The Centre on Tuesday decided to appoint Shantha Sinha as chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) for the second term.
Ms. Sinha, a renowned child rights activist, was appointed as the chairperson of the child rights panel in 2007. An academic with the Central University Hyderabad, Ms. Sinha is the winner of prestigious Magsaysay Award for 2003. She was presented the Padma Shree Award in 1999 for her work on child rights.
The NCPCR emphasises the principle of universality and inviolability of child rights and recognises the tone of urgency in all the child related policies of the country. For the Commission, protection of all children in the 0 to 18 years age group is of equal importance. Thus, policies define priority actions for the most vulnerable children. This includes focus on regions that are backward or on communities or children under certain circumstances, and so on. The NCPCR believes that while in addressing only some children, there could be a fallacy of exclusion of many vulnerable children who may not fall under the defined or targeted categories. In its translation into practice, the task of reaching out to all children gets compromised and a societal tolerance of violation of child rights continues. This would in fact have an impact on the programme for the targeted population as well. Therefore, it considers that it is only in building a larger atmosphere in favour of protection of children's rights, that children who are targeted become visible and gain confidence to access their entitlements.
The NCPCR was created by an act of Parliament in 2005. However, the government is yet to take a decision on its members.
