BENGALURU: With Children’s Day around the corner, gram panchayats have been told to conduct special gram sabhas for children this month to discuss issues related to child rights. Child rights activists have demanded similar sabhas in urban areas at the ward level.
A circular issued by the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) to officials of respective panchayats directs them to conduct a grama sabha for children on any one day of this month to discuss children’s issues. This includes child health, child labour, child rights, child trafficking among others. In gram sabhas, the members concerned should discuss these problems with the villagers, stakeholders and update the same in their software.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, department director M K Kempegowda said that panchayats have been conducting sabhas for children every November for the past few years. “Gram sabhas are held twice a year. We instruct the officials to conduct a special sabha for children as well as for women. If there are any issues pertaining to children, it can be discussed and brought to the notice of higher-ups,’’ he said.
There are several other issues that children can express, like problems at school, including harassment and demand for toilets and libraries.
Vasudev Sharma, Director of Child Rights Trust and an activist who was behind the implementation of such sabhas in 2003, said that when they conducted a survey for three years in 15 gram panchayats of Ballari district, most of the panchayat members were unaware of children’s issues. It was then that they were sensitised to the Panchayat Act which says members should take up children’s issues. Later, it was brought to the state government’s notice in 2006 and a circular was issued to conduct gram sabhas for children.
“Today, Karnataka is a pioneer in this regard and many children’s issues have been sorted out,’’ he said. Giving a few instances, Sharma said, at Muddapura Gram Panchayat (GP) in Hosapete, at one of the sabhas, children did not want to come to school on Mondays. The reason was that they had to clean the school on Monday as many anti-social activities took place on Sunday.Sharma said that at an urban level, the problems faced by children are different.