Protestant head calls for child rights protection

On the eve of Child Rights Week, head of the Protestant churches in India, Bishop DK Sahu, urged people to commit to the upliftment of children who faces abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence in India.

"Independent India has taken large strides in addressing issues like child education, health and development. However, child protection has remained largely unaddressed," says Bishop Sahu, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI).

He points that the prevalence of abuse, neglect and exploitation faced by millions of Indian children are numerous, and this must be addressed by recognizing their rights as being indispensable to country's democracy and development.

"While the Constitution of India guarantees many fundamental rights to the children, the approach to ensure the fulfillment of these rights was more needs based rather than rights based," he notes.

Sahu warns that "if issues of child abuse and neglect like female foeticide and infanticide, girl child discrimination, child marriage, trafficking of children, child labour and so on are not addressed, it will affect the overall progress of the country."

India is home to 400 million children, the largest number in any country in the world. It also has the highest number of labourers in the world less than 14 years of age.

Mostly children who are trafficked, forced to work long hours and abused, says Sahu, are those who have been deprived of education and made a source of cheap and docile labour.

"All these children who work live a life of denial: the denial of their childhood. There is a need to stand by the poor in their demand for education. It is imperative, then, to adopt a rights based approach to compulsory education and abolition of child labour," he asserts.

The Child Rights Week which is observed from 14 - 21 November 2009, also marks the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).