NATIONAL PLAN OF ACTION FOR CHILDREN
ON THE ANVIL – SMT.
JASKAUR MEENA
UNICEF
CHIEF HOLDS TALKS WITH CENTRAL, STATE GOVERNMENTS
The Government
would soon come out with the National Plan of Action for Children,
and extensively involve voluntary sector and community for development
of children in the country.
Announcing this at
the meeting of Central Ministries and state governments with the
UNICEF officials here today, Minister of State for Women and Child
Development, Smt. Jaskaur Meena said that the Government was serious
about implementing the goals set at the UN General Assembly’s
Special Session on Children* in May 2002. In fact, she said, the
National Plan of Action forms one of the commitments announced
by the Prime Minister in his Independence Day address last year.
The UNICEF team is being led by Ms. Carol Bellamy, Executive Director
of UNICEF, who is on a visit to India.
The Minister underlined
the need to reach the programmes of child development to the grassroot
through involvement of the family and the community. Women’s self-help-groups
were also being involved to bring about change in attitudes of
the community towards children’s needs, she said.
Secretary, Women
and Child Development, Smt. Kasturi Gupta Menon informed that
she had had detailed discussions yesterday with state secretaries
regarding UNICEF programmes. She noted that the programmes being
run in different States under the GOI-UNICEF master-plan of operations
were creating a synergy with and adding value to the government
programmes particularly in the areas where there were critical
gaps.
The meeting was also
addressed by Ms. Bellamy. Referring to India’s long association
with UNICEF, she said India had the largest UNICEF country programme
in the world and UNICEF would be happy to have more fruitful partnership
with sectoral ministries and state governments in evolving and
implementing programmes relating to all areas of child development.
*: The following
is the background on the UN Special Session and the goals set
by it:
The Special Session
deliberations culminated in an outcome document, 'A World Fit
for Children'. It spelt out the new agenda for - and with - the
world's children, including 21 specific goals and targets for
the next decade. The document's Declaration commits leaders to
completing the unfinished agenda of the 1990 World Summit for
Children, and to achieving other goals and objectives, in particular
those of the UN Millennium Declaration. It reaffirms leaders'
obligation to promote and protect the rights of each child, acknowledging
the legal standards set by the Convention on the Rights of the
Child and its Optional Protocols. All of society is called upon
to join a global movement to build a world fit for children, based
on a 10-point rallying call that also formed the core of the Say
Yes for Children campaign.
The Plan of Action
sets out three necessary outcomes: the best possible start in
life for children, access to a quality basic education, including
free and compulsory primary education, and ample opportunity for
children and adolescents, to develop their individual capacities.
There are strong calls to support families, to eliminate discrimination
and to tackle poverty. A wide range of actors and partners are
called upon to play active roles, including children themselves;
parents, families and other caregivers; local governments; parliamentarians;
NGOs; the private sector; religious, spiritual, cultural and indigenous
leaders; the mass media; regional and international organizations;
and people who work with children.
The Plan of Action
also reaffirms previous goals and targets relevant to children
endorsed by world summits and conferences, including the UN Millennium
Summit. It lists 21 goals for children in the four priority areas
of action, goals considered a vital step towards the achievement
of the Millennium Development Goals adopted in 2000 by world leaders
at the Millennium Summit.
[adopted from UNICEF
document on A World Fit for Children]
