Minister Chaudhary stresses reform in Child Rights Council

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT, Lalitpur, Apr. 28: Minister for Women, Children and Senior Citizen Bhagwati Chaudhary directed structural improvements of the National Child Rights Council. Minister Chaudhary, also the Chairman of the council, on Saturday gave directions by conducting the first meeting after being appointed as the minister. 

Stating that the council was a specialised governmental body working in the field of child rights, she directed the council to work on policies, plans and programmes focusing on child rights, aiming for governmental reforms and strengthening the impact in the field.

The meeting decided to conduct an investigation into various issues related to child homes and reforms and to empower such institutions. 

Similarly, it also made changes in the responsibilities of the council's officials. The responsibility of coordination was given to the vice chair of the council and administration and finance were assigned to the member secretary. 

Minister Chaudhary pointed out the need to advance systematically to work in the field of child rights, emphasising the government's strong presence in the area of child rights and the city free from street children. 

She said, "Streets should be free of street children and the council must work to achieve it. We will work on this matter. If children are found on the streets, we have child homes and children's organisations. Therefore, our commitment needs to be updated." 

Minister Chaudhary directed to prepare a comprehensive document incorporating laws, regulations, services, facilities, court decisions and other related matters concerning children. She instructed to issue the document to the concerned bodies and local levels.

During the meeting, Secretary of the Ministry Dinesh Bhattarai informed that the ministry would take necessary policy decisions regarding questions raised about child homes and temporary protection service centres.

Member Secretary of the Council, Indra Devi Dhakal, said that there was a weakness in the agreement reached with NRNs regarding the rescue of street children. She said, "Regarding the NRN agreement, a women group of NRN visited the country when a budget of Rs. 15 million was not enough for rescuing street children when Uma Regmi was the minister. A contract was made at the rate of Rs. 5,000 per month per child, which would be directly deposited at the UNICEF. The funding is directly sent to the UNICEF instead of depositing it in the council. If it is wrong, I will work to bring it to the council."