“Children are our greatest treasure. They are our future” … Nelson Mandela Children are innocent, they play mischief, but children bring a smile to one’s face. One of the most treasured possessions on earth; children are loved by one and all. They are our future, they are nation’s future. The development of children is very much important when they are at their early stages of life, the beginners – the early childhood. (Birth to 6 years). It needs care, love, nurturing, health, nutrition, stimulation, play and learning in early childhood days, as during this period rapid developments are seen which contributes up to 90% of the brain growth.
India has evidenced rapid economic growth in last decade, when it became the second fastest-growing economy in the world. However as per World Bank report published in 2013, the morality rate of children under 5 years of age is 53 per 1000 live births and according to UNICEF’s report more than 60 million children under the age of 5 are stunted. Moreover a quarter or less of children in India receive adequate health care at all when children constitute 40% of the Indian population out of which around 20% is of the age group of 0-6 years. In fact India’s immunization rates are among the lowest in the world, except BCG vaccine, immunization rates are uniformly lower than the corresponding averages for sub-Saharan Africa or for the least developed countries, even child immunization rates in India increased very slowly in the 1990s and early 2000s, while Bangladesh closed most of the immunization gap over the same period.
The development of young children is now increasingly recognised as a development and human rights issue of critical national importance. The statistics on the malnutrition and neglect of young children in India today cannot be ignored, and their significance for the nation’s overall human resources cannot be overemphasized.
However, the State’s response to the problem has been slow so far. It was in response to rising voices demanding greater attention from the State on the issue of ‘Early Childhood Development (ECD)’ that the Government came out with a comprehensive ‘Nation Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Policy, 2013.
It has been more than two and a half decades since India signed and ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989, but the idea of justiciable rights for children, especially young children, has yet not taken shape. Until now, the State has addressed the needs of children through a fragmented approach based on targeted interventions, in spite of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) which was conceptualized in 1972 with a view to provide health, nutrition, early childhood care and education keeping in view the integrated needs of children in mind. Some of the current policies concerning young children are:
National Nutrition Policy, 1993.
National Plan of Action for Children, 2005.
National Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Policy of 2013.
The National Policy for Children, 2013.
These are undoubtedly well intentioned and relevant policies/schemes, but being politico-executive initiatives they lack the status of law and don’t create any justiciable rights in favour of beneficiaries. They only articulate promises.
The ECD has gained international attention only in the recent past. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (1948), pronounced the special rights of the child for the first time by providing that “Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance.
The convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), 1989 was the first legally binding international document concerning child rights and it has been the widely ratified human rights treaty, and also ratified by India in 1992. Although rights to health and nutrition, education and learning, care and protection, and play were included in the CRC, they were not incorporated adequately to endorse ECD.
The United Nations has played a prominent role in evolving ECD. General Discussion in 2004 dedicated the theme of ‘implementing child rights in early childhood.
Recognizing the significance of child-care and development in achieving the goal of national progress, the Founding Parents enacted several provisions concerning welfare and development of children, especially in Parts III and IV of the Constitution.
In fact Supreme Court of India also emphasized upon Childcare development in Unni Krishnan v. State of Andhra Pradesh (1993 AIR 2178) wherein Article 21 was given an inclusive meaning to include right to free education up to the age of 14 years. It is taking this approach that right to free education up to the age of 14 years was read into Article 21 by the Supreme Court of India in Unni Krishnan v. State of Andhra Pradesh (1993 AIR 2178).
Eventually, having regard to the need of a child, its right to full development, and necessity of education
Art. 21-A was inserted through the 86th Amendment Act, 2002 within the Constitution. Although the amendment was on a positive note, it was criticized as it excluded children below the age of six, an diluted to some extent the right as spelt out in Unni Krishnan v. State of Andhra Pradesh. A Report of the National Commission to Review the working of the Constitution (NCRWC) published in 2002 stated that the Right to Free and Compulsory Education should be extended to all children up to the age of 14 years, and not only from the age of 6 onwards.
Despite the constitutional mandate and desire as expressed in Articles 15(3), 39(f), 45 and 47, and also in various legislations specifically dealing with children such as the Prohibition of Child Marriages Act 2006, the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005 and the Children Act, 1960, there is no fully entrenched legal right to ‘healthcare’ and ‘adequate nutrition’ for young children.
The Law Commission of India has recently submitted its report to create appropriate legal entitlements with respect to ECD by securing constitutional objective of ensuring healthy early childhood. Major recommendations were,
Inclusion of a new Article 24A to Part III of the Constitution to ensure that the child’s right to basic care and assistance becomes an enforceable right;
Article 51 A (k) of the Constitution should be amended so that the duty is placed on every citizen “who is a parent or guardian to provide opportunities for education to his/her child or, as the case may be, ward under his/her care.
“The can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children” … Nelson Mandela The current legal and constitutional rights framework in India does not place enough emphasis on the rights of young children. The protection of Early Childhood Development in India thus depends on Policies and Schemes created and run by the Central and State Governments.
The constitutional framework of fundamental rights and directive principles should reflect the special status and needs of children in the under-6 age group. Necessary statutory and legal backing should be given to the existing schemes and policies in order to create legal entitlements in favour of children for their health, nutrition, care and education needs. In addition the efforts should be coupled with an integrated and holistic approach for protecting the interests of a young child, keeping in mind the primary needs of Early Childhood Development.
The implementation of Child Care and Development would require radical procedural, functional and operational changes. In this scenario the recommendations of the Law Commission, if implemented properly would definitely brighten the gloomy future of India’s pride.
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