OM Bureau
Bhubaneswar
The Human Rights Commission is not enough. Children here are for a ‘Child Rights Commission’. The first voice in this regard was heard at the consultative meet of Legislators on Global Movement for Children (GMfC),jointly organized by Unicef and Cerebrum. Adyasa Das, a small girl, urged upon Chief Minister .Navin Patnaik to give a serious consideration to this demand. Another child participant Sri Subhankar was equally emphatic in demanding affordable healthcare facilities for the children. Refusing to believe in halfhearted assurances, they expressed deep anguish over continuing instances of child exploitation.
The Commission, if formed, should be made to enumerate and enforce child rights and to look exclusively into the problems a child faces in course of socialization and education, they emphasized. Even as the Chief Minister expressed concern over high rate of infant mortality in the state, Industries Minister K.V.Singhdeo, convener of Orissa Leadership Initiative on GMfC , reacting on remarks made by the child participants, said that the state should do sufficient soul-searching in the matter of its programmes for the children. State representative of Unicef Tom Olsen placing a report on state of world children for release in Orissa indicated its emphasis on meaningful and quality participation of children and adolescents in programmes addressed to their issues.