Security of children over Indian railways

Abstract

A Century ago, when celebrated Lebanese- American Poet and Philosopher Kahlil Gibran penned his thoughts in his celebrated novel The Prophet- “ Your Children are not your children, they are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself”, little did he know that his message will hold more relevance in the world today which is plagued with terror , exploitation and abuse treating children as worthless beings. The whole challenge today revolves around making this world worthy of the children while ensuring a life of dignity to them. Article 1, UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS proclaims that “All Human Beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”.( United Nations General Assembly Resolution 217 A) The fact that Article 1 has been unanimously accepted by all countries of the world confer the moral obligation that Human Beings irrespective of caste, color, religion, region, sex deserve to be treated with equality and due respect. This brings us fundamentally to the question of the rights of children. United nations reverberated the thoughts of Kahlil Gibran while laying insistence on Children’s rights when it was proclaimed that children cannot be treated as the possessions of parents or of state, but they possess equal status as any other member of the family. This draws to the primary objective behind addressing this sensitive issue in Policy Paper. The truth is that Children are Vulnerable. They are dependent on adults for proper care-giving and guidance so as to grow as mature and independent human beings. Since they are still in the developing stage,sadversarial conditions like poverty, poor access to basic amenities of water, health care, nutrition affects the future of children and in turn that of society and nation as a whole. The aim of the Policy Paper is to explore the complex intermingling of the contextual frameworks which has resulted in the children found on the streets in general and on railway premise in particular. Transforming familial structure, migration, poverty, violence and even the global climatic change are all affecting the children, which is more often than not having devastating impact on them. The ambit of paper also tries to explore the maze of government policies vis-a -vis children with a perspective of analyzing the advantages and lacunae implicit in them.