The National Policy for Children was adopted by the government on 26th April 2013.
This policy was approved by the Union Cabinet in order to assist in the implementation of Schemes and Programmes for children all over the country
Lets get in to the features of this policy in a point wise manner
- Any person below the age of 18 years is considered as a child
- Childhood is considered as an integral part of life with a value of its own
- This policy states that the children cannot be seen as a homogeneous group. We have to respond in a different manner to their different needs. Especially in the situations where children have to experience multi dimensional vulnerabilities.
- In order to ensure an overall harmonious development and protection of the children, The National Policy for Children demands a sustainable, long-term, multi-sectoral, inclusive and an integrated approach.
- Advocacy and Partnership : It is the duty of the state to encourage and ensure participation, active involvement and collective action from stakeholders such families, individuals, NGOs, local communities, CSOs, media and private sector including Government
- The policy will lead to the development of a continuous process of Indicator-based Child Impact Assessment and Evaluation. This process will be carried out on the situation of every children in the country, which will help in the development of programmes and informed policies for the children.
What is the status of implementation of This policy right now?
We can use multiple parameters to examine the status of implementation of The National Policy for Children. Lets take a look at those below
- While looking at the parameter of Survival,Health and Nutrition, the Infant Mortality Rate still remains at the highest of 40. At the same time, we can see that Global Hunger Index rated India's Hunger Level as 'serious' with around 40% of the children in our country is still facing a stunted growth.
- On Education parameter, it is impressive to see the Right to Education Act helped in achieving almost 100% Gross Enrollment Ratio. But when we look at the Annual State Education Report, it states that the quality of learning among the children is still in dismal condition.
- Considering the parameters of Protection and Participation criteria, we would see that trafficking and child labour is still a never ending issue in India society. The rise in the number of crimes by juveniles portrays the failure to guide our children in the right direction. In order to tackle these issues, various acts like Juvenile Justice Act and Child Labour(Amendment) Act has been passed. The recent draft National Action Plan for Children, 2016 aims to provide a road map that links the policy objectives to actionable strategies and is a welcome step in realizing the objectives of the policy.
Whatever policies it maybe, even if they are good or not, it all depends on the quality of implementation. In the case of our children, we know their needs and requirements are so interconnected, multi-sectoral, multi-dimensional and it needs collective action. So this policy calls for purposeful convergence and coordination across different sectors and levels of governance to bring out a much better outcome.
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