Jharkhand launch 'Bachpan Bachao Andolan'

Sanjeev Shekhar
With Jharkhand being the second state in number of malnourished children, the State government took a pledge to overcome the problem with the support of different section of society and launch the campaign “Bachpan Bachao Andolan” (Save Childhood Campaign).
Announcing this here on Wednesday, the Chief Minister Arjun Munda, pointed out that the government would set-up a Nutrition Council at the district level across the state and would try its level best to ensure the participation of all. “It’s high time everybody should come forward for the cause of children, as they are the present and future of the society.
The Chief Minister was speaking on “Media symposium on child rights and the role of media: laws and policies on children”. Around 28 select journalists from the various parts of the state had been to Kolkata Law College to attend the convention and training programme from August 28-30. This programme was organized under the aegis of the State Information and Public Relations Department with the support of UNICEF.
Admitting government failure to achieve the target of reaching out to children in the remote parts of the state, the Chief Minister Arjun Munda said malnourishment is unfortunate and regrettable for any state. However, there is always a chance of improvement and this could be achieved only with the help and cooperation of different strata of society. “We should launch the “Bachpan Bachao Andolan” as like the ‘war against malnutrition’ so that the future of any state could be given proper shape,” the chief minister stated.
He gave away the certificates to all the participating journalists and urged them to come to fore to help in launching of the save childhood campaign.
The Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister and the IPRD, Govt of Jharkhand, D.K.Tiwari, welcomed the guests and assured media persons to carry out such interactive session and awareness programme in the interest of the fraternity. The IG Anuragh Gupta spoke on the policing problems that they combat with children. He said that the state lacks special homes and children home in the state and once the children come to thanas they are confounded as to where such kids should be sent or kept. He appealed to the chief minister to generate some special fund for such cases wherein children are recovered from trafficking to provide them medical help.
The UNICEF spokesperson Deeapak Dey made a presentation on the tour brief of the journalists and said that the state was suffering from malnourishment but at the same time it has got good sex ratio compared to the national figure, which is a positive sign for the state. Jharkhand has 943 girls against every 1000 boys, he said.
The IANS special correspondent Nityanand Shukla suggested to the government to tackle the problems related to children in an integrated manner with the help of the various departments.
The UNICEF Chief Job Zacariah strongly felt that there was a need of promoting education, filling of vacancies of nurses, doctors, teachers and to monitor the development pertaining to the child development with all the deputy commissioners twice a year.
The Resident Editor, Dainik Bhaskar, Raghvendra and Resident Editor, Dainik Jagran, Shashi Bhushan spoke as guest, while the state head of the Aryan TV, Bhujang Bhushan provided the feedback of the participants on the occasion.
The deputy director Snehlata Ekka proposed the vote of thanks.
Ends-