On the occasion of World Children’s Day, observed every year on November 20, a Child Reporters press conference was held at The Press Club, Ranchi. The conference was organised to celebrate the 30th anniversary of United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
The chief guest for the occasion was Chief Field Officer UNICEF Jharkhand, Prasanta Dash. The other dignitaries present were General Secretary, Human Rights Mission Jharkhand, Deepak Kumar, Communications Officer UNICEF, Moira Dawa and Mohammad Salman and Secretary, from NGO Alok Bharti Ranchi, Sheela Kumari.
About 30 child reporters from various government schools in the State capital addressed the gathering and spoke about how the UNCRC has helped in transforming the lives of the children. The event also highlighted the four rights related to children- survival, development, protection and participation.
UNCRC works in two districts in the State- Ranchi and East Singhbhum covering about 150 government schools in 11 blocks. Child reporter Saniya Kumari, a student from a Government school in Namkum emphasized on how activities and programmes have empowered the children to raise their voices at any platform. “Under the child reporters programmes, 10 Bal Charchas with Panchayati Raj representatives and government officials have been organised to make villages child marriage free and also create awareness about child rights issues,” said Kumari.
The reporters have also conducted YouTube interviews titled Adhikaron ki Baat- Baal Patrakaron key Saath with eminent personalities from the State like including folk singer Padamshree Mukund Nayak, archer and Asian Cup silver medalist Madhumita Kumari, Kanke MLA Jeetu Charan Ram among others.
Amongst the youth engaged for UNICEF’s Volunteer4ChildRights programme Soumya Rani from Marwari College said, “Jharkhand witnesses the third highest incidents of child marriage (at 38 per cent ) in India. It is our responsibility to work and make the State child marriage free. Through this programme, I am now aware of child rights and also work to share my knowledge with others in my area so that children can raise their voice if their rights are violated.” Dash stressed on the importance of UNCRC and how the children are upholding child rights. “This day is celebrated every year to create critical awareness on world child rights. The concept of child reporters is under one of the basic rights of UNCRC- right to participate. They are not just school going children but are instead champions of child rights. They are focused on stopping child marriage, child labou ans also work on how they can contribute to improve the quality of education. Some of the children have not just stopped their own but other children’s child marriages as well.”
The UNICEF officer also emphasized that children should be protected and given opportunities to reach their full potential as they are the future.
Dawa said that presently they are about 5,000 child reporters from class V to VIII in government schools working in the two districts of Jharkhand- Ranchi and East Singhbhum.
“The programme has been active since 2009 and as per a rough estimate about 10,000 child reporters have been informed about child rights. Is gives them a platform to express issues related to their life. Apart from a YouTube series, the child reporters also have a Twitter handle called ‘Child Reporters’ where all school proceedings are updated,” said Dawa.
