• One of the serious complaints our members make in connection with schools is the humiliation faced by children. In some schools we are called names that ridicule our appearance. For example, a dark skinned boy is called ‘Blackie’. In some schools, teachers and children from high caste families call children from low caste by their caste name in a derogatory manner. For example children are called ‘Kulala’ [Potter], ‘Pujari’ [Toddy taper] ‘Samagara’ [cobbler] etc. We children hate this.

• Our members point out that there are many forms of discrimination in schools. Children are discriminated on the basis of caste and children from upper caste families get more favourable treatment than the others. Teachers also favour students who are more intelligent. In some situations children from rich families get more attention. From our experience we know that children who are discriminated against and neglected by teachers very often drop out of school.

• In most schools we children do not find the methods used by teachers interesting. There are hardly any teaching aids in the classrooms. Teachers talk all the time or read out lessons in a manner we are not able to follow. We are not allowed to ask questions or to speak up and say ‘we find it difficult to understand what is being taught’.

• One of the serious problems we face in our schools is that we are not taught how to use what we learn in the classes in our practical lives.

• Many of us feel that there is no self-disciple taught in the schools. We children are not allowed to form our own ground rules and to maintain discipline.

• Many of us have faced difficulties in connection with the language of instruction. At schools we are not taught in our mother tongue. When we start going to school we often find it very difficult to understand the lessons.

• In most parts of India, many schools have insufficient teachers.

• Many schools do not have toilet facilities. This is a serious problem, especially for girls. Older girls drop out of school because of this.

• First Aid information and First Aid facilities are absent in most of the schools.

• Many schools do not have playgrounds.

• Some schools provide mid-day meals. In most places, no hygiene is practised in the preparation and distribution of mid-day meals.

• The Government is supposed to provide us free textbooks, uniforms, mid day meals etc. Many of us do not receive all that is due to us. So quite a few of us have dropped out because we are not able to afford schools.

• Even in situations where the Government does provide textbooks and uniforms, we still have to bear a lot of additional expenses such as the cost of notebooks and other stationary. Many of us cannot afford it, especially if we are many children in one family.

• Many of us are first generation learners, so we do not get help at home to study. We find it difficult to catch up with lessons.

• In some families, adults get drunk and they beat children and other members of the family. In such homes, it is very difficult for children to study.

• In some of our families, there is insufficient income. Our parents either have no jobs or do not earn enough to support the family. So, often we have to step in to support the family financially by taking up jobs. As the schools do not have flexible timings, if our working hours clash with the schools hours, we have to drop out of school.

• In many rural areas of the country, there are very few Government High Schools. Sometimes private High Schools are available, but they charge very high fees. We cannot afford to pay such high fees. So very often children, especially girls, drop out of school after the Middle School.

• Many girls in the country are not allowed by their families to continue their education after 7th grade. The families feel that if their daughters study further, they will have to find them grooms who are even more educated and this means paying a higher dowry. So they prefer girls to get employed after learning basic reading and writing skills.

• Our members report that in many parts of India, both in the urban and the rural areas, there are no childcare centres. So when both the parents have to go to work, those of us who are older stay back at home to take care of the younger children.

• In many parts of rural India, due to the acute water scarcity during the summer, we children have to walk long distances to fetch water. The public food distribution centres are also very far way from our homes. Several days in a month, we have to walk long distances to fetch the groceries. During these days we are forced to absent ourselves from school. When we get back to school we find it difficult to follow the lessons.

• In many urban areas water shortage is a serious problem. The Corporation supplies drinking water through the public taps at 9 am. Our parents go to work very early in the mornings. So we have to collect water. So we are late to school. At school, they don’t think this is an issue. Teachers punish us if we are absent or late. So some of us leave school.

• In our villages, we do not have proper health care systems. Even though there are health centres, the doctors are hardly available. These centres do not have even basic facilities. In our cities too we do not get the medicines we require in the government hospitals. We have to buy them in the shops for a lot of money.

• Both urban and rural areas have Primary Health Centres (PHCs). But they do not work efficiently. Sometimes they are located very far away from our houses. The doctors are very irregular. They hardly make any village visits. The doctors and the nurses are not supposed to charge any fees for their treatment, but they do.

• In many PHCs the health workers and nurses get transferred frequently. This is disruptive because even before they get familiar with the needs of the people of one community, they are out of the area.

• In the big government hospitals, we have to bribe everyone to get treated.

• In most of our cities, diseases spread rapidly because of the bad sanitation facilities.

• In the slums of India sewage and drainage facilities do not exist. In slums and market places there are only open drains or gutters and this is one of the main reasons why children who live in slums frequently contract infections and fall seriously ill.

• In most urban slums, we do not have a regular supply of drinking water. In some places water is supplied once in 2 days – at times in the middle of the night. We have submitted memorandums to the authorities in the City Corporation to set the problem right, but there is no improvement.

