The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was ratified by India in December 1992. Government of India, as part of its reporting obligation, was required to submit an Initial Report in January 1995. The Initial Report was submitted in March 1997 and an Inter - ministerial delegation representing India was examined by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in January 2000.

A meeting of 25 representatives of networks and coalitions from Pune and Mumbai including NGO's, academics, lawyers and the media was organised on 9th February 2000, in Mumbai, by YUVA with the support of Save the Children - Canada, terre des hommes (G) India Programme and UNICEF, Maharashtra who have been very active in the promotion of child rights within the CRC framework.

Reporting on the process following India's Ratification of the CRC. Presentation of the Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child following examination of Indian Delegation on India's Compliance to the CRC. Brainstorming on taking the process forward, identifying directions for the future.

The meeting was chaired by Dr. Armaity Desai, (former Chairperson, University Grants Commission - India, former Director, TISS and a pioneer of several child rights initiatives in the country). Mr. Miloon Kothari, (Habitat International Coalition) Kavitha Krishnamoorthy and Alpa Vora (YUVA) made presentations summarising various processes and their outcomes. The documents that formed the basis for discussions at the meeting were: 'List of Issues on the implementation of the CRC', 'GOI's Response to the List of Issues' and 'Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child : India'.

Reporting on the process following India's Ratification of the CRC - Kavitha K In these 8 years, since ratification, NGOs, donor organisations and professionals have engaged with the Government in submitting their views with regard to the implementation of child rights in the country, participated in formulating Alternate Reports to the India Country Report for submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child and have dialogued with the Committee on the Rights of the Child to raise critical issues. Some groups have used the Convention for filing Public Interest Litigation or for engendering a rights perspective to their own programmes and approaches with children as well as of the State.

This phase has also seen the translation and dissemination of the CRC in regional languages by UNICEF, Save the Children and others. The CRC has been simplified and brought out for children themselves by Action for the Rights of the Child (ARC). A publication on how to use the CRC was brought out by YUVA. In Maharashtra the 1st workshop to disseminate awareness on the CRC was held way back in 1994 by UNICEF which led to the process of ARC, CACL and other groups preparing 'A Maharashtra State Report on Child Rights'.

Save the Children Alliance, held a South Asia regional and national meeting to facilitate sharing of information and experience between groups engaged in preparing alternate reports. Subsequently, 3 independent initiatives of coalitions and a collective of working children put forth Alternate Reports.

The Government of India with the support of ICCW and UNICEF organised a national meeting with a large number of academic and field based groups to review the state of children in India for an input into the India Country Report which was finalised by the Department of Women and Child and submitted to the Committee on the Rights of the Child in March 1997.

The Pre-sessional Meeting of the Committee on the Rights of the Child The Committee on the Rights of the Child that monitors compliance of State Party to their obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) invites additional information and substantive critical comments on the Country report from NGOs and UN expert bodies in order to get a more comprehensive picture of the status of fulfillment of the rights of the Child. The 22nd pre sessional meeting of the Committee on the Rights of the Child was held on 7th June, 1999 between 10.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. in Palais des Nations, Geneva. wherein inputs to the first India Country Report was sought.

Prior to the Geneva meeting, UNICEF India Country Office had organised a useful and important briefing in New Delhi where inputs on the UN system, the format of the meeting etc. were provided. In addition, a brief articulation of the key issues that the reports/ submissions that each of the members was making was facilitated. It was also decided that there would be a meeting post Geneva to look at ongoing systems for monitoring the CRC.

Each of the representatives of the Coalitions(3), organisations (2) and working children themselves (3) who had submitted an Alternate Report, first made their presentations . This was followed by presentations of the UN expert agencies including WHO, ILO etc. with UNICEF India Country Office giving an overview of the status of India's children, priority areas and government initiatives. The floor was then open to Committee members to ask their questions.

The Committee members sought to understand India's complex socio-economic, political and cultural context within which the rights of the child could be situated. They were also keen to know more about the processes of planning, resource allocation, formulation and implementation of policy and legislation. They sought to understand the critical groups of children and the issues of priority requiring attention and focus.

