The Union budget should focus more on issues related to children: Kailash Satyarthi

The government should allocate more funds on issues related to welfare of health and education of children.

“In a country like India where almost 41 per cent of the population is below 18 years of age, only 4 per cent of the budget is allocated for issues like child health. No country can accomplish inclusive and sustainable develop unless it prioritises the health care, education of its children,” said the Noble laureate.

According to him, the governments should also make some amendments in the laws related to child labour.

The Child Labour Act (1986) allowed child labour in most occupation and industries except in few hazardous industries. The law did not include children between the age of 15 to 18.

We have always advocated to keep out children’s below the age of 14 from child labour and children from 15 to 18 should be kept away from hazardous occupations.

The 1986 act listed eighty three types of occupations and industries as hazardous but the recent amendment has slashed down the number to only three, he added.

Satyarthi also demanded that the government should  make some extra effort to protect children from issues like trafficking, slavery and violence against them.

The Noble laureate also looks forward to work with the West Bengal government in the near future.

“This is my first visit in Kolkata after winning the Noble Peace Prize. I offer myself to the government. I look forward to help the government of West Bengal in whatever way I can. We know that problems like child labour, trafficking is also a very popular problem in this part of the country,” he said.

The Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation is also planning to launch a global programme by the end of this year called “100 million for 100 million”, where 100 million children or youths globally from different educational institutions would become the voices of another 100 million deprived children globally.

“This is going to be the largest and the most ambitious campaign in the world. I strongly believe that the younger generations of our country can be considered as the solutions to many problems, the potentials of the youths can be used in many ways for the development of any country,” said Kailash Satyarthi.

"This is going to be an online as well as an offline campaign. We are already working on it. By the end of this year we are looking forward to launch this campaign,” he added.

On being asked about his opinion on the ongoing protest by students of JNU, the Noble prize winner said, “I would say that I am not an expert on this. There are many experts of political as well as non- political parties and other group’s engaged in this kind of debates. My priority should not be deviated, my focus will always be on the development of children.”

(Reporting by Adit Majumder)