Assam's children urge ultras to stop carnage

Assam's children urge ultras to stop carnage
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

GUWAHATI, NOV 22: It began as what it was initially announced as: A mock parliament presented by children. But even as the proceedings got underway and members of the "opposition" began to grill the "treasury" members on the pathetic condition of children in the state, things began getting serious.

Three thousand people watching the mock parliament in the open-air theatre of the Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra here soon forgot that they were only watching a mock session. The "opposition" members asked questions about primary education, about immunisation, about doctors not going to the villages, and schools lacking in not just sports equipments but even playgrounds.

And as the "chief minister" made a statement on the over-all situation of child rights in the state and gave some statistics of children being killed by insurgent groups, the leader of the "opposition" came up with a brilliant idea. Why not the "Speaker" initiate a resolution, cutting across "party lines" and make an appeal to the insurgent groups to spare at least the innocent children?

The entire "House" greeted the proposal with loud thumping on the tables. And soon the "Speaker" read out: "This parliament of the children of Assam expresses grave concern at the violation of the rights of the child to survival and protection in the state. A number of innocent children have fallen victims to the bullets of the insurgent groups. This children's parliament calls for a halt to such killings and appeals to all quarters to ensure the rights of the children to survival, protection, development and education."

Once again a thundering applause. And the "resolution" was "passed." The above children's parliament was the closing session of an All-Assam Children's Meet jointly organised by UNICEF and the Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra in Guwahati on Monday and Tuesday on the occasion of the eleventh World Child Rights Day. And as the "Speaker" announced that the "resolution" was "passed", the 3,000 strong audience seated in the galleries of the open-air theatre too welcomed it with a standing ovation accompanied by a thundering applause.

The Meet, attended by 400 children drawn from all the districts of Assam through the 50-year old Sadau Asom Moina Parijat, the apex children's body of the state, saw children discuss various aspects of child rights, apart from interacting with resource persons drawn from various walks of life. Said Manik Bora, a well-known writer of children's books, "The children of today have become extremely aware of their rights. They want to grow up in a better environment where their rights are not violated or infringed upon." "What the children have demanded through the resolution of the mock parliament is purely spontaneous," said Gautam Sharma, chief organiser of the Meet and secretary of the Kalakshetra. "The resource persons have only pointed out what their rights are, as enshrine in the Convention of Child Rights. They selected their own group leaders, selected 'members' for the parliament, appointed the 'ministers' and 'speaker' and came up with the issues without any prompting or doctoring," he added. "We arevery much concerned at the way little children like us are being killed. Two little children were killed in Nalbari on the Diwali day. Three others were killed at Simaluguri last week. One five-year old was killed at Naohaliya. And nobody seems to be bothered," said Neelakshi Choudhury, who was the "prime minister" in the children's parliament.