Suggestions/Feedback on Chapter-wise Recommendations

By Bhima Sangha , India

 for UN Global Study on Violence Against Children

Comments/Feedback on Recommendations for each setting:

Overall Suggestions

Home and Family

School and Education

Institutions

Community

Working Children

Overall suggestions:

• It is important to decide the responsible body for planning, implementing, and monitoring each of the recommendations as well as the mechanisms for implementing the recommendations.

• It is important to note that while broad principles and policies of universal application can be drawn up, it is impossible to decide strictly the strategies and programmes. It could vary from community to community locally, depending upon the socio-economic, political and cultural backgrounds. What needs to be done is the drawing up of appropriate measures, which are locally applicable in line with the policy/principle.

• Together with other life skills, children should be facilitated to learn self-defence mechanisms so that they can protect themselves in certain situations.

Home and Family:

• Not just legal reform but law enforcement should be strengthened. Awareness raising activities will not be effective unless laws are enforced strongly. For this purpose, enforcement mechanisms should be strong, accountable, responsible, as well as sensitive.

• Information on laws should be easily accessible to children in all the sectors and their families. The government should be prime responsible for this. Moreover, the laws should be made available in a language and manner that children and their families easily understand.

• Government should take immediate and appropriate action if any violence takes place.

• Violence against children is not a problem just in the low or middle-income countries; in fact a bigger problem in the so-called ‘affluent’ countries. So researches on VAC should be priority in all countries, not regarding their economic status.

• Participation of children is also to prevent and deal with violence on children. Involvement of children in research not just as informants, but also as researchers. Inclusion of research components in school syllabus both theory and practice.

Schools and Education:

• The school curriculum should enable participatory learning process depending on each individual child's learning interests, needs and abilities. If a child is forced to learn subjects that does not interest her/him, it would be a mental torture for the child.

• Facilitating school children’s organisations in order to collectively participate, address/solve their issues, etc. (For example, Kundapur model of School Children’s Organisations)

• Children should identify and appoint children’s ombudsman or children’s friend (eg. Makkala Mitra in Karnataka, India) to address children’s issues or support children in finding solutions to their problems. This person should be selected by children themselves and he/she should not be linked to school management or so.

• Involving children and young people in planning, designing school curriculum.

• There should be provision for all children to continue their studies in their own mother tongue (This could be a specific problem to India, as we have many languages and migration especially among middle and low income groups is a regular phenomenon). If this possibility is not available, children are often mistreated/teased by teaches/classmates and they tend to dropout or lay back.

• There is urgent need for education on sexuality, reproductive, and gender issues in the schools as well as for children outside the school system. Appropriate child friendly materials should be designed for this purpose and teachers should be appropriately trained and sensitised for this purpose. Both boys and girls need this education.

• School education should provide a clear orientation on UNCRC to children; it should expose them to all the rights that they have ownership to.

• Girl children who travel to and fro by taxis are requested by the drivers to sit in the front seat. The drivers touch their bodies abusively. (Study by children in Ghana, 2005)

• The Taxi drivers also ask girl children to visit their homes in the evening. If children don’t oblige, they are refused lift on the next day. (Study by children in Ghana, 2005)

• There is no assistance given to the disabled children when they have to cross the road. (Study by children in Ghana, 2005)

• The State/Govt. should provide sufficient commercial buses for our use to school and markets. (Study by children in Ghana, 2005)

• Transport fares should be low for children to be able to use trotros and taxis to school. (Study by children in Ghana, 2005)

• There should be sufficient streetlights and the existing ones should be maintained regularly. (Study by children in Ghana, 2005)

• More police officers should be provided on various roads to check reckless drivers and bring them to book. (Study by children in Ghana, 2005)

• Drivers using abusive languages on children. This should be stopped. Drivers also blow their horns on children thereby frightening them. They collect high fares and park many children into their cars. Drivers overload their vehicles and put children’s lives at risk. Hence, drivers should be sensitised to respect children. They should be educated on the dangers of reckless driving such as excessive speeding, over-loading and road signs (Study by children in Ghana, 2005)

Institutions:

• Counselling facilities for children in detention centres is urgent because children in these centres have been often subjected physical, mental, emotional and social violence

• Emphasis on children’s quality education, life skills programmes, extra-curricular activities and so on for children in these detention centres.

• Children in these centres as well as in the processes of their moving to these centres, are treated according to the rights enshrined in the CRC (eg. situations of raid, juvenile courts proceedings, processes related.

• State should ensure positive environment in these detention centres or institutions, which would enhance children’s growth and development.

• Ensuring and facilitating their active participation in all levels especially involving them in decision-making processes that affect their lives.

Community:

• Enable the setting up of structures for children’s participation in their community or village (Eg. Makkala Panchayat or Children’s Village Councils, Bhima Sangha or Working Children’s Unions,) This would enhance their participation in decision-making processes that affects them and their communities and also make them responsible.

• Provide self-defence training to children and young people to protect themselves.

• To facilitate children and young people to select their ombudsperson in their community/village/town (eg. Makkala Mitra/Children’s Friend in Kundapur). Children themselves should identify/select ombudsperson based on their set criteria.

• To implement Children’s Help Line or and Post Box that is easily accessible to children if they encounter any violence in their home, community, etc, or if they have anything to be communicated to anyone relating to themselves.

Working Children:

• While focusing on preventive measures, it is significant to understand and analyse root causes that lead children’s work. Most short-term strategies do not help children; they only adversely affect working children. Strategies must be designed understanding the root causes for the child to work. One of the best practices is to facilitate working children themselves to participate in the processes of policy formulation. 

• Strategies to address problem of child labour should be local specific, considering local specific context and issues (Eg. ‘Work We Can and Cannot Do’ by Bhima Sangha and Makkala Panchayat, Karnataka, India).

• If child is rescued/removed from hazardous work situation, much emphasis should be given to providing appropriate/viable alternative facilities to the child. They may be vocational and/or formal schooling combined with empowerment education. (Eg. Namma Bhoomi Kundapur, Flexi, or Extension schools, Karnataka).

• Address discriminatory factors, which contribute to children’s vulnerability of violence including weaker protection than adult workers, disparity of wages, comparable work hours, facilities at work place, conductions of work, etc. Focus particularly on vulnerability of girls/discrimination against girls. 

• Facilitating working children’s organisations or unions wherein they can address/solve/negotiate their issues collectively (Eg. Bhima Sangha). Employers must be sensitised about the need and significance of these unions.

• Facilitating and strengthening working children’s networks or movements from local to international levels. For example; National Movement of Working Children (NMWC), International Movement Working Children (IMWC)

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