Meet on child rights, RTE held
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, July 17 2013: A one-day consultative meeting on 'Present Issues of Violation of Child Rights and RTE (Right to Education) was held today at Manipur Press Club under the joint initiative of All Tribal Students' Union Manipur (Atsum) and Democratic Students' Alliance of Manipur (Desam) .

The consultative meeting was conducted with advocate Dr Chongtham Narendra Singh as the moderator.

As resource persons manipur Alliance for Child Rights convenor K Pradipkumar spoke on 'Overall Child Rights Situation in Manipur - Gaps and Challenges'; State Advisory council member Dr Gyaneshwar Singh on 'Role of State Government towards Implementation of RTE and Compulsory Education Act 2009'; Probation Officer of Social Welfare Department K Saroja Devi on 'Accountability of Social Welfare Department to Protect the Child Rights in Manipur'; All Manipur bar Association vice president L Kiranmala on 'Legal Binding to Protect Child Rights in the present scenario in Manipur'; and Nancy Moirangthem on 'Right to Education in Manipur' .

In presenting their respective papers and elaborating on diverse issues, the resource persons expressed grim concern that children continue to suffer various forms of abuse, physically as well as mentally.

They were unanimous that neither is the Government efficient in protecting rights of the children nor are their educational rights granted.

According to K Pradipkumar out of 1528 fake encounter cases listed by an NGO before the Supreme Court the victims included 98 individuals below the age of 18 years.

When live of a citizen cannot be protected by the Government launch of noble schemes such as National Food Security Bill and RTE is irrelevant, he opined and also asked insurgent groups to ensure that minors are not involved in the armed campaign.

Similarly denying monthly salary/honorarium to ICDS employees/workers would impede judicious implementation of projects actually meant to benefit the children, Pradipkumar stated.

He further suggested that State authorities closely monitor whether or not private educational institutions have RTE provisions.

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