Consultation on violation of child rights and RTE held
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, July 17 2013: A day-long consultative meeting on "Present issues on violation of child rights and RTE in Manipur" was held under the joint aegis of Democratic Students Alliance of Manipur (DESAM) and All Tribal Students' Union (ATSUM) at Manipur Press Club here today.

Among those who spoke in the consultative meeting, K Pradeep Kumar, Convenor of Manipur Alliance for Child Rights (MACR), stated that we need to understand what steps are being taken up by the State and non-state forces for the welfare of children in Manipur since they are the ones that are supposed to ensure preventive and precautionary measures to protect child rights in the State.

The most unfortunate thing being experienced in Manipur today is that the children are being deprived of Right to Education and Right to Food.

The children of the State are being killed in fake encounters by security forces taking them as cadres of some UG groups.

In addition, the children are being abducted by certain UG groups to recruit them in their groups as child soldiers, he added.

Consultation on violation of child rights and RTE held

Pradeep pointed out that among more than 1979 cases of extra judicial killings brought up to the notice of the Supreme Court of India by Extrajudicial Execution Victim Families' Association, Manipur (EEVFAM) for trial, 98 cases are connected with killing of innocent children by security forces.

So, it is clear that the rights of children are being violated in the State to the maximum.

"Even though ICDS centres have been set up for children and RTE and Right to Food are being implemented, these are all meaningless since the State and Central security forces keep on killing children in the name of controlling insurgency in the State," Pradeep exclaimed.

He further stated that there has been hue and cry all throughout the world against recruitment of children below the age of 18 in any UG group.

But surprisingly, a number of children are forcefully being recruited as child soldiers by UG groups in the State.

Whether the recruitment of these children is done by certain individuals for their personal gains or on not, the deprivation of opportunity for education to young children is a serious matter.

The consultative meeting, which was moderated by Advocate Dr Chongtham Narendra, also adopted a number of resolutions which include � to control violation of child rights in the State; to press the State Government to properly implement RTE in the State and to form a Joint Committee comprising various CBOs and NGOs both from the hills and the plains to safeguard the rights of the children and to see that the RTE is properly implemented in the State.

Dr Gyaneshwar, member of Advisory Council; K Saroja, Probation Officer of Social Welfare Department and K Kiranmala, Vice President of All Manipur Bar Association were among others who spoke and shared their views on the topic during the consultative meeting.