World Children's Day #Day20

World Children’s Day was first established in 1954 as Universal Children's Day and is celebrated on 20 November each year to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and improving children's welfare.
November 20th is an important date as it is the date in 1959 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. It is also the date in 1989 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Since 1990, World Children's Day also marks the anniversary of the date that the UN General Assembly adopted both the Declaration and the Convention on children's rights.

Issues on Children Which Need To Be Addressed

1) Accessibility of education and health care: Learning is the very right of every child, and although its importance has been advocated very widely, the situation, although better than before, remains dull. Today, education remains a luxury for millions of children around the world. According to humanium.org,  more than 72 million children of primary education age are not in school and 759 million adults are illiterate and do not have the awareness necessary to improve both their living conditions and those of their children. Inspite of the constant awareness, underlying reasons such as poverty and marginalisation are acting as barriers in the mission of providing education to all. Thus, in this endeavour, such barriers must be mitigated as well. 

2) Child Abuse: According to childhelp.org, child abuse is when a parent or caregiver, whether through action or failing to act, causes injury, death, emotional harm or risk of serious harm to a child. There are many forms of child maltreatment, including neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, exploitation and emotional abuse. It can be considered as an umbrella term for serious crimes against children which are happening on a daily basis such as child labour, child marriage, child pornography, child trafficking and so on. These issues have only been increasing despite the increasing awareness and a call of action is certainly needed.

3) Mental Health of Children: Only gained some limelight in recent years, this certainly needs your attention. While the stress and pressure adults face is often talked about, the tension and stress a child, especially a teenager, has to go through often goes unnoticed. The negligence obviously has had its effects.  According to Wikipedia, suicide was the leading cause of death in India in 2016 for those aged 15–39 years making the teenagers highly vulnerable to suicide. We can make a contribution by making sure we take care of the mental well being of our near and dear ones instead of merely making small talk.

4) Freedom of Opinion and Choice: This is one issue which is very much neglected even in well-to-do and educated families. Whether it is making a career choice of their own interest or having an opinion which differs from their elders, such basic rights are also considered a taboo in many families. Every person, whether an adult or a child has a right to have their opinions. Even a child cannot be dictated by rules for every single thing they do and their individuality must be respected. Placing such restrictions hamper their growth and later their abilities to make decisions as adults.

These issues obviously need to be resolved and addressed by the governments and societies and the first step to their resolution is to create awareness about such issues happening around us. You can thus help by spreading the word!