*Ingrid Srinath
Is
there anything that hasn’t yet been said about the tragic deaths of 23 children
in Chhapra, Bihar? The sad event has triggered long overdue, public examination
of India’s much vaunted, and much needed, Midday Meal programme. There has
certainly been no dearth of opinions on the merits and deficiencies of the
scheme. Conspiracies have been alleged, hands wrung, petitions launched, fingers
pointed and stirring testimonials to the programme’s necessity and efficacy
proffered. But a national programme that keeps malnutrition at bay for over 100
million children needs more than partisan posturing, pious promises, pedantic
prescriptions or profit-driven panaceas.
There
are hard questions that India, and Indians, must answer. Why have the gains of
three decades of growing prosperity left hundreds of millions in desperate
penury? Why have we failed to keep pace
on key development parameters with nations far poorer than us, whose economies
have grown far more slowly? How do we propose to build robust, sustainable
solutions for the provision of public goods and services that deliver for all
Indians? What kind of social contract do we collectively desire?
After the television cameras have moved on and
the public gaze diverted to the next scandal or scam, it remains uncertain that
this vital programme will see any improvement to its efficiency or
effectiveness.
Unless we focus squarely on the real deficit we face as a
nation - accountability.
Where
in the labyrinth of schemes, programmes, national missions and commissions do
the parents of those 23 children, and hundreds of millions like them, rendered
powerless, find justice? How do we bridge the yawning chasm between the promise
of rights and their realisation through bureaucratic channels that are all too
often corrupt, inefficient, disempowered, apathetic or absent? And how do we
ensure that the enormous sums of money spent deliver value to those most in
need?
A good
start would be independent, national mechanisms to monitor, facilitate, co-ordinate
and evaluate the design and delivery of such programmes. The system CHILDLINE
is familiar with is the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) which,
despite its many lacunae and shortcomings, could provide a possible template. Like
the Midday Meal Scheme, the ICPS envisages a constellation of players – public,
private and citizens – working together to ensure key rights and protections to
India’s children. Also, like the Midday Meal programme and every other national
programme serving India’s children, the ICPS is chronically under-resourced, plagued
by absent, inadequate or dysfunctional infrastructure and subject to corruption
and apathy.
What
the ICPS has, however, that these others lack, is a publicly funded,
independent, national mechanism in the form of CHILDLINE that works across and
with all our systems of child protection: juvenile justice; protection of
children from sexual offences, sexual exploitation and child marriage; programmes
for children with disabilities as well as those for street children and child
labourers. CHILDLINE links millions of children in need of care and protection
or in conflict with the law, with providers of legal, medical, physical,
psycho-social and, where possible, financial support that they need. We energise
unresponsive elements of this vast machinery, lubricate the interfaces between
its parts and fill the crevices between them. We help to train the system’s
many operators, transfer best practices and learning between them and hold them
to account where necessary. We reach out to children wherever they are to build
awareness and seek input. We collaborate widely with entities across sectors to
enlist the best partners in government, business, technology, civil society and
media to develop solutions. And are ourselves subject to scrutiny by our donors
and partners, not least the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
Most critically, however, CHILDLINE is an unwavering
champion of children. From the first report of a child at risk,
through the process of ensuring a speedy response, ascertaining facts and exploring
solutions, to tracking that child’s progress towards a satisfactory resolution
and, finally, advocating for policies based on concrete experience and data,
CHILDLINE remains singularly focussed on the needs and interests of the
individual child. Most other elements of this vast system either, have other
responsibilities besides children, or focus on a few aspects of a child’s
rights. Some are limited by geography, others by capacity. Most are
disconnected from each other. Few are accessible to citizens in general and to
children in particular.
It is a
credit to CHILDLINE’s founder, those who’ve led and managed it over the 17
years of its existence, the thousands of staff and volunteers who deliver its
services around-the-clock every single day and to those who’ve nurtured and
supported it in government, business, civil society and the media that it has
maintained its unrelenting focus even as it has grown in scale and scope from a
single city to 291 towns and districts within reach of almost 300 million
children. With the attention and investments promised under the 12th 5-year
Plan CHILDLINE will, over the next few years, cover every one of India’s districts and all
our almost half a billion children.
If
India is to deliver social protection and inclusive public services that
harness the distinct strengths of state, market and civil society to all its
citizens it might do well to examine this model. Perhaps what India’s Midday
Meal Scheme needs is a CHILDLINE.
*Ingrid Srinath is the Executive Director
of CHILDLINE India Foundation.
