversy surrounding it. One such is
reclaimed stone from kerbs and pavements, which are refurbished in Scotland.
In India, a bank for street children
NEW DELHI, June 7,2008: India is home to the world's largest population of street children,
conservatively estimated at 10 million. Their lives are far removed from the country's growing image as an economic
juggernaut powered by software engineers and ornamented with Bollywood babes.
Theirs is a parallel world of struggling to survive, a world where adolescent
angst is about whether another meal comes your way, or whether you can sleep
through the night, unmolested, on a hard patch of pavement.
In Delhi alone, more than 100,000 youngsters are believed to live on the
streets. Many remain with their poverty-stricken families, but thousands do not.
A large number cluster around the city's main railway stations -- heavily
trafficked areas where they can sell their wares and where passengers leave
behind detritus they can pick through.
Boys scooting between train tracks, darting in and out of newly empty railway
carriages, are a common sight. Many are harassed or beaten by police officers,
or sexually abused by predatory adults. A fair number resort to sniffing glue.
Some beg, others steal. Many of these "railway children" are runaways who have come to the Delhi
metropolis to escape abusive households or the monotony and poverty of life in
the countryside.
To help the youths plan for a less bleak future, the charity set up its Children’s
Development Bank in 2001, a way for street children to learn lessons about money
and saving that, for most, their parents aren't around to teach. "We see this as a life skill," said Sebastian Mathew, director of the project.
"How much they save is not important. It's the habit of saving and not spending
their money on sniffing glue, smoking, watching the same movie again and again."
About 2,000 children have accounts at 12 "branches" around Delhi, located in
shelters or at sites where the charity runs classes and other activities for
homeless youths. Adult staff members are always present to ensure the safety of
the children and to collect the takings at the end of each day, depositing the
cash at regular intervals in a dedicated account in a private bank.
Source: Los Angeles Times
Bring about lasting change for underprivileged children: CRY
New York, May 29 (IANS) Pointing out that millions of children in India are
still denied their basic rights of survival in the midst of the country’s
“unprecedented economic success”, the American chapter of CRY (Child Rights and
You) has given a call to reverse the situation by engaging underprivileged
communities in seeking lasting solutions. CRY America, a non-profit organisation
that works to restore basic rights to underprivileged children, especially in
India, addressed a press conference here Wednesday to present what they called a
proven, lasting change to end the dire situation.
Highlighting the problem, Shefali Sunderlal, president of CRY America, said,
“Whereas on one side India is experiencing unprecedented economic success, it is
yet to attain the most basic social development indicators for its children.
Millions of underprivileged children have their survival threatened on a daily
basis due to malnutrition, illiteracy, child labour, preventable diseases, abuse
and exploitation.”
Sustainable change is possible only if underprivileged communities are actively
engaged in seeking solutions collectively and issues are addressed holistically
from a social justice perspective, she said. |
|
|
A malnourished child in India
May 16, 2008: More than 1.5m children in India are at risk of becoming
malnourished because of rising global food prices, the UN children's charity,
Unicef, says. It warns that food inflation could be devastating for vulnerable women and children right across South Asia. The region already has the largest number of malnourished children in the world and levels could get even worse. Even before the current crisis almost half of all Indian children showed signs of stunted growth, Unicef says.
According to Unicef's latest State of the World's Children's report, India has the worst indicators of child malnutrition in South Asia: 48% of under fives in India are stunted, compared to 43% in Bangladesh and 37% in Pakistan. Meanwhile 30% of babies in India are born underweight, compared to 22% in Bangladesh and 19% in Pakistan. Unicef calculates that 40% of all underweight babies in the world are Indian.
Put all that in hard numbers and the figures are stark. Fifty million Indian under fives are affected by malnutrition. Rising food prices, Unicef says mean 1.5 to 1.8 million more children in India alone could end up malnourished.
And already Unicef says more expensive food is having an impact. "People are changing the way they eat," says Mr
Toole. "Households that have three meals a day are going back to two. Or if they have two they are going back to one. That has a dramatic impact on child nutrition because children need to be fed
frequently." Elsewhere it's not the number of meals, but the quality of the food they're eating that is changing, he says.
Source: BBC News |
 |
|
Globally, over 2.1m kids under 15 have AIDS: UN
NEW DELHI, April 4, 2008: Over 2.1 million children below 15 years are living with HIV globally, most of them infected before their birth, during delivery or while being breastfed. While around 4.2 lakh children were newly infected in 2007, an estimated 2.9 lakh children under 15 years died from AIDS the same year. Young people, aged 15-24, accounted for about 40% of new HIV infections in 2007.
The number of HIV-positive pregnant women receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) to reduce the risk of transmitting the virus to their infants increased by 60% from 2005 to 2006, but even then, only 23% of HIV-positive pregnant women are receiving
ARTs. These are the findings of 'Children and AIDS: Second stock taking report' a review of the progress made and the challenges remaining in four key areas: preventing HIV transmission from mothers to children (PMTCT), providing paediatric treatment, preventing infection among adolescents and young people and protecting and supporting children affected by AIDS.
