HRA welcomes child parliamentarian and animator
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, February 03 2024: Human Rights Alert (HRA) accorded warm welcome to Jinatree Thounaojam and Hemabati Khongbantabam, who successful projected the Manipuri culture and burning issues most effectively at the Children's Inclusive Parliament as child parliamentarian and animator respectively.

Organised by Pratyek Foundation, the children's parliament was held in New Delhi from January 24 to 31 .

According to a HRA release, the gathering of children from 75 parliamentary constituencies from across the country, dedicated January 28 evening session to victims of the on going violence in Manipur.

The programme attended by Manipur State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (MSCP) chairperson Keisham Pradip also had the children praying and singing for peace in Manipur and lighting candles to dispel the darkness.

The event also marked with the launch of Citizen's Action for Manipur where citizens from across India are conducting simple programmes calling for peace and justice in Manipur.

An online petition addressed to the Prime Minister of India has collected more than three thousand signatures, it continued.

Even though children cannot vote in the formal election, the Children's Inclusive Parliament brought out a Children's Manifesto for the 2024 Parliamentary Election.

They met with several MPs and political parties to lobby for their issues.

Among others, they called for allocating nine per cent of the Union Budget for Education and Health and to this effect they have been undertaking a campaign called the "Nine is Mine campaign https://www.nineismine.in/.

Specific recommendations pertaining to implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the UN Convention on Rights of the Child (CRC) were also highlighted.

On the last day of the event, a team of child parliamentarians from the North East visited Union Minister of State for Education and External Affairs RK Ranjan and presented a copy of their manifesto, during which he gave a patient hearing to the aspirations of the children and assured them to take them on-board, it recalled, while lauding Mega Manipur Society for the generous support of sponsoring Jinatree Thounaojam and Hemabati Khongbantabam, without which it would have been impossible for them to participate in this national process and represent Manipur.

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