By Bidisha Pillai:
2019 is a special year. It is the 150th birth anniversary year of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. As we commemorate the great statesman and humanist’s selfless life, we must remember what he said about children. Gandhiji said, “The greatest lessons in life, if we would but stoop and humble ourselves, we would learn not from the grown-up learned men, but from the so-called ignorant children.”
2019 is also the year when India holds its general elections in order to elect a new central government for the next five years. It is our fervent hope that while preparing their respective election manifestos, political parties will heed Gandhiji’s words on learning from children. Children are inheritors of the consequences of our actions and omissions today. We believe that for the overall
welfare of people all government planning must be centred on children and their concerns; and that children must be active stakeholders in the process of creation of manifestos.
Children are not simply passive recipients of elderly kindness and government benefits and schemes but are holders of rights as enshrined in the UNCRC. Children, if meaningfully engaged with, can shape government policies and programmes for an equitable and sustainable development of all sections of society.
It is for this reason that we work with children across India to amplify their voices and fulfil our constitutional commitment to children’s holistic development and well-being. Nearly every government in the world has promised to protect, respect and fulfil these rights, yet children are still violated worldwide. And, despite evidence contrary to it, governments rarely prioritise children, and fail to recognise that they have rights.
In India, children’s issues dominate the mainstream discourse only as macabre headlines about sexual violence and deprivation. India has achieved a lot on several fronts related to children’s health and education. We have brought down neonatal mortality and have nearly achieved universal primary school enrolment, including girl children. But we still have a very long way to go.
Our under-five mortality rate is still one of the highest in world; one in three children remain malnourished; nearly 80 lakh children are still out of school; and millions of children are engaged in child labour.
Children constitute nearly 40 percent or a third of India’s population but these statistics reflect that we as a nation are not investing enough for children in our country. In fact, in the last few years the health spending has failed to rise to 2.5% of the GDP as is desirable for middle-income group countries like India. Worse still, our education budget at 3.5% of the total union budget(2018-19) is the lowest in a decade.
By ignoring children we are not only putting our present at peril but also our future. Save the Children believes that if we are to lead as a nation, we must put our children first. In order to realise inclusive development and growth we must commit ourselves to achieving the SDGs with a special focus on children related SDGs (Goals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, and 16.2). We must collectively pledge to ensure that issues concerning children emerge high on political agenda and translate into specific commitments for children.
In the lead up to the general elections, we appeal to all the political parties to give significant attention to issues related to child health, education and protection, and thus ensure that children have a Safe, Healthy, and Happy childhood, enabling them to be engaged and productive citizens of the future.
Bidisha Pillai is the CEO of Save The Children, an organisation working towards creating a manifesto of demands for fronting children’s issues in political manifestos in the upcoming General Elections. Do you think the government can do more for children? What are your solutions? Write in and contribute to the movement to give voice to children’s issues.
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