Immediate responses were provided for most of the questions. However, given the constraints of time and the complexity of some of the questions posed; Committee members sought substantive written responses from NGO's before January 2000 prior to their meeting with the Indian Delegation.

Learnings from the Pre-sessional meeting:

Given that there is no Committee member from South Asia and only one from Southeast Asia, and that only one member has actually visited India, comprehending the picture of children's rights within the larger complex Country situation proved difficult. The concern of the Committee was also to maintain a fair and balanced approach in relation to the State Party's performance, keeping in mind the complexities of the ground situation. Thus most of the questions centred around understanding the system and the socio-eco-cultural-political and administrative context. This was not anticipated by the NGO groups and therefore such questions were not adequately addressed. While having multiple reports demonstrated the plurality and active civil society engagement on the CRC, for the committee members it meant an overload of information. While there were no disagreements or contradictions over issues and positions between the NGO's, there was no clear articulation of priority areas for action.

The outcome of the Pre-sessional meeting was a 'List of Issues' prepared by the Committee which it sent to the Government of India for their response, in writing, prior to the examination of the Country Report. (CRC/C/Q/IND/1 June 1999.)

The Examination of the Indian Delegation - Alpa Vora.

The 10 member Committee monitoring compliance to the Convention on the Rights of the Child met with the Indian delegation on Jan 11-12, 2000. The Indian delegation was represented by Ms. Kiran Agarwal (Secretary, Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD)), Ms. Veena Rao (Jt. Secretary, DWCD), Mr. Amarjeet Sinha (Director, Department of Education) Mr. Sabharwal (Representative, Permanent Mission of India).

The examination was for one and a half days (9 hours) and was divided into three sessions. The proceedings followed the Monitoring Guidelines of the CRC. The Government delegation was first given an opportunity to summarise their responses to the List of Issues and put forth information on significant achievements between the time of submission of the report and its examination.

The Chair invited Committee members to ask for clarification or questions to the Government Delegation. If data was not available, the delegation had the opportunity to get back later.

A comment on the examination:

The Committee demonstrated a high level of preparedness on almost all issues and was open to information from NGOs. The presentations on education were very well informed, demonstrating the rights approach revealing a close coordination between State and civil society. The other issues addressed were more in the realm of welfare and not reflecting a coordinated inter ministerial effort. The Committee missed self-criticism and analysis on the part of the Indian Delegation which could have helped them understand the present state of Child Rights in the country. There was an inadequate description of the actual situation, the difficulty / problems faced by the Government of India(GOI). The focus was more on what the GOI intended to do rather than the current status. The GOI took recourse in Constitutional provisions and existing laws without looking critically at implementation. There was a heavy reliance on census data, excluding NSS and other sources. The existence of some issues such as police brutality, forced evictions, corporal punishment were denied and the existence of a law was assumed sufficient to address the problem. The Committee spent a lot of time on the sections of General Principles, Civil Rights and Freedoms leaving other sections like Special Protection Measures, Basic Health and Welfare inadequately addressed.

Highlights of Key commitments made by GOI to the Committee:

The Constitution 83rd Ammendment Bill 1997. Ammendments to the Child labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986. Review of the Juvenile Justice Act 1986. Setting up of a National Commission for Children. Drafting of a Childrens Code. Harmonising laws after the NCC is constituted. Inclusion of the CRC in the school curriculum. Focus on training of personnel in child care institutions. Regional Convention on Prevention and Combatting Trafficing in Women and Children for Prostitution - awaiting GOI ratification.

Concluding Observations - Miloon Kothari

The committee, in the course of the deliberations, reinforced the indivisibility of rights and reinforced the cognitive, physical and emotional impact of violations. It stressed on children's participation and considered the participation of civil society important in policy formulation and implementation.

As an outcome of the session, the Committee submitted the 'Concluding Observations' to the GOI for its action. The Concluding Observations is an exhaustive set of observations, concerns and recommendations (CRC/C/15/Add.115 of 28 January 2000)

The Committee was encouraged by the existence of a broad range of constitutional and legislative provisions, and institutions (e.g. the National Human Rights Commission, the National Commission for Women, and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Commission) for the protection of human rights, and children's rights.

