NGO to run legal aid cell on child rights

August 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A raid on illegal brocade and cosmetic units led to the rescue of 96 child labourers here. Central officials of the department of child labour and child rights activists raided zari (brocade) and 'bindi' (cosmetic stickers) units in six locations in New Delhi.

August 19th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Natural disasters like the 2008 floods in India leave children vulnerable to trafficking and many girls end up being "sold as brides", says a new report by a global child rights group. "Post-disaster, human trafficking has become common in the region (South Asia) as increasing manmade conflicts and natural disasters leave the already poor even more vulnerable," says the study by global child rights group ECPAT International, supported by the Body Shop International.

July 14th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Bubbling with excitement, six children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds met the youngest minister of the government, Agatha Sangma, at her office Tuesday to discuss various ways to eliminate child labour. Putting forth the children's views with confidence, Yogesh told the minister of state for rural development: Free and compulsory education is the most important demand that we children have.

July 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Minister for Tourism and Housing Kumari Selja on Wednesday said that the Government has sanctioned over 1.5 million houses for the poor people across the country. Kumari Selja, releasing her ministry's 100-day agenda, announced that the Government is likely to develop a model legal framework to consider property rights to the urban slum dwellers.

May 14th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Delhi High Court Thursday asked the child rights panel to submit a detailed report of the probe it conducted into the death of Shanno, an 11-year-old student, after alleged corporal punishment by her teacher here. After accepting an inquiry report by Delhi Police, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice Neeraj Kishan Kaul asked the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) to submit the detailed report by May 24.

May 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A survey conducted by child rights organisation Bachpan Bachao Andolan Wednesday said around 80 percent candidates contesting elections this Lok Sabha polls do not have child welfare or Right to Education on their priority list. Bachpan Bachao Andolan carried out the survey after scanning the campaign speeches of 476 candidates.

May 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US military commissions to try terrorism suspects could be revived as early as this summer, but with increased legal protections for the accused, reported the Washington Post Saturday. After President Barack Obama's inauguration, the White House instituted a 120-day suspension of the military commissions.

April 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked the Uttar Pradesh government to compensate a woman prisoner who lost her new born baby girl because of inadequate medical facilities in the jail. Boby, a woman prisoner, was lodged in the Agra district jail on June 20, 2006 and gave birth to a baby on August 23, 2006.

April 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A shocked child rights commission has decided to take up the case of the 11-year-old schoolgirl who died Friday afternoon after her teacher allegedly beat her and forced her to stand out in the sun. 'It is shocking how a young girl was punished so brutally that she lost her life.

April 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Expressing shock over the death of an 11-year-old girl after she was allegedly beaten by her teacher in the capital, Minister of Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury Friday said there are enough laws to protect children from violence but implementing them is a problem. 'It is such a terrible tragedy that an innocent girl died after being punished by teacher.

March 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Alarmed at the sudden spurt in cases of fathers sexually abusing their daughters, the child rights commission said that parents need to be counselled to handle such cases and recognise the fact that more than half the country's children are sexually abused. Just days after the shocking revelation of a Mumbai girl being allegedly raped by her businessman father over nine years, two other cases from Amritsar and Nagpur surfaced, recounting similar sordid tales.

March 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - National Human Rights Commission chairperson Justice S. Rajendra Babu today said that dissemination of knowledge human rights and duties must aim at bringing about attitudinal changes in human behavior.

February 12th, 2009 KEMEROVO - The police in Siberia are searching for a man who gave a moneylender his 18-month-old child as a guarantee for debt repayment, an official said Friday. The police were called to the village of Yasnaya Polyana in the south of the Kemerovo Region to check reports of an unidentified child who appeared in one of the families.

February 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Various NGOs of the capital came together Friday to deliberate on a common child protection policy, which will be adopted by all organisations, aiming to go a step ahead of the Juvenile Justice System Act which talks about child protection. Formulated by Udayan Care and Quality Institutional Care and Alternatives for Children, the Delhi Declaration on Child Protection Policy 2009 chalks out various responsibilities that an organisation committed to child care should adhere to.

January 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The next time an innocent little face peers through your car window at a traffic intersection in the capital, begging for alms, reach for your cell phone and dial the welfare helpline number 1098. It's a Delhi government initiative to rescue child beggars.