STRATEGIC MEETING ON NATIONAL POLICY FOR CHILDREN

Date: 26 April, 2010

 Venue: Jain College, Bangalore

 A strategy meeting to discuss revisions required to the National Policy for Children was held in Bangalore. 44 participants were present at the meeting. The participants invited to the meeting were mostly those familiar with the policy and its history with a vision for how the policy needs to be revised or taken forward.

The meeting started with clarifying the distinctions between policies, charter, plan of action etc and stating the objectives of the meeting against the background of previous discussions held at the national level.

The policy was then looked through by the participants, line by line, and corresponding suggestions were recorded. The rich experience of the participants provided many insights and dimensions to the changes needed in the policy.

 The necessity for a complete section on participation, which is absent in the policy in its current form, was decided upon by all present at the meeting. The need to ensure that participation of children in this process of policy revision was also stressed upon. The suggestions were made keeping in mind existing laws, acts, policies and international treaties that could be viewed in conjunction to this policy (E.g.: Juvenile Justice Act, Millennium Development Goals etc).

With a limited amount of time to reach consensus, wherever discussions could not be speedily resolved, the responsibility to provide a write-up on the section was taken up by a participant.

The meeting ended with chalking out plans for follow-up meetings and some participants deciding to hold smaller thematic meetings at various places. To ensure representation from districts within the state, a state consultation was decided to be held tentatively around the 3rd week of May.

The draft from the strategic meeting with inputs received from thematic discussions will form the basis for the state-wide consultation. It was decided that an appropriate format, keeping in mind the audience for this state consultation, needs to be developed to ensure effective outcomes.

The highly motivated, articulate and experienced group made for lively discussions throughout the meeting and set the tone for further input sessions/meetings planned.

Please contact us for the detailed report highlighting all suggestions/changes that emerged from the meeting