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Nine media fellows felicitated in Assam for reporting children's rights issue

By The Assam Tribune - 6 Dec 2022 5:59 AM GMT

Guwahati, Dec 6: The speaker of Assam Legislative Assembly, Biswajit Daimary, felicitated nine media fellows from different newspapers and television channels in Assam for successfully reporting on children's rights issues, namely, malnutrition and violence against children.

Among the fellowship holders, Mr. Pankaj Saikia from Pratidin Times was awarded the Media Award for in depth reporting on issues of violence against children.

The fellowship aimed at creating public awareness around the two issues, wherein selected fellows travelled to high burden districts and brought to the fore stories related to children.

The Media Fellows were also felicitated for completing the three-month-long fellowship by the Vice Chancellor Cotton University, Prof Ramesh Ch Deka, Chairperson of Assam State Committee for Protection of Children (ASCPCR) Dr Sunita Changkakati and Dr. Madhulika Jonathan, Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Assam.

The fellowships were announced in August by UNICEF India and Cotton University with support from the Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) Assam.

While addressing the audience, Biswajit Daimary said that the Assam legislative assembly is going to discuss the issue of child protection as part of the "Speaker's initiative" in the legislative assembly.

The Speaker further said, "The Assam Legislative Assembly has released a fund of Rs 1 lakh to each of the 126 legislative constituencies to be spent for awareness on Children Rights issues."

Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Assam, Dr. Madhulika Jonathan while speaking on importance of working with legislators, media and youth in safeguarding Children's Rights congratulated the Hon'ble Speaker of Assam Legislative Assembly for being a torchbearer for children and women's rights in the Assam Assembly.

Jonathan said that "It has been a privilege to partner and work with legislators towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals, of which, children are at the core."

"The sensitization of MLAs has been initiated. We saw questions raised by MLAs during the last Monsoon Session around trafficking of children, which resulted with the Hon'ble Chief Minister promising a Domestic Labour Bill." she added .

Chairperson, ASCPCR Dr. Sunita Changkakati highlighted the efforts undertaken under the Suraksha campaign for increasing public awareness and system strengthening on child protection issues.

Meanwhile, Vice Chancellor of the Cotton University, Dr. Ramesh Chandra Deka also highlighted the need for ethical reporting on children's issues and the need to mainstream their issues and Regional Director of National Service Scheme, Deepak Kumar highlighted the engagement between the UNICEF and NSS in Assam on Child Protection.