Various governmental departments and NGOs under the aegis of Plan International on Wednesday resolved to make a cohesive action plan to directly improve the lives of one million children within the next one year.
The two-day South India conference on Children in Difficult Circumstance had concurrent sessions on child labour, child marriage, children impacted by disasters and children at risk of sexual exploitation including child trafficking.
The sessions drew upon the experiences of various participating organisations and drafted a collective action plan to have maximum sustainable impact on the affected children.
Former Inspector General Umapathi called for awareness and participation of people in the development process and praised the role of the NGOs in achieving the same.
Mr. Pradeep Narayanan, Director, Program Strategy and Policy, Plan India said that the conference had drawn up concrete plan for the NGOs but also cohesive proposals that would be submitted to the government for maximum impact.
Insightful study
Mr. Gopala Krishna Murthy, Member Secretary, Academy of Gandhian Studies, said that it was insightful to study the impacts of the various methods adopted by various NGOs and collective sharing of experiences will ensure that each NGO need not invent the wheel again.
Ms. Anita Kumar, Senior Program Manager, Plan India presented the action plan that was collectively drafted by the conference.
Delegates from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Pondicherry participated in the conference..
Prominent personalities who participated in the conference include Murali Krishna, child Protection officer, UNICEF, Prof. Uma Vennam, Rector, Padmavathi Mahila Vishwavidyalayam, P. Ramesh Shekar Reddy, Program Director, Mahita, Prof. Janki Andharia, TATA Institute of Social Science, Mumbai, Subrat Kumar Panda, TDH Foundation, Prabhakar Verma, General Manager, SEMB Corporation, R. Murali, Secretary, MARI, Telangana and Ashok Kumar, Field Manager, AGS.
