Remember, It is Children’s Day

Editorial:-
It is Children’s Day today, and in keeping with tradition, an entire section of school teachers on pen-down strike notwithstanding, the day will be ceremoniously observed in the State as it is elsewhere in the country. And just as everywhere else, children’s day will be more a student’s day affair here. While some might argue that this should not be unusual because children are invariably students as well, that is not necessarily the case in a country which, more than six decades after Independence, needed a special Act to announce that children have a Right to Education. The conversion of children’s day into an almost exclusive celebration with students smacks of disinterest and a refusal to explore beyond the routine ‘formalities’ of hosting such events. A more genuine children’s day celebration would include the less privileged children, and even if it was a once-a-year affair, hold up their situations to remind everyone else of those who could not be included in the Bharat Nirman [flag]ship. Children in our country now have specific rights, but how many of them know of these rights? How many know that apart from a Right to Education, they also have a right to be saved from having to work [even as domestic servants]? How many children know whom to approach when their rights are not delivered? A genuine commitment to children would require us to inform the more privileged of our children about these rights and then convince them that unlike the elder generation’s tendency to get divided into us and them, local and non-local, when it comes to child rights, the rights extend to all children. These young will then have to be informed about agencies they can approach when they notice the underprivileged from their age-group being denied their rights. Isn’t it ironic that while we have roped in the energies and idealism of the young to fight our battles with HIV and AIDS [through the formation of Red Ribbon Clubs in schools], we have still not effectively informed the young of their rights and how to fight for them. It is not enough to hold awareness sessions for politicians and bureaucrats on issues like Right to Education Act or the laws against child labour because it is essentially because they failed in their social responsibility that such laws were required in the first place. What would serve the children better would be effective awareness among them and some genuine efforts to equip them with the tools to create the moral pressure to ensure that the commitments translate from rhetoric to delivery.