National commission for children soon

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, SEPT. 6. A seven- member national commission for children, headed by a retired Supreme Court Judge, will be established soon with the mandate of implementing the rights enshrined in the Constitution for children.

The Union HRD Minister, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, told reporters here on Thursday that the commission's constitution would be placed shortly before the Cabinet and specialists drawn from medicine, psychiatry and social sciences would be appointed as members. A charter of children's rights was being drafted for implementation by the proposed commission, which would be formed in States also.

The Government's decision assumes significance in the light of the international convention on children being held at the forthcoming UN summit in New York from September 17 onwards when problems of Third World countries would be discussed.

He said the Centre would be addressing the twin problems of health and nutrition among children in a targeted and mission- mode approach since they were important for development of human resources.

Towards this end, a scheme to enrol all children in the age group of 6-14 years by 2003 and to complete their elementary education by 2010 had been launched. All State Governments had been asked to submit projects for those districts which were educationally most backward. They would be implemented through panchayat raj institutions at a cost of at least Rs. 8 crores in each district.

Dr. Joshi said the National Nutrition Mission, which was announced by the Prime Minister, Mr. A. B. Vajpayee, on his independence day speech, would come into existence by the end of 2001 after completing the ongoing discussions with various Ministries and State Governments.

The main components of the mission would deal with care of pregnant and lactating mothers, adolescent girls and infants in the 0-3 years ago group while other parts would deal with anganwadis and mid-day meals. India would have gone up by more than 13 points than it did in the latest HRD report if its nutritional status was a little higher, he said. Dr. Joshi stated that a new Bill for prevention of domestic violence against women was ready and would be placed in Parliament after Cabinet approval.

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