The report was launched by UNAIDS, WHO and Unicef on Thursday. According to Dr B B
Rewari, NACO's ART consultant, India estimates that 4% of the 2.6 million estimated HIV cases are children. "We have identified 31,620 HIV positive children of which 9,171 have been put on ART. The rest are constantly monitored and will be put on drugs when they become eligible. At present, we have paediatric ART formulations for 15,000 children donated to us by Clinton Foundation," Dr Rewari said.
Source: The Times of India
Integrated Health Strategies Can Save Children's
Lives: UNICEF
March 18, 2008: The recent UNICEF's global flagship report—The State of the World's Children 2008: Child
Survival report emphasises the need to empower local communities to provide immediate assistance to sick or severely malnourished children. Strategies that can help reduce the number of children who die before their fifth birthday were highlighted at the launch of the recent UNICEF's
report. While recent global data show a fall in the rate of under-five mortality, the report goes beyond the numbers to suggest actions and initiatives that should lead to further progress.
"Community-level integration of essential services for mothers, newborns and young children, and sustainable improvements in national health systems can save the lives of many of the more than 26,000 children under five who die each day," said Ann M
Veneman, Executive Director, UNICEF.
The report describes the impact of simple, affordable life-saving measures, such as exclusive
breastfeeding, immunisation, insecticide-treated bed nets and vitamin A supplementation, all of which have helped to reduce child deaths in recent years. UNICEF Country Representative in India Dr Gianni Murzi, echoed, "We can reduce child mortality in India through these interventions and the sustained strengthening of health systems with increased community participation. Integrated health, nutrition and sanitation interventions are essential to make a significant dent in the problem of child survival in the
country."
Child schemes
in Union Buudget
New Delhi, February 29, 2008: The budget 2008-09 allocated Rs 7,200 crore in 2008-09 to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, representing an increase of 24% over the allocation in 2007-08. Also, an statement on the child related schemes has been included this year where the total expenditure on these
schemes is of the order of Rs 33,434 crore.
Cruelty
to children: a Rajasthan school teacher plucks student’s hair
Ajmer, February 28, 2008: A school teacher in Ajmer district of Rajasthan pulled out a clump of hair from a six-year-old girl's head for failing to solve a mathematical question. The incident occurred in the India Gandhi Balika Ucch Prathmik Vidyala in Pisagan town on Wednesday. The family of Sameena Bano, a Class 2 student, said they came to know about the teacher's assault when she returned home. “She told us how her hair was ripped off for failing to add and subtract,” said Shakur
Rangrej, her grandfather.
Rangrej said Block Education Officer Dwarka Prasad Sharma had promised to take action against the teacher. The teacher, Manjubala, however, denied any wrongdoing. “I have done nothing wrong. I am ready to face an inquiry.”
Source: Sify.com
Wealth 'may not lead to health'
BBC NEWS, February 18, 2008: Economic growth does not necessarily translate into improvements in child mortality, major new research suggests. Every year 10 million children still die before their fifth birthday, 99% of them in the developing world, according to Save the Children.
Some of the poorest countries in the world - Nepal, Malawi, Tanzania and Bangladesh - are among the top ten performers in this index, showing success in cutting mortality. But India, the fastest growing
economy in South Asia, lags well behind its poorer
neighbours. Some states in India, including Orissa, Rajasthan and Bihar, have child and maternal mortality rates that are among the worst in the world.
"The figures for child mortality in India are shocking," said Shireen Miller, from Save the Children India. "They are close to sub-Saharan Africa, and one does ask that if we can make such rapid development
economically then why can we not do the same socially? "And in fact are we actually a developed
country if we still have hundreds of thousands of babies dying and starving?"
Ban marriages between children below 18 years of age
NEW DELHI, February 05, 2008: The Law Commission has proposed that child marriage below 18 years of age for both girls and boys should be prohibited and that marriages below the age of 16 years be made void. Besides recommending compulsory registration of marriage, the Commission has proposed that marriages involving children between the age of 16 and 18 be made voidable (which can be annuled with mutual agreement between both the parties).
Elaborating on the Commission's proposals on issues related to child marriages, the panel's member Kirti Uppal said on Wednesday that the panel has proposed that the age for sexual consent should be raised from 15 years to 16 years for all girls, regardless of marriage. To ensure that young women and children are not left destitute, the Commission recommends that provisions relating to maintenance and custody should apply to both void and voidable marriages.
The Commission found that the present law. Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 did not make
a child marriage invalid even if it was below the age of 15 years. But under the criminal law, section 375 of IPC makes it a crime to have a sexual relation with a child under the age of 15 years.
Stars take on child malnutrition
BHUBANESWAR, January 10, 2008: The Citizen’s Alliance Against Malnutrition , a body of select MPs , film and media personalities, CEO’s , devoted to bring the issue of child malnutrition on center stage of national consciousness, went around a few schools and anganwadi centers of Cuttack district today. The best practices need to be replicated observed the star studded team which included the likes of Supriya Sule, Sachin Pilot, Jay Panda, Shyam Benegal, Gauri Karnik, Feroze Gujral and others.
