TN lends an ear to children while drafting 12th plan

Chennai:

Tamil Nadu planning commission is lending an ear to children while drafting the XIIth plan, according to vice-chairperson of state planning commission Santha Sheila Nair.

Addressing a press conference to release Unicef’s ‘State of The World’s Children Report – 2012, she said that state is taking steps to address children’s rights, education health and labour issues and is providing a space for children’s representation by taking in their inputs for plan formulation.

She also highlighted that the biggest challenge faced by the state is stateless and paperless migrant children who face the threat to be trafficked.

“There is a large amount of children who migrate to urban areas and are alone without any paper and the biggest challenge for the state is to register them,” she said while urging the non-governmental organizations to work with state-run organizations.

She also said that there is a need for civil society to work in urban slums to provide physical security to vulnerable children.

Nair said that, “the indicators relating to children living in cities and towns on wealth, health, nutrition, sanitation, safe water and education are generally beter than those in villages. But the data unmasks the deprivation and exclusion faced by children of the urban poor and often their indicators are worse than those who live in villages.”

Interestingly, the slum population in Chennai is rated to be fourth in the country. “About 87 lakh people live in slums across Tamil Nadu of which Chennai alone has 11 to 12 lakh,” said Dr Satish Kumar, chief of Unicef state office for Tamil Nadu and Kerala.