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Bhubaneswar, June 28: The annual, global flagship report of the UNICEF, ‘The State of the World’s Children 2016’, was unveiled at a function here Tuesday. Governor SC Jamir released the report and spoke on the area of focus of this year’s report: ‘Equity: A Fair Chance for Every Child’.
“The report shows us challenges being faced by children in the fast changing world. It also suggests that we need to intensify our efforts to make children happy and enjoy their rights. Our endeavour should be to ensure that no child is robbed of his or her childhood. All children deserve a chance to be happy and healthy, to grow in a caring environment and reach their full potential,” the governor said.
He highlighted the fact that inequality is neither inevitable, nor insurmountable. The governor called for appropriate measures to be taken to create a level playing field for children with integrated solutions to the challenges faced by them.
He called for “innovative ways to address old problems, more equitable investments and increased involvement by communities”.
Yumi Bae, the Unicef Orissa head, said the global report wasn’t helpful in specifically interpreting the status of Orissa. She, however, added: “There are a large number of inhabitants in tribal areas and there is a great gap between urban and rural populace. There is also a divide within the urban areas and conditions of children aren’t any better here than in rural areas.
“The rate of immunisation in India is very low and that is the case in Orissa, too. We have to look at the inequities where they exist, which groups are not benefiting. Also, I would like to stress on how people can access the services,” she said.
About the decrease in mortality rate in the state, Yumi said: “This year we found that in Orissa infant mortality rate has come down again. It has now come down to 49/1,000 from 51/ 1,000 a year ago. This shows we are on the right track. It is good that both maternal and infant mortality rates are coming down in Orissa but the problem is that they are coming down too slowly.”
She asserted that people should show greater responsibility towards children. “We have a collective responsibility to accelerate the progress of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children. It requires that we identify the most vulnerable children and work together to tackle the multiple deprivations across sectors. We have a choice: Invest in these children now or allow our world to become still more unequal and divided,” she said.
Keynote speaker at the event, Professor R Govinda, the former vice-chancellor of National University for Education Planning and Administration (NUEPA), too, spoke about equity and education.
A short film titled ‘Re-Imagining A Fair Start’ was also screened at the event.
This year’s report details the progress that has been made over the past decades to save lives of children, getting them into schools and lifting people out of poverty.
The poorest children are twice as likely to die before their fifth birthday and to be chronically malnourished than the richer ones. Across much of the South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, children born to mothers with no education are almost thrice more likely to die before they are 5 than those born to mothers with secondary education, the report said.
