• Children below the age of 18 years are not given voting rights. Children below the age of 18 years are not eligible to take loans. The government should, in a uniform manner, consider all children below the age of 18 as children 
   
• In our cities, there is a lot of discrimination between the rich and the poor. This discrimination should be added to the list of discriminations mentioned in the GOI report. 
   
• Multinationals have come in to our country. They are not concerned about our communities or our children. They have created so much pollution with their chemicals. They may bring some gains to the country, but the loss they cause us is double the gain. Multinationals release their products into our markets. Our parents do not have a chance to survive. Their occupations get affected and this will harm us children. 
   
• If small changes are made in the existing programmes, they can make a big difference to children and communities. For example, if the anganwadi's (child care centers) are made full time, parents are free to go to work and many older children are free to go to schools. 
   
• Not one of our rights have been protected. If our rights were protected - from the village level to the national level - we would not have been in this situation. 
   
• My parents are well aware of my problems. What they lack is the capacity to deal with those problems. Government cannot place all the responsibilities on our parents. Instead, it should help parents to improve the quality of life of their children. 
   
• Working children cannot be abruptly pulled out from work. Before that, alternative arrangements have to made because all children have a right to survival. 
   
• Government says that children can be separated from parents if the parents themselves abuse children. Instead of that we feel that there should be no access to liquor shops and drugs because intoxication creates fights at home. This affects children and mothers. Government should ban sale of all intoxicants. 
   
• The government is not providing us with opportunities to express our opinions and to participate in decision making processes and in programme implementation. As the impact of these programmes are on children, government has to consult us. If not, the impact may harm us and put us into worse situations. 
   
• The government says that we have a right to access information. But who is going to provide that information? 
   
• We know very well which rights we should demand. We also have responsibilities corresponding to our rights. We are also aware that our rights should not be misused. 
   
• The government says that `there are 100 million children living in conditions of abject poverty and neglect'. How is it possible for these 100 million children to have a right to thought and conscience? 
   
• When children have their own thoughts, society comes in their way. For example, if a girl chooses to plough in the field, the society says `What a shame, she is a girl and she wants to plough'. The government should break down such barriers. Then children will enabled to act on the basis of their thoughts.
   
• The government says that our parents are responsible for us to access these rights. Our parents themselves do not have these rights. How can they provide them to us? The government has kept our parents ignorant. Our parents are not in a position today to give us information. 
   
• On one hand, if we start a struggle demanding that we should access and enjoy our rights, the adults will consider us as rebels. On the other hand, they do not discuss with us and listen to our opinions and find solutions to our problems. 
   
• Government says that I have a right to thought. I want to go to school and to achieve something in life. But the situation in my house makes it compulsory for me to go to work. What had the government done about this? 
   
• "We are working children. Why does the government want to send us to beggars' colonies?"
• I get scared of: 
  ....... storms  
  ....... a dark night 
  ....... silence  
  ....... whenever I hear something scary  
  ...... riots 
  ....... a dead body, a corpse  
   
• The government says that it should provide for the physical, mental and social development of children. But it is not doing so. A large number of children are mentally and physically challenged. When will the government provide the best for children's health? Will it take one/two/three years or twenty years? 
   
• If the government is really able to provide us protection and care; and give us the right to social security, the quality of our lives will really improve. 
   
• If the government carrys out all its work keeping the good of children in mind, children will automatically realise their right to social security
   
• We should get education which which is appropriate to us and which will help us in our life. 
   
• The government has spent Rs. 27 crores to conduct a survey about the number of child labourers in the country. This amount is a waste because after the survey the government says there are 20 million working children in India, which is a wrong figure. There are more than 100 million working children in our country. The money wasted on the survey could have been more useful to address our basic problems. 
   
• Government says that it will protect children from drug abuse. But this is not only a children's problem, it is also a problem faced by adults. Along with giving protection, the government should see where the problem originates from and attack it at the roots. Then the problem will automatically gets solved. 

(Look out for the Working Children's Report)

An Appeal : Join us in our effort and contribute to our cause!
Send your responses to: response@workingchild.org