Thursday, February 13, 2014

"Our voices need to be heard”: children speak out

Gwalior/Bhopal: ‘Our voices needed to be heard, views taken into account when decisions are taken for us’ was a common voice which came out of a recent meet held at Gwalior on theme of child participation.

Organised by the Madhya Pradesh department of Women Development and UNICEF office for Madhya Pradesh, the children spoke about alcoholism, impact of alcoholism on families, and how it is breaking families, said a boy participating in the meet, with tears in his eyes as he was speaking on issues which impact them.

Khusboo, Shabnam, Anjali three children from group of 150 children, made presentation on behalf of children, and views which were expressed by them in the two day meet. They spoke about the challenges of child discrimination particularly girl child, child marriage, and child labour. They suggested that a section or department should be set up in Women and Child Development on child participation so that when decisions are taken which impact their lives, they should be consulted and can make suggestions on it.

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Children present at the meet said that State has many schemes but real challenges lies in implementation. Children said there are still challenges of female foeticide and girl child discrimination which needed to be addresses. More than 150 participants which included children from Gwalior, Bhind, Morena and Shivpuri, parents of children were part of this meet.

Trevor Clark, Chief, UNICEF office for Madhya Pradesh who was with children said ‘You as adolescent can make use of this power to speak for yourself, for your rights and what you feel is right or wrong happening around you. Children have the right to freedom of expression which empowers children to bring about changes in their own lives, to build a better future.

http://www.progressivemuslim.in/issues/voices-need-heard-children-speak/

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