Youth to spread awareness on ending violence against children, promote COVID19 vaccination
Correspondent
NewsBits.in
BHOPAL: To mark Youth Day, Child Rights Observatory had organized meeting of young people and its civil society partner network today. Around 60 participants from 25 districts participated in the meet.
Young people raised issues of violence against children, discrimination happening on children and challenges of cyber security, and online education. They also spoke on the mental health challenges they had faced during COVID and also had queries on COVID19 vaccination.
Speaking at the event Raghuraj Singh, member, Child Rights Observatory welcomed the participants and said that the meet will have session on child protection and COVID19, as both of them are important issues in current context. He added that we wanted to hear from youth as part of youth day celebration and have experts to inform the young people especially on child protection, education and COVID19.
Anil Gulati Communication Specialist, UNICEF, speaking at start of the meeting, called on the young people to use their energies creatively for bring in change for children and to say no to violence against children. Several other speakers spoke at length on the occasion.
Lolichen P Joseph, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF, Madhya Pradesh speaking on the theme of child protection, said that ending violence against children is a multi-stakeholder agenda. CSOs and community based groups should help raise public discourse, engage with community and work with the district authorities, schools and panchayat raj to support in the implementation of the efforts by the State to end violence against children
For session on COVID19, Dr Ravindra Bagal, Health Officer, UNICEF MP spoke on the importance of following COVID19 appropriate behaviour, COVID vaccination and role young people have and can play in improving vaccination coverage and CAB. Discussion was held on not sharing any unverified information on COVID19 and do fact check before spreading any news or information related to COVID19 and Omicron.
Raghvendar Sharma, District Women and Child Development officer, Shivpuri spoke on the various schemes of Government on protection of children. He said that all children have equal rights. R L Parashar, Block Education Officer, Tikamgarh spoke on the efforts they are taking to get back children to school and efforts being done in schools for providing education in COVID19 times.
Anurag of Child Rights Observatory coordinated the zoom meeting. The meeting ended with call to youth to work on ending violence against children and support State efforts on COVID19 vaccination and implementing COVID19 appropriate behaviours. Youth namely Vansh Kadam, Bhopal, Vidhi, from Hoshangabad, Sachin Tripathi, Neha and many others spoke at the meet.