Marking the completion of 20 years of the Child Rights Convention (CRC) and celebrating the International Child Rights Day, UNICEF, Uttar Pradesh, will be launching an illustrated book on child rights on Friday in Lucknow.

While the book will be distributed across UNICEF offices in the country, Uttar Pradesh will be the first state to distribute this book among the students and teachers of government primary schools in UP. The UNICEF communication expert, Augustine Veliath, said the book was designed as child rights is not a much talked about or understood subject in the state.

“UP has the largest concentration of children and interestingly it is also one of the states with maximum number of child rights violation cases. From child labour to school dropouts to gender inequality, the state has seen it all. Hence, we decided to launch this book first in UP,” said Veliath.

Beginning Thursday, UNICEF has organised a three-day summit of child leaders in Lucknow, where 108 children from 18 divisions of UP have gathered together to discuss their needs and rights.

The book has already been circulated among these children and their teachers, who feel that this will certainly be a big leap towards awareness on child rights.

Eleven-year-old Meenakshi, a student of KGBV, Meerut, said: “My teachers did tell me about child rights. But now, with this book, I know that I have a right to express myself. After I go back home, I will show this book to my parents and other relatives.”

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