20 Nov ; A seminar on Child Rights was held at Zonal Council Hall, Kohima which was organized by Nagaland Child Rights Committee and supported by Labour Department of the state.
The inaugural session was graced by Governor of Nagaland, K. Sankaranarayanan as chief guest. Speaking on the occasion, he said that our country has been in the forefront of ensuring basic rights for children. Parents want their children to go to the best schools and have the best education, mothers to feed their children first but many poor families/ mothers starve to ensure that their children are well fed. He said that we have had the best of traditions and values for looking after our children. However he said exploitation of children specially orphans and destitute are true and stated that poor and helpless children are made to work in homes and roadside hotels and they are deprived of basic education which is a basic and fundamental right. Now hearing of crime including rapes and trafficking of children is very disturbing, these points to a need for having a work for ensuring the basic rights of children and preventing their exploitation, he added.
The Governor said that to make sincere efforts to combat the violation of children’s rights we need to sensitize people to make everyone understand the state of children rights in the country. He also observed that in Nagaland we have a very youthful population and that youth organized through student bodies are quite aware of their rights. He opined that it is required to focus on the rights of small children who are denied of rights of education and those who do not even get to become students.
Earlier, General Secretary Naga Hoho, Neingulo Krome and Director of Prodigals Home, Ela K gave presentations on ‘Child Rights is Human Rights’ and ‘Realities of Child Trafficking’ respectively.
A child from Northfield School, Kohima gave a presentation on ‘How fortunate I am to be a child’ and another from Community Education Centre (CEC), Railway Station Dimapur, Joydeep who was earlier a child labourer gave a short life testimony.
In the second session, the presentation of Child Rights- Legal Perspective and Child Labour Act were given by Addl. Secretary, Justice & Law Department, Akhan Koza and Project Officer, Labour Department, Yanger Aier respectively.
Bazo Kire from Kekhrie Foundation was the facilitator. Panel discussion was also held where Director, Prodigals Home, Ela K was the moderator