[child-rights] Children suffer from empty rhetoric and ineffective schemes in India

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 18, 2005
AS-117-2005

More than a decade after India's ratification of the U.N. Convention on
the Rights of the Child (CRC), children throughout the country continue to
suffer from hunger, disease, exploitation and discrimination.

At present, several hundred children suffer from night blindness in
Murshidabad district, Jalangi, West Bengal. Having lost their land due to
erosion caused by the Padma river, parents can barely provide their
children with enough food to satisfy their hunger, let alone food to meet
their nutritional requirements. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
has issued numerous statements and hunger alerts regarding the desperate
situation of the villagers there, as well as the inaction and neglect of
local authorities.

Of the thousands evicted from Belillious Park, Howrah, West Bengal, a
significant number were children. Many of them have now died from
starvation and hunger related illnesses. Five-year-old E M Lachmi died on
March 11, 2005. Two of her brothers also died after the eviction:
three-year-old E M Shiva died in December 2003 and eight-month-old Taklu
died in 2004. Their mother, E M Parvati was unable to feed them after
losing her home and job in February 2003, when the eviction took place.
Until today, there has been no effective government response to the plight
of the Belillious Park residents. Far from providing them with adequate
alternative housing and compensation, the government has not even included
them in food assistance schemes. Until their basic needs of hunger and
shelter are met, these children cannot enjoy any other rights, including
that of education.

Similar situations are faced in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Parents from the
Mushahar community in Belwa village cannot feed their children even once a
day. These children fall asleep at night after crying themselves to
exhaustion. When they cannot sleep due to hunger, their parents are
sometimes forced to hit them, in the hope that the added exhaustion will
bring about sleep.

While India's Supreme Court in a landmark judgment stated that article 21
of the Indian constitution refers to the right to a life with dignity
rather than a mere right of survival, this has no meaning for the ordinary
child who faces hunger and destitution.

In fact, these children are being denied even the right to survival by the
same authorities that are obliged to uphold the decisions made by the
country's highest court. These authorities further ignore or manipulate
the various schemes introduced to address child welfare as well as other
issues of social concern. In fact, the central and the state governments
compete with each other to draft such schemes. Politicians and bureaucrats
play their role in advocating certain schemes, without taking any
practical steps to implement them.
 
The Integrated Child Development Service Programme, the Anthyodaya and
Annapoorna are but a few assistance schemes for those in dire need.
However, the distribution of food and assistance through these programmes
is such that beneficiaries are forced to buy food from the public
distribution shops paying equal if not higher prices as those in the
market. In order to pay these prices, many children are forced into labor
or trafficking. Granite quarries in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are worked by
such children, while elsewhere in the country children end up as domestic
servants, denied their rights to education, health and dignity.

President A P J Kalam last year mentioned that India's children should be
proud to see an Indian astronaut landing on the moon in the near future.
His remark may not have much effect on the large numbers of children
throughout the country who are forced to sleep under the moon every night,
with no roof over their heads.

It is time for India to seriously implement its various legislation, court
judgments and state schemes regarding the rights of children. It is time
to move away from empty political rhetoric towards genuine human
commitment. On the occasion of this year's International Day for Children,
November 20, 2005, the AHRC urges the Indian government to respect and
fulfill its obligations not only under the CRC, but also under its own
constitution and other domestic legislation. A start would be to intervene
in the above mentioned cases of hunger and starvation. Providing vitamins
to children in Jalangi will ensure they do not suffer from permanently
impaired vision, while quality food assistance through an effective public
distribution system will prevent other E M Parvatis from losing their
children to hunger. These measures will be of much more radical
consequence than the usual speeches and gatherings that occur to mark this
day.

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About AHRC 
The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental
organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The
Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.



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