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.