The Committee acknowledged that extreme poverty, the impact of structural adjustment, and natural disasters were factors which represent serious difficulties in the fulfilment of all of the State party's obligations under the Convention.

The Committee also noted that the existence of traditional customs (i.e. the caste-system), and societal attitudes (e.g. towards tribal groups), were obstacles to efforts to combat discrimination, and compounds, inter alia, poverty, illiteracy, child labour, child sexual exploitation, and children living and/or working on the streets.

The Recommendations of the Committee include:

Provision of adequate resources and strengthening the capacity and effectiveness of national human rights institutions. Adopt a comprehensive national plan of action, based on a child rights approach, to implement the Convention. Developing a comprehensive system for collecting disaggregated data as a basis to assess progress achieved in the realization of children's rights and to help design policies to be adopted to implement the Convention. Establishment of a statutory, independent National Commission for Children. A systematic approach to involve NGOs, and in general, civil society, throughout all stages of the implementation of the Convention, including policy-making. Dissemination of information regarding the implementation of the Convention among children and parents, civil society and all sectors and levels of government. Review legislation with a view to ensuring that age limits conform to the principles and provisions of the Convention, and take greater efforts to enforce those minimum-age requirements. To take steps to ensure that states abolish the discriminatory practice of "untouchability", prevent caste- and tribe-motivated abuse, and prosecute state and private actors who are responsible for such practices or abuses. Timely registration of all births given the considerable low (51%) registration rates. Review the legislative framework of domestic and intercountry adoption. Prevent occurrence of forced relocation, displacement and other types of involuntary population movements. Enact the 83rd Constitutional Amendment Bill and implement measures designed to comply with Article 45 of the Constitution, which mandates free and compulsory education for all children up to 14. Withdrawal of the Government's declaration with respect to article 32 of the Convention and bring in amendments to the 1986 Child Labour Act so that household enterprises and government schools and training centres are no longer exempt from prohibitions on employing children; and coverage is expanded to include agriculture and other informal sectors. Review laws in the administration of juvenile justice.

Discussion and proposals for future work - Dr. Armaity Desai Dr. Desai proposed that the tone of the discussion focus upon possible actions and do -ables. She suggested that actions and responsibilities on the part of NGOs, Networks also need to be outlined. She recommended that the commitments outlined by the GOI would also form a useful basis for discussion. The floor was thrown open for reactions and proposals for future work from the participants. The discussion also served as an opportunity for sharing among the networks and organisations the work around their priority areas and issues. The key areas that emerged were summed up by Dr. Desai as follows:

It was felt that the delegation of the GOI could have benefitted from some form of training or preparatory process to meet with the expectations of the Committee. This could be taken up by UNICEF in future. The meeting resolved that the National Human Rights Commission be approached to pursue the Concluding Observations of the Committee with the GOI. In view of the GOI's initiative of setting up a National Commission for Children, participants felt that more information needs to be sought about the Bill, its contents and present status. It was felt that this information should be disseminated to groups and they inturn should make an input into the process. A clarity also needs to be sought on the distinction between the roles of the NHRC and the NCC and press for the Commission to have suo moto powers. A concerted campaign needs to be evolved around birth registrations. Information on present systems within the state, dialogue with the relevant departments on the issue could be a first step to plan out appropriate measures to support the state in this area. · It was felt that the various networks and coalitions on child rights issues need to develop some form of networking around the CRC. A larger meeting of others involved in work with children at the state and national level would be very useful. It was felt that the specific recommendations emerging from the Concluding Observations need to be sent to the relevant networks for their information and perusal. There is a greater role for civil society in monitoring GOI's compliance to commitments in the CRC. Dissemination of information on the CRC is required at different levels including translation and simplification of documents. A need to work more consciously with the media in this regard was felt. Efforts need to be made to initiate CRC in the school curriculum. Opportunities for children to be spokespeople for their issues needs to be encouraged. It was also felt that there is an urgent need to monitor the implementation of court judgements, PIL's and ensure that their positive fallouts benefit the child. Role of the Child Rights Cell set up within the DWCD in Maharashtra can serve as an information centre. The campaign for the Right to Education needs to be supported more vigorously and efforts for strengthening local structures for universalising education.

For more Information contact yuva@vsnl.com