• In all urban slums of the country, there are no proper roads, no underground sewage and no public toilets. This is despite the fact that some of the slums we live in are over 30 years old.

• In families where most of the income is spent on alcohol, the environment is not healthy. These families also remain below the poverty line. Such families are neither respected nor trusted by the members of the community. Most of the family members including children suffer from chronic illnesses.

• In many villages of India lighting facilities are very poor. We do not have electricity and we do not get sufficient kerosene oil from the public distribution system.

• Most of our members say that children have very few opportunities to take part in decisions at homes. Often we are not even allowed to choose the clothes we wear. Older children get listened to sometimes, especially if we contribute to the family financially.

• Our members have noted that most parents never ask children what they wish to study. Adults almost always take decisions about children.

• At schools, both in the cities and the villages, there are no opportunities or platforms for us to express our views and opinions on matters related to us like teaching, games etc.

• We children do not have the freedom to practice any religion we like or to study different religions.

• In many schools, both in the urban areas and in the rural areas, if children ask questions, teachers do not answer them. Instead, children are threatened and asked to keep quiet.

• In some schools, teachers beat children. One of our member organisations, Vidival Vanavil took up this issue in Tamil Nadu. The response they got from the teachers was "Beating children is our right. Only if we beat them will children learn well".

• In several regions of the country, fodder is not available near the villages. So children have to take their sheep grazing to faraway places. Sometimes they are away from their homes for weeks at a time. Our members say that due to this, many of them are not able to participate in schooling, in domestic work, in cultural programmes, in sports, in the Extension Schools and in the children’s organisations.

• In most parts of the country, there are a lot of restrictions placed on girls. So some girls find it very difficult to attend the activities of our member organisations. Even when some of our parents are supportive to our involvement in our organisation, other communities are likely to discourage them with words like "if your daughters go out and participate it will be difficult for you to get them married in the future".

• Our members also point out that in some situations, even though structures for children to participate exist, if we do not get the full support of the adults and the local government, we find it difficult to use the structures as effectively as we could have otherwise.

• Many of our parents themselves do not have any say in the decisions made in the villages. So they find it difficult to support us because they lack experience in participating in public spaces.

• Our members report that there are several announcements by the Government about issues that affect us – directly and indirectly. But there are no consultations with any children regarding any of those programmes.

• The Government has announced a National Commission for Children. But there has not been a single consultation with children that we know of regarding this. The members of our National Movement prepared a document with our recommendations for the National Commission. It was submitted to the President of India. We sent it out to all the members of our Parliament. But we have not received a single response or an acknowledgment to date. The full text of our recommendations is attached to this report as Annexure 2.

• The Government does not have any structures for children to participate in decision-making processes. Children are not involved in developing policies, planning programmes, or implementing them - from local level to international level.

At the very outset, we feel that the Government of India has to be accountable to all the children of the country. So in connection with their report to the CRC, their first obligation was to consult all children before the report was prepared. Once prepared, they had to prepare child friendly versions of the report so that all of us could go through its contents and critique it if necessary.

In our review processes we first put down all the criteria for how a ‘child friendly version of the CRC report should be’.

• It should be available in all the regional languages of India.
• It should have an interesting narrative that can hold our interest.
• The print should be in bold letters so that we can read it easily.
• The language used should be simple.
• The report should have a lot of pictures and illustrations so that we can understand it easily.
• The pictures used should be attractive and colourful. .
• Report should be creatively presented.
• The content of the report should flow smoothly from one point to another.
• The report should be easily available to all children.
• It should also be available as an audio recording.
• The main points of the report should be converted into posters and pasted in all parts of the country.

We examined sections relevant to us in the GOI Report, keeping these points in mind. Our adult facilitators assisted us. We are sorry to say that the present report does not fulfil a single criterion we have listed.

• The report does not mention any consultations with children. There are no opinions of children included in the report. It appears that children have not at all participated in the preparation of this report. This is a serious lapse.

• We would like to point out that in the section on children’s Right to Association of the GOI report, there is a reference made only to one of our member organisations that is Bhima Sangha. Our NMWC has 8 other members and there are several other children’s organisations in the country, but they have not been mentioned.

During the Pre Com of the UNGASS, our representative met the Minister and the officials concerned and briefed them about NMWC. At that discussion, NMWC put forward a demand to the Ministry to carry out consultations with representatives of all children’s organisations in the country prior to the UNGASS. NMWC in fact offered to organise such a consultation. However, the Government did not respond positively to this suggestion.

• As mentioned earlier we were able to procure a copy of the GOI Report with a lot of difficulty. Even to this date the State Governments do not have copies for distribution. The copy which was finally available to us is in English. There are no child friendly versions of this report that are available. Considering that this report should have been widely distributed and discussed within the country, we feel this is a serious lapse.

• After going through some of the highlights of the report we feel that this report does not give a full picture of our situation or of our problems.