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Rights of Children




1.The right to Education: Each & every Children have the right of education.

2.The right to Expression: Every child has a right to express himself freely in whichever way he likes. Majority of children however are exploited by their elders and not allowed to express.

3.The right to Information: Every child has a right to know his basic rights and his position in the society. High incidence of illiteracy and ignorance among the deprived and underprivileged children prevents them from having access to information about them and their society.

4.The right to Nutrition: More than 50% of India's children are malnourished. While one in every five adolescent boys is malnourished, one in every two girls in India is undernourished.

5.The right to Health & Care: Children should be fully vaccinated. Proper health check-up & care should be taken to children.

6.The right to protection from Abuse: Children should not be abused.

7.The right to protection from Exploitation:Children were sent to work by compulsion and not by choice, mostly by parents, but with recruiter playing a crucial role in influencing decision. Poor and bonded families often "sell" their children to contractors who promise lucrative jobs in the cities and the children end up being employed in brothels, hotels and domestic work. Many run away and find a life on the streets.

8.The right to protection from Neglect: Every child has a right to lead a well-protected and secure life away from neglect. However, children working under exploitative and inhuman conditions get neglected badly.

9.The right to Development: Every child has the right to development that lets the child explore her/his full potential. Unfavourable living conditions of underprivileged children prevents them from growing in a free and uninhibited way.

10.The right to Recreation: Every child has a right to spend some time on recreational pursuits like sports, entertainment and hobbies to explore and develop. Majority of poor children in India do not get time to spend on recreational activities.

11.The right to Name & Nationality: Every child has a right to identify himself with a nation. A vast majority of underprivileged children in India are treated like commodities and exported to other countries as labour or prostitutes.

12.The right to Survival: Every child have the right to survive.

13.The children should be given opportunities & facilities to develop in a healthy manner & in conditions of freedom & dignity & that child hood are protected against exploitation & against moral & material abandonment.

14. Where a juvenile is arrested , the Officer-In-Charge of the Police Station to which the Juvenile is brought shall, as soon as may be after the arrest inform.

(a) The parent or guardian of the juvenile of such arrest and direct him to be present at the juvenile court before which the juvenile will appear.

(b) The probation officer of such arrest in order to enable him to obtain information regarding the antecedents and family history of the juvenile and other material circumstances, likely to be of assistance to the juvenile court for making the inquiry (section 19 of the Juvenile Justice Act 1986).

15. The juvenile in conflict with law should be brought before a board.

16. Every juvenile shall be brought before the Board without any loss of time but within a period of 24 hours of such charge taken excluding the time necessary for the journey from the place where juvenile had been taken charge of to the Board.

17. The Juvenile in conflict with law be sent to an observation home until he can be brought before a Board (Section 13 of the Juvenile Justice Act 1986).

18. The Juvenile in conflict with law should not detain/keep in Police Station or in Jail.

19. The Juvenile in conflict with law should be escorted by a police of civil dress (wearing of police uniform is prohibited).

20. The Juvenile in conflict with law should be brought before a juvenile court, if the case is bailable be relieved on bail with or without surety but he shall not be so released if there appear reasonable grounds for believing that the release is likely to bring him into association with any known criminal or expose him to moral danger or that him release would defeat that ends of justice.

Status of Children in India

Recent UNICEF (2005) report on the state of the world's children under the title "Childhood Under Threat" , speaking about India, states that millions of Indian children are equally deprived of their rights to survival, health, nutrition, education and safe drinking water. It is reported that 63 per cent of them go to bed hungry and 53 per cent suffer from chronic malnutrition.

The report says that 147 million children live in kuchcha houses, 77 million do not use drinking water from a tap, 85 million are not being immunized, 27 million are severely underweight and 33 million have never been to school. It estimates that 72 million children in India between five and 14 years do not have access to basic education. A girl child is the worst victim as she is often neglected and is discriminated against because of the preference for a boy child.

Ministry of Women & Child Department Government of India.

Women & Child Development Department Government of Odisha.

National Commission for Protection of Child Rights

In order to ensure child rights practices and in response to India's commitment to UN declaration to this effect, the government of India set up a National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

The Commission is a statutory body notified under an Act of the Parliament on December 29, 2006. Besides the chairperson, it will have six members from the fields of child health, education, childcare and development, juvenile justice, children with disabilities, elimination of child labour, child psychology or sociology and laws relating to children. The Commission has the power to inquire into complaints and take suo motu notice of matters relating to deprivation of child's rights and non-implementation of laws providing for protection and development of children among other things. Aimed at examining and reviewing the safeguards provided by the law to protect child rights, the Commission will recommend measures for their effective implementation. It will suggest amendments, if needed, and look into complaints or take suo motu notice of cases of violation of the constitutional and legal rights of children.

The Commission is to ensure proper enforcement of child rights and effective implementation of laws and programmes relating to children- enquiring into complaints and take suo motu cognizance of matters relating to deprivation of child rights; non-implementation of laws providing for protection and development of children and non-compliance of policy decisions guidelines or instructions aimed at their welfare and announcing relief for children and issuing remedial measures to the state governments.

LEGAL PROVISIONS FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHILD.

(A) The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986.

(i) Prohibition of employment of children in certain occupations and processes and penalty therefore (Sections 3 & 14).
The Occupations include.

(1) Transport of passengers, goods or mails by railway.
(2) Cinder picking, clearing of an ash pit or building operation in the railway premises.
(3) Work in a catering establishment at a railway station, involving the movement of a vendor or any other employee of the establishment from one platform to another or into or out
of a moving train.
(4) Work relating to the construction of a railway station or with any other work where such work is done in close proximity to or between the railway lines.
(5) A port authority within the limits of any port.
(6) Work relating to selling of crackers and fireworks in shops with temporary licenses.
(7) Abattoirs/slaughter houses.

(ii) Provisions regarding hours and period of work (Section 7).

(iii) Provisions regarding weekly holidays (Section 8)

(iv) Provisions regarding health and safety (Section 13).

(B) The Juvenile Justice Care and Protection Act, 2000.

(C) Pre-Conception & Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994

(D) The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act ,1986 and Rules

(E) The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006

(F) The Immoral Traffic Prevention Act,1956.