Child – responsibilities and
obligations of Preschool and School Stakeholders
The Government of India in
pursuance of Constitutional provisions evolved a National Policy for the
Welfare of Children. This Policy starts with a goal-oriented perambulatory
introduction:
“The nation’s children are a
supremely important asset. Their nurture and solicitude are our responsibility
..”
In the Declaration of the
Rights of the Child adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on
20th November, 1959. The Declaration in its Preamble points out that
“the child, by reason of his
physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including
appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth”,
and that
“mankind owes to the child the
best it has to give”.
“Every child has a right to
love and be loved and to grow up in an atmosphere of love and affection and of
moral and material security” – Honorable Justice P N Bhagwati
“best interest of the child is
paramount” – Honorable Justice K.S. Panicker Radhakrishnan and Honorable Justice
Madan B. Lokur
We are a civilized society
having well established legal process, legislature, judiciary and various other
administrative and judicial bodies. So let us see the entire ‘Child –
responsibilities and obligations of Preschool and School Stakeholders’ from the
constitutional perspective.
Latin maxim ‘parenspatriae’;
Court is ‘parenspatriae’ for minor children, that means Court has guardianship
over minor children and is duty bound to protect minor children and issue
direction in relation to these.
Honorable Supreme Court in case
of Laxmi Kant Pandey Vs. Union of India (1984) 2 SCC, 244, (from the bench of
Honorable Justice P N Bhagwati) made following observations:-
“The child is a soul with a being, a nature and capacities of its own,
who must be helped to find them, to grow into their maturity, into fullness of
physical and vital energy and the utmost breath, depth and height of its
emotional intellectual and spiritual being; otherwise there cannot be a healthy
growth of the nation. Now obviously children need special protection because of
their tender age and physique, mental immaturity and incapacity to look after
themselves. That is why there is a growing realization in every part of the
globe that children must be brought up in an atmosphere of love and affection
and under the tender care and attention of parents so that they may be able to
attain full emotional, intellectual and spiritual stability and maturity and
acquire self-confidence and self-respect and a balance view of life with full
appreciation and realization of the role which they have to play in the nation
building process without which the nation cannot develop and attain real
prosperity because a large segment of the society would then be left out of the
developmental process. In India this consciousness is reflected in the
provisions enacted in the Constitution. Clause (3) of Article 15 enables the
State to make special provisions inter alia for children and Article 24
provides that no child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to
work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.
Clauses (e) and (f) of Article 39
provide that the State shall
direct its policy towards securing inter alia that the tender age of children
is not abused, that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter
avocations unsuited to their age and strength and that children are given
facility to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and
dignity and that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and
against moral and material abandonment. These constitutional provisions reflect
the great anxiety of the constitution makers to protect and safeguard the
interest and welfare of children in the country. The Government of India has
also in pursuance of these constitutional provisions evolved a National Policy
for the Welfare of Children. This Policy starts with a goal oriented per ambulatory
introduction.”
Importance of Preventive
Aspects:
Child is subject to various
abuses, Criminal Courts in India are filled with plenty cases.
Honorable Supreme Court in case
of Shankar KisanraoKhade Vs. State of Maharashtra (2013) 5, SCC, 546, (from the
coram of Honorable Justice K.S. Panicker Radhakrishnan and Honorable Justice
Madan B. Lokur) made following observations:-
“I may also point out that, in
large numbers of cases, children are abused by persons known to them or who
have influence over them. Criminal Courts in this country are galore with cases
where children are abused by adults addicted to alcohol, drugs, depression,
marital discord etc. Preventive aspects have seldom been given importance or
taken care of. Penal laws focus more on situations after commission of offenses
like violence, abuse, exploitation of the children. Witnesses of many such
heinous crimes often keep mum taking shelter on factors like social stigma,
community pressure, and difficulties of navigating the criminal justice system,
total dependency on perpetrator emotionally and economically and so on. Some
adult members of family including parents choose not to report such crimes to
the police on the plea that it was for the sake of protecting the child from
social stigma and it would also do more harm to the victim. Further, they also
take shelter pointing out that in such situations some of the close family
members having known such incidents would not extend medical help to the child
to keep the same confidential and so on, least bothered about the emotional,
psychological and physical harm done to the child.
“Sexual abuse” can be in any
form like sexually molesting or assaulting a child or “allowing a child to be
sexually molested or assaulted” or encouraging, inducing or forcing the child
to be used for the sexual gratification of another person, using a child or
“deliberately exposing” a child to sexual activities or pornography or
procuring or allowing a child to be procured for commercial exploitation and so
on.
“In my view, whenever we deal
with an issue of child abuse, we must apply the best interest child standard,
since best interest of the child is paramount and not the interest of
perpetrator of the crime. Our approach must be child centric.”
Honorable Additional Sessions
Judge IllaRawat (Delhi) in State Vs. Ram Singh under section 342/376/511 of
Indian Penal Code and 6 & 10 of POCSO (Prevention Of Child Against Sexual
Offences) Act [Judgment pronounced on 22nd December 2014]; refers case of Laxmi
Kant Pandey Vs. Union of India and made following observation :-
“…the concept of welfare and
well-being of children is basic for any civilized society and this has a direct
bearing on the state of health and well-being of the entire community, its
growth and development”
“It has been time and again
emphasized in various legislations, international declarations as well as the
judicial pronouncements that the children are a ‘supremely important national
asset’ and the future well-being of the nation depends on how its children grow
and develop”
Learning we shall take home:
- Whatever we do, only one thermometer to test its justification is “welfare of the child”.
- Preschools and Schools shall make Child ‘understand’ about his/her importance in the Society.
- Preschools and Schools shall teach Child about his/her ‘Rights’, this will also help them in making children aware about their responsibilities.
- We need to take “Preventive Steps”, with respect to everything we do, so as to protect the child from any kind of abuses.
- Prompt reporting of Crime is utmost necessary. Principal, Teachers, shall never stop themselves from reporting, the “Child” is a combined responsibility of Society.