India is one of the 193 countries that are signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child(UNCRC).These rights include; (i) promoting healthy lives (addressing survival, nutrition, health care services etc.), (ii) providing quality education, and (iii) protection against abuse, exploitation and violence (combating child labor, child trafficking and child sexual abuse).

THE DEFINITION OF CHILD.

• Under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulations) Act, 1986, child means a person who has not completed his fourteenth year of age.

• Under the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1926, child means a person who, if a male, has not completed twenty-one years of age and, if a female, has not completed eighteen years of age.

• Under Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2000, child means a person who has not completed eighteenth year of age.

• Article 24 (1) of the UNCRC [5] mentions that:

“States parties recognise the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health. States parties shall strive to ensure that no child is deprived of his or her right to access to such health care services.”

GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS TARGETING CHILD HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT.

• The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)initiative was launched in 1975.

• The Government is committed to make it universal. Janani Suraksha Yojnawas started in 2005, and modified in 2011 to include the neonates (now termed Janani Shishu Suraksha Yojna), to provide free care to pregnant women and sick neonates

• The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was launched in 2005 to address the health needs of underserved rural areas.

• In 2013, this mission has been expanded to include urban areas (urban health mission, both now included as sub-missions under National Health Mission).

CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEES THAT ARE MEANT SPECIFICALLY FOR CHILDREN INCLUDE :-

• Article 21A provides that the State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine.

• Article 24 provides that no child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.

• Article 39(e) provides that the shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing that the health and strength of workers, men and women, and the tender age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age or strength.

• Article 39(f) provides that the shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing that children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment.

• Article 45 provides that the State shall endeavour to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of six years.

Reference – Law and medicine by Dr. Nandita Adhikari.

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

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In the year 2021, we wrote about 1000 Inspirational Women In India, in the year 2022, we would be featuring 5000 Start Up Stories.