56% children not aware of rights

As per a study conducted by Pratham Council of Vulnerable Children (PCVC), the child rights wing of the NGO Pratham, 56 per cent of the children in the state are not aware of their rights.

It has been found that there is an urgent need to create awareness among children about their rights.

The study was conducted in seven districts of the Telugu states. As many as 180 children from Hyderabad participated, and 101 of them, or 56 per cent, were not aware of their rights.

According to the study, the remaining 79 children, or 44 per cent, were aware of their rights either by their family members or the members of the organisations working in the field of child rights.

Apart from Hyderabad, members of the PCVC also surveyed the students of schools and madrasas in the districts of Nizamabad, Mahbubnagar, Rangareddy, Sangareddy, Nalgonda and Zaheerabad.

According to activists, in India, child rights are often perceived as having little importance in society.

Because a child cannot stand up for itself and is not aware of its rights, it is exploited by adults in several ways. Issues pertaining to the violation of child rights include abuse and the employment of child labour.

Shashikant Gurav, the head of the PCVC for AP and Telangana, says, “After learning that children were not aware of their rights, we conducted rights awareness sessions at madrasas this month. We saw that children were very interested to learn about the subject. We also gave them helpline numbers so that they can request help faced abused or exploitation.”

Varsha Bhargavi, the coordinator of the state resource centre for the elimination of child labour department says, “As urban India grows in terms of economy and affluence, human values are constantly declining, especially when it comes to child rights. The apathy towards the situation has gone from bad to worse. India is seen as a growing economy by the rest of the world, but Indian children continue to be malnourished, school drop-outs, abused physically, emotionally and sexually, and exposed to several forms of torture which we adults rarely consider as abuse.”

She adds that children are expected to mutely endure the atrocities of the society and accept such treatment as a part of life. Such children often grow up to become adults who inflict upon others the same abuse that they were once exposed to as children. Adults should also realise what child rights are, she added.