Kolkata
The West Bengal's child rights panel has come up with a unique demand.
To ensure that the children understand their rights, the panel wants the school curriculum to be modified to include child's rights.
The chairperson of West Bengal's Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Ashokendu Sengupta said that the panel would pass on a recommendation to the state Government for the inclusion of all the laws around right to education as well as protection and prevention from all kinds of sexual abuse in the regular syllabus of the school.
He was quoted saying "We do not want to put any extra load on the children but there should be at least one page somewhere in their book which tells them about their rights in a simple language. This will increase awareness. Only we know about child rights and laws but they must also know,"
The panel plans to have a meeting with the state's school syllabus committee to convince them regarding the inclusion of child's rights in the school syllabus.
"My friends don't know what are their rights as a child. Those in English medium schools are aware of these things but not those in Bengali medium ones. Therefore, child rights should be included in the school curriculum," said Sikha Patra, who works with NGO Prayasam as an educator.
The panel's point of view found backing from Asadur Rahman, UNICEF's West Bengal chief.