“When we talk of children’s right to participation, we are
talking about children being able to intervene in decisions that
affect their lives.”
Vimukti children parliament members on 15th November 2017, morning
gave a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner and Chief Executive officer
(CEO) Raichur and demanded the official to look into the matter very
seriously. Shashi Rakha, Children Parliament President from
Karabdinni said, In India, just as most of the world, children are
not considered as ‘citizens’. They are regarded as citizens in
waiting, not fully franchised. Though they are expected to do many
things responsibly – going to school, studying and performing in
exams, carrying out duties at home – they have no say in determining
what their city/locality/village should be like in the next twenty
years or determine what needs to be done to make their (children’s)
life easier.
But in fact, children have a moral and legal right to participate in
governance surrounding any issues that affect them. The UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified in 1990, sets out
three broad categories of rights all children should enjoy:
protection from threats, provision of basic services like education,
and participation in decisions affecting them. Sadly, this ‘third P’
has proven the most difficult to make a reality, and has encountered
much resistance.
Therefore we the children parliament members have come together to
demand and to make compulsory to conduct Makkal Grama sabha in every
Gram panchayath in the Raichur District; so that children are able
to get all the facilities in the school like toilet, play ground,
electricity, pure drinking water, play materials, News papers, etc.
At the same time, children’s governance fulfills children’s legal
and moral right to participation in decisions concerning them. All
the Children parliament representatives were present and benefited
from this program.