Reports that 46 percent of the children below five years are malnourished and the reduction rate due to various programmes is just one percent every year prompted us to form the Alliance and launch a
campaign, they explained. This is the third state that we have visited, the first two being Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, they said. Asked why they had picked upon a relatively developed coastal district like Cuttack rather than the KBK districts, they said Orissa’s remarkable performance with a 10 percent drop in the malnourished over the last eight years was what we wanted to see. Citing an instance, they said the positive deviance approach wherein practices followed by a healthy family within the same community is adopted by all has been effective in Orissa and this could be replicated by other states.
Source: Statesman News Service
Children should not be fed biscuits
in mid-day meal (MDM) scheme.
NEW DELHI, January 06, 2008 : Children should not be fed biscuits as lunch under the government's mid-day meal (MDM) scheme. This has been stated emphatically by India's premier agency on nutritional issues, the Hyderabad-based National Institute of Nutrition, backing the contention of many states
opposing the move to feed biscuits to children under the countrywide scheme. In a letter to the office of the Supreme Court commissioners in the right-to-food case, the institute has rubbished the attempt by biscuit manufacturers to hard sell their products as a replacement of hot cooked food for 12 crore
children.
In what would be the strongest indictment of the biscuit manufacturers' pitch for their products, the institute has written that it has “worked on the recommended dietary requirements for adults and children, and biscuits do not find a mention anywhere, nor is it recommended as a source of calories or nutrients, because biscuits (sweet or salty) are empty calories”.
The institute said, “Biscuits will only prepare children to switch to fat foods as adults; this will hasten the onset of diabetes and obesity.”
Boy shot dead in Madhya Pradesh school
BHOPAL, January 3, 2008: A boy was shot dead at a school in a village in Madhya
Pradesh by an older student on Thursday, police said, less than a month after a
similar deadly shooting at a school outside New Delhi. Until recently, school
shootings were almost unheard of in India.
The two boys, one about 15, the other about 13, started fighting after an exam
at their government-run school in Chorwari village, police said. The older boy then shot and killed the younger boy, said A.K. Soni, a top police
official of the region. The suspected killer has been arrested, he said.
In December, police arrested two boys at a private school in Gurgaon for
shooting dead their classmate.
Source: Reuters |
|
|
British patios fuelling Indian child labour
New Delhi, December 27, 2007: Children as young as five are routinely being used to quarry stone for the booming British patio and garden landscaping market, one of
Britain's leading stone importers has warned. Chris Harrop, a director of Marshall's Plc, said that large sections of the gardening industry were turning a blind eye to the use of child labour in the sandstone quarries of Rajasthan, western India,
in order to maximise profits.
Only about a third of the 200,000 tons of patio stone imported into the UK from India each year was sourced ethically, Mr Harrop said, with the rest often being produced in atrocious conditions. "We want the industry to face facts," he added, "and we want consumers to start asking questions.
Up to 100,000 children are employed in India's quarry industry, which supplies almost three-quarters of the imported stone used in British patios and garden features. Indian sandstone from Rajasthan is among the most popular, since it most closely mimics the expensive yellow Yorkstone which was traditionally mined in the Pennines but has now been all but exhausted through demand. Although workers in the quarries typically earn just 80p a day, a single square metre of paving stone fetches about £35 by the time it
reaches Britain.
With such huge profit margins on offer, pressure is now growing on the industry's main trade body to enforce a code of ethics.
Denise Ewbank of the British Association of Landscaping Industries (Bali) said there was an "implied" policy on ethical stone but the
issue was becoming increasingly pressing. "Using ethically certified stone is not a condition of Bali membership," she said, "but this is an issue of intense debate and is already slated for discussion at a board meeting in January."
However, Mr Harrop says the industry's response to his calls to clean up its act has not been encouraging. "I've visited the quarries in Rajasthan several times," he said, "and you can see entire families, from five-year-olds to grandparents, breaking rocks in the searing heat with no health and safety considerations at all.
"The trouble is that a large section of this industry doesn't want to think about the fact that it is wrong that a 10-year-old should be digging stone for Britain's patios." Ignorance, says Mr Harrop, is no defence. Unlike the clothing giant Gap, whose Indian suppliers were exposed for using child labour earlier this year, the supply chain for garden stone is transparent. "Gap can argue it didn't know children were being used to make its clothes, but ours is a small industry and we can trace our supply chains directly from the quarries of Rajasthan to Mrs Smith's
garden. "If consumers knew about the conditions some of the stone was produced in, I'm sure they wouldn't buy it."
Source: Telegraph (By Peter Foster)
|
Children as young as five are routinely being used to quarry stone for the booming British patio and garden landscaping
market. Up to 100,000 children are employed in India's quarry
industry.
|
|
