BANGALORE'S DEPRIVED CHILDREN: A CONTINUING SYSTEMIC FAILURE

摘要

In recent years, the pressure on urban centres in India has increased dramatically. Urbanisation as a process of socio-economic transformation should lead to an upward shift in the scale of development, associated with an improvement in the quality of life and environment. Unfortunately, in Bangalore, it has been both sectorally and spatially imbalanced. The natural growth rate and a high level of rural-urban migration together have resulted in high population densities. Thus, slums with inadequate civic amenities and community facilities have mushroomed (TECSOK et al, 1989). Given the inability of urban markets to absorb and remunerate an inadequately skilled or trained workforce, high levels of poverty and inequality have emerged. Within this context, urban deprived children belong to a category that deserves special attention. On the one hand, external factors contrive to deprive them of a childhood, and on the other, virtually assure them an insecure future. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) ratified by India in 1992 sets universal legal standards for the protection against neglect, abuse and exploitation. It also guarantees their basic human rights including survival, development and full participation in social, cultural, education and other endeavours necessary for their individual growth and well-being (GOK, DCWD, 1994 After India's independence in 1947, its Constitution articulated its concern for the status of the child through numerous provisions germane to the development of children. These have been given clear policy articulation through laws and policies such as the following: · Rights of the Child - 1959; · National Policy for Children (NPA) - 1974; · National Health Policy - 1982; · Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act - 1986; · National Policy on Education - 1986 / 1992; · Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding Bottles and Infant Foods Act - 1992; · National Policy on Nutrition - 1993. India's National Plan of Action for Children has been followed by State Programmes of Action for the Child including in Karnataka, 1994. The Supreme Court has also, of late, made landmark judgements, banning child labour and elevating the right to basic education to the stature of a fundamental right. These acts and policies have further developed into schemes for redressing the situation faced by deprived children. The extent to which rhetoric has been translated into reality clearly merits examination.