While the country celebrates the Children’s Day each year with élan, the lip service by the policy makers has failed to bring about any substantial change in the lives of millions of children and young adults. On the eve of yet another Children’s Day, let us try to analyse and evaluate where have we gone wrong and how to take the corrective steps to ensure the holistic development of the children.
The programmes that have over the years been launched by the government for the welfare of children failed to yield any meaningful change. Various reasons can be cited for this but one prominent reason of failure has been the lack of coordination among different programmes, and they did not support each other. As a result, the health and general well-being of children and mothers did not show much improvement. For example, the programme of Supplementary Nutrition was not supported by health coverage or immunization.
While supplementary Nutrition was given to the child, no treatment was given if he got diarrhoea. He was not protected against diseases such as tuberculosis, polio, whooping cough, diphtheria, or tetanus, which could be prevented by immunization. Similarly, a programme for health check-up alone would not improve the condition of the child, if he needed additional nutrition and this was not provided.
The National Policy for Children was adopted by the Government of India in 1974. This Policy declares that children are a “Supremely important asset” of the Nation and that their “nurture and solicitude” are the responsibility of the nation. The National Policy for Children states that it shall be the state to provide adequate services for children both before and after birth and during the period of growth to ensure their full physical, mental and social development.
India has a high level policy-making body-The National Children’s Board. The Prime Minister is the President of this Board. The Board provides policy and direction and reviews programmes for children. Still we have not made any significant progress on this front. In the next part of my blog, I will focus on the model of Education Accountability Policy that has been successfully adopted by some other developed countries. In the meantime, let us all make a resolution on the Children’s Day that we will all contribute our level best to force the policy makers evolve a comprehensive policy for the children’s welfare.
ENDS….
The programmes that have over the years been launched by the government for the welfare of children failed to yield any meaningful change. Various reasons can be cited for this but one prominent reason of failure has been the lack of coordination among different programmes, and they did not support each other. As a result, the health and general well-being of children and mothers did not show much improvement. For example, the programme of Supplementary Nutrition was not supported by health coverage or immunization.
While supplementary Nutrition was given to the child, no treatment was given if he got diarrhoea. He was not protected against diseases such as tuberculosis, polio, whooping cough, diphtheria, or tetanus, which could be prevented by immunization. Similarly, a programme for health check-up alone would not improve the condition of the child, if he needed additional nutrition and this was not provided.
The National Policy for Children was adopted by the Government of India in 1974. This Policy declares that children are a “Supremely important asset” of the Nation and that their “nurture and solicitude” are the responsibility of the nation. The National Policy for Children states that it shall be the state to provide adequate services for children both before and after birth and during the period of growth to ensure their full physical, mental and social development.
India has a high level policy-making body-The National Children’s Board. The Prime Minister is the President of this Board. The Board provides policy and direction and reviews programmes for children. Still we have not made any significant progress on this front. In the next part of my blog, I will focus on the model of Education Accountability Policy that has been successfully adopted by some other developed countries. In the meantime, let us all make a resolution on the Children’s Day that we will all contribute our level best to force the policy makers evolve a comprehensive policy for the children’s welfare.
ENDS….
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