Thursday, April 16, 2009

Re: [Bahujan-forum] Re: [india-unity] Re: VOTE for BSP



On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 3:41 AM, Satinath Choudhary <satichou2@yahoo.com> wrote:


Dear friends,
 
Let us try to think of one thing that will go towards making the lot of children better. I think it is "voting rights to children" -- all individuals, ten years old or above should have right to vote! Off hand, one would say, that's ridiculous, children do not understand anything. They have no capacity to make judgment about parties and candidates. However, let us try to be a bit analytic.
 
Particularly in a country like ours, more than half of the population is illiterate, Yet we have adult franchise -- all individuals 18 or above have right to vote. One could have easily argued that voters must bee at least high school graduates before they can vote, as otherwise they have no understanding about anything. However, most civilized countries have no such restrictions. This is because in case of restrictions (like the necessity of high school diploma) on who can vote, the more powerful ones will make sure that the exploited ones never get to possess high school diplomas.
 
Even though the fate of the poor in our country has not improved much, I am sure, everybody will agree that it would have been much worse, had they not have the right to vote in their hands. Voting rights for a group attracts politicians to them and make promises. Even if just a few promises are kept, that is a plus. Voting rights for children will attract politicians to them and make promises. Even if just a few of the promises are kept, that will be an improvement.
 
As far as ability of the children to vote prudently is concerned, let us try to figure out how the poor illiterate vote. They talk to the ones who they think to be wiser. On the basis of their conversation with the ones who surround them, particularly the relatively wiser one, they vote. If children had to vote, mostly they are going to vote in accord with their parent's advice. Hence as far as percentage of children's votes going to different candidates is concerned, it won't be much different from those cast by their parents and the ones they regard to be wiser ones. However, voting rights for children will make them a power block to be reckoned. Their needs will be recognized and addressed; at the very least promises will be made, and some of them even implemented. They will not be totally ignored. True, parents are already there to care for the children and demand their welfare. However, right now, without voting rights in the hands of children, care for children is not as important as it would have been with votes in their hands. Votes for their care would be doubled -- their own votes, plus their parents' votes. It certainly would make a difference.
Hence I reassert that voting age must be lowered right down to ten years of age if we want to improve the lot of our children!
Regards,
Satinath
====================

 
Where are the children in these elections?

Thomas Chandy

All political parties must make investing in children a national priority.

 
Around 13 million children under the age of 14 work as child labour
Compulsory elementary education still remains a distant dream

Paromita comes from a poor family in West Bengal; her father spends his earnings as a daily wage labourer on drinking alcohol and gambling. Paromita was brought to Kolkata by an older woman from her village at the age of 11 to work as a domestic worker. The woman found the girl work in a south Kolkata household. Paromita was given Rs.100 a month and made to work more than 14 hours every day. She was also beaten regularly by her employer. Paromita and her sisters have never been to school.

For Paromita and millions of other socially and economically underprivileged children in India, what do these elections mean? Yet again the world's largest democratic exercise sees the concerns of children remaining on the fringes of policy debate as an analysis of the manifestos of the two big parties — Congress and BJP — shows.
At its Karachi Convention, the All-India Congress Committee took a resolution on fundamental rights. The party made a declaration then that any Constitution which may be agreed to on its behalf should provide, or enable the Swaraj Government to provide for, among other things: Free primary education, and prohibition against employment of school-going children in schools. That was in 1931. It is 2009 now and the 15th round of elections since Independence are in. The Congress has been in power for the most number of years than any other party since Independence. In fact, till 1975, the Congress was the only party to win a majority in the parliamentary elections. So how much has the party delivered on the resolutions it made at that historic convention in Karachi?
Compulsory elementary education still remains a distant dream. Fifty per cent of children drop out of elementary school in the country. Official figures report that approximately seven million children are out of school. Around two million children under the age of five die every year. Almost half of all children under the age of five are malnourished. The country has the shocking distinction of having the world's largest number of sexually abused children. India also arguably has the highest number of children facing exploitation and neglect.
Around 13 million children under the age of 14 work as child labour. The Government of India is committed to the United Nations Convention on Rights of Children. Article 32 of the UNCRC, for example, states that 'State parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education." This is rarely followed in spirit. Further, the distinction between hazardous and non-hazardous labour is arbitrary. There is little coherence between elements of the government's policy towards child labour and the articles outlined in international conventions.
The government claims to have introduced new laws during its time in power to eliminate child labour. The reality is that it merely brought in a notification including child domestic work and employment of children in hotels, restaurants and dhabas as hazardous labour under the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act (CLPRA). Millions of children, especially under the age of 14, are employed in the agriculture sector and other unorganised sectors but the manifesto is silent on this.
In its manifesto, the Congress has promised to set up one model school in every block of the country. Over the next five years, the party promises to add one more model school in every block. This will mean a substantial increase in expenditure on education. The Congress has not spelt out clearly how much of an increase in budgetary allocation it envisages for education. In 2008, the State spent less than five per cent of its budget on children, mainly for education and healthcare.
The Congress also promises to focus on the outcomes and achievement levels in education and not just on enrolment in school. However, it offers nothing new except for a teacher training programme and improvement of physical infrastructure of schools, which are already being addressed by the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan. Also, the party is silent on the promise it made on the Fundamental Right to Education Bill.
The BJP does not fare better either. The party has made some promises on child related issues but significantly there are glaring ambiguities too.. Its manifesto offers to raise the budgetary allocation for education from six per cent to nine per cent. However, it is not clear what proportion of this will go for school education and how much for higher education. Again, interestingly, instead of a solid commitment to prohibiting all forms of child labour up to the age of 14 and a comprehensive rehabilitation programme for children rescued from child labour and their families, the party promises to set up a national child labour commission. This is hardly an innovative solution to tackling modern-day slavery of children and will only create further confusion. Moreover, it is not clear how different this body will be from the existing National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) which is mandated with the promotion and protection of child rights. Setting up another commission will further fragment policy approach to children's issues.
For example, will cases of corporal punishment and sexual exploitation (or any other violence against children) be taken up by the NCPCR while the new commission handles child labour issues? Now what happens if a child worker is sexually exploited by the employer? Will both the commissions serve notice on the employer or will both say "it doesn't fall in the ambit of our mandate and it's for the other commission to take action?"
Nineteen per cent of the children in the world live in India. India is a youthful nation; the 440 million people in the country aged below 18 years are its future. India can only rightfully take its place on the world stage if it takes steps to ensure that the future of its children, and therefore the country, is secure. All political parties must make investing in children a national priority and indeed this is critical to ensuring sustainable progress in social and economic productivity.
(The writer is CEO, Save the Children. To know more about the organisation's work, log on: www.savethechildren.in )

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