Dimapur, June 20 (MExN): The second ‘Consultative Meeting on Child Rights’ organised by Dimapur Alliance for Child Rights (DACR) was held on Thursday, June 20 at Miqlat Ministry, Dimapur. DACR is an alliance of various Dimapur-based non-profit organisations formed with the objective of disseminating awareness on the rights of children. “A Nagaland where every child is valued and cherished as a supreme asset of the nation, and where both state and society ensure all children their right to the best of care, to respect and attention, before and after and throughout the period of childhood and growth,” states the vision statement.
By children, it encompasses any child whether one’s own or those who are unfortunate enough to be deprived of the care and respect those others his or her age receive.
Its mission is “To work for the realisation of the human, social, economic, cultural rights of all children in the nation, with all civil rights and freedoms, to advocate and achieve firm and ethical national commitment to the mandate of safeguarding every child against moral and material abandonment, ensuring due investment of material and human resources, and calling upon the State to assign to this task the highest sense of responsibility and accountability for the greatest benefit to every child, without any distinction or discrimination for any reason, upto the age of 18 years.”
Today’s consultation had representatives from a good number of Christian denominational churches in Dimapur aside from the Alliance members. Involving the churches in disseminating awareness on the rights of children can go a long way, in a place where atrocities against children is assumed to occur only in foreign lands.
Veteran social activist, K. Ela, director of Prodigal’s Home speaking on the grim reality of child rights violation in Dimapur said that it is very much a happening practice here. “We think that child trafficking only happens in foreign places, far beyond Nagaland. No, we are wrong... It is very much prevalent here too,” Ela said. Stating that domestic child labour is a menace in Nagaland, she took the instance of employing under-aged domestic helps in Naga homes, who are mostly from under-privileged family backgrounds.
Treating domestic helps like commodities, many Naga Christian families are knowingly or unknowingly practicing it but let it be known that ignorance is not an excuse. Allowing it to continue is no less than creating crime in one’s own homes, she said. “If you are keeping them to exploit, please think again. You are parents too... You have children too.”
Further, the sad part of child trafficking is that victims, who mostly end up as domestic helps, become helpless victims, suffering quietly.
