Chief Minister Hemant Soren today said that the State Government is sensitive towards the education of girl child in the State. If one daughter gets education she empowers the whole generation naturally, he said during an interaction here on Friday with Child reporters being trained and made aware of social issues by UNICEF, Jharkhand.
“The efforts of child reporters are commendable. Children's curriculum should also include information related to child marriage, child labour laws. So that children as well as their guardians can know about the laws. Many parents sell children due to poverty. It is painful. The government has made a law. Child marriage and child labour are crimes. These crimes will continue to happen until the poor get out of poverty. The present government is trying to bring such families out of poverty,” he said.
“The challenges before child reporters are not easy. We have to work together to make it easy. People as well as children are facing problems in the lockdown. There is constant brainstorming to solve these problems. Children's curriculum has been cut. Time is changing. Now education is important. Therefore, children should be covered with quality education. The government is working in this direction,” said Soren.
The CM said that along with education, work is also being done on the plan to make children skilful so that they have the ease of seeking employment. “Along with getting education, getting employment is also a challenge. If you do not get employment after education, then the youth suffer from depression. At the same time, if they have skills in their hands, then they will be able to pave the way for their employment. The CM said that UNICEF should prepare the magazine in collaboration with child reporters. The Department of School Education and Literacy will assist in communicating the thinking of child journalists to other children,” he said.
Child journalist Vanshika Kumari apprised the CM of the work done by the children during the Corona infection, Farheen Parveen of child marriage, Rukasar Parveen of freeing children from child labour and Deepa Kumari and Mohammad Kaif apprised the CM of connecting children with education and precautions to be taken during Covid 19.
UNICEF has been running a child reporter programme in Jharkhand since 2009. This year, more than 550 child reporters from five blocks of Ranchi have been trained with knowledge about child rights. These children are spreading awareness in the society about nutrition, health, child marriage, child labour, education etc. During the corona period, many children went ahead and helped people and made people aware of the epidemic. So far, more than 20,000 children are involved in the programme.