“In order to realize the dream of child labour free society local bodies must be vested with required powers” said Mr Viniod kumar, Vice Chairman, Telangana State Panning Board. He was addressing a Zoom meeting that was held on the occasion of World Day against Child Labour organised by MV Foundation today. Reacting to the several demands raised by participants (about 190) he said he will take the issues of providing nutrition to children and education of children during the current crisis situation, to the notice of the government.
Besides Mr Vinod the meeting was attended by, Ms Sudha Murali, former Child Specialist UNICEF, Mr Konda Visweswar Reddy another former MP and Sri Mr Gourav Gogoi, MP from Assam State, and several other activists, teachers took part.
Mr Vinod kumar reacting to the issues raised during the meet expressed concern about children. As there is lot of uncertainty prevailing in every sector, it is not possible to guess as to when the government will open schools and he shared the concern of others that the childhood is facing challenges. Whatever children have learnt, due to the long closure of schools, they are likely to miss the rhythm of learning and forget the learnings also.
To come over this situation he said it would be better to engage the local educated youth to adopt one child each and educate children. Teachers are also keen to help children learn and advised them that they should take initiative to help educating children at least for an hour or two. Reacting to the issue of providing nutrition he said there is reality and need for this and assured the participants to take the matter to the notice of government and said that there is a responsibility on everyone of us to ensure that no child turns out to be a worker in the post lock down period.
He supported the idea that every local government institution must maintain a register of children in their constituencies and monitor their movements frequently. He said this is the best way to map out every child at the local level and these agencies should be capacitated and empowered to protect children.
Finally, he wished that this kind of meetings should be held at district level and block level to enable the government understand what was happening on the ground and suggested that MV Foundation should take lead in this respe
