Bhubaneswar: Odisha State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (OSCPCR) Wednesday urged MLAs to dedicate a day for children, involve a child from each GP in governance and make constituencies child friendly.
In a letter, Sandhyabati Pradhan, chairperson, OSPCR, said, “As you know that there are laws and thereof institutions and mechanisms in place to ensure safety and dignity of the children and provide a protective environment. However, issues like female feticides, child marriages, child labour, child trafficking, child abuse and the like impact them adversely.”
An increase in political will may help in effective implementation of these legal provisions. It will create a system which is more responsible towards children and also change the mindset of various stakeholders towards realisation of child rights, she added.
“In this context, I seek your support to play a major role in ensuring children live safely and in dignity in a protective and nurturing environment,” she said.
There are various bodies in the district level to ensure child rights. The commission observed that these outfits do not meeting regularly due to various issues. “Therefore, many issues which can be settled at the district and sub district level are not being resolved,” she said.
“I also request you to dedicate and declare a day at least once in a quarter as ‘A day for children’. On this specific day, you can facilitate meeting of these committees to take stock of grievance related to children, review effective implementation of child related laws, schemes and programmes. Apart from this you may think to nominate a child; one in each Gram Panchyat and involve them in the governance process. This may create a model on child participation and can be helpful to develop a child friendly constituency,” she said to all MLAs.
PNN