Nagaland governor K. Sankaranarayanan on Thursday accentuated the need to change the mindset of the people to deliver to children their due rights. The governor said no prayer, law, police or the military can stop child labour, but a positive mindset of the general mass can bring about change.
Addressing the inaugural function of the one-day seminar on Child Rights at Zonal Council hall organized by the Nagaland Child Rights Committee, the governor said the rights of children need to be focused.
Sankaranarayanan said many children were exploited and deprived of basic education and other fundamental rights due to poverty, ignorance, etc. To tackle these issues, he said it was necessary to have a framework for ensuring the basic rights of children and preventing their exploitation.
The governor lamented that though the Government of India had adopted the UN Convention of Rights of the Child way back in 1992, but the laws were not implemented properly.
To implement the laws in the right spirit, he said the people should be sensitized on children’s rights.
Speaking on ‘Child rights is human rights’, member of NPMHR Neingulo Krome said adults, parents and responsible citizens have a big role to play to ‘live and let live the rights of the child’.
“When the adult begins to act as the children and love one another, then and only then will this world will be exactly what the creator intended it to be”, he said.
Krome urged adults to relive their childhood to the fullest by giving the opportunity to children.
Stating that children were the worst victims of any conflict situation, Krome said in the present day, children live in the midst of internal contradictions filled with agonizing fears.
He said children should be taught to stop hating, for reasons beyond their control and which are neither their creations. He also said that adults should acknowledge their own shortcomings, which had caused conflicts in the land.
Highlighting the realities of child trafficking in Nagaland, Ela K, director, Prodigals’ Home, said the society needed to see the realities and accept it for the present and the future generation. Stating that society had kept silent for too long, Ela said “We have failed as adults. We have failed to respect children.” She said all children were “children of God” and that all children should be given their due rights.
Earlier, Rolio, a student from North Field, Kohima, and Joydeep from CEC Dimapur spoke on the importance of child rights. The programme was chaired by Yanger Aier, project director, Labour Department. The seminar was supported by the Labour Department.
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