“Treat Children as Human Beings, Not Properties,” Says Miguel Das at ‘The Conclave 2023’

The sixth session of the second day of The Conclave 2023 was held on the topic ‘Safeguarding Future: Tackling, Trafficking, Surrogacy and Child Adoption’ wherein child activist Miguel Das Queah stressed how the children should be treated as human beings instead of properties.

Speaking at the session, Das said, “There are a few families who are very abusive towards their children such as beating them, locking them inside a room and so on. When we question these abusive parents why they treat their children in this manner, they say, ‘They are my children, my property. It is our wish how to treat them’. They used to always treat their children as property but when this international law came into force, children are not the properties of their parents anymore. Children are human beings having their own set of rights and each one of us is obligated in respecting the rights of a child.”

Apart from Miguel Das, the panelists of the session included Dr. Divya Gupta, Member of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR); and Dr. Sangeeta Goswami, President of Mind India.

The moderator of the session was Maini Mahanta, Editor of Nandini.

Beginning the session, Maini Mahanta, referring to a joke asked, “We used to hear a joke when we were in college. It is about a conversation between two guys in which one asked the other guy if he knew the difference between heaven and hell, and the other replied here is heaven and here is hell. If you spend your childhood in Germany, young age in USA and old age in India, it is heaven. And if you need to spend your childhood in India, and old age in USA, then it is hell. With this, I wish to ask how you like to define child rights and child protection."

Dr. Gupta, thanking the Pratidin Media Group, said, “Normally in conclaves, we don’t have sessions on this topic like ever, so somebody has even thought about child rights in a conclave is a sheer matter of applaud and I really must thank them for even thinking about including this as a session.”

“To reply to the question, I do not agree with the joke being referred to. I recently visited the USA and in Las Vegas airport we saw huge hoardings displaying ‘Stop Buying Girl Child’. This came as a shock to me. We talk about the Western world, we talk about them thinking very highly. If in Vegas you get such kinds of posters all along, this shows to which level they have stooped. It is beyond imagination. When we witness the great results of ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’, it makes us feel that we are moving forward. If you have a vision, a commitment, some kind of thought that you could take it forward then one can notice the change in the society.”

While speaking on the matter, Dr. Sangeeta said, “There is a thing that we talk about and we say that ‘if you not on the table, probably you are on the menu’ so children are that. As stakeholders, it is very important for us to create a table for them. Keeping that in mind, we need to look at child rights and child protection from that perspective.”

“As a psychologist, we have to talk about the mental health of a child and while talking on this matter, it is very important for us to understand their holistic health. When we are young parents, we do go ahead and talk a lot about the physical health of the child but what about the cognitive and thinking processes of the child? We call 0-5 years, in our language, the golden age because anything you are giving as an input is going to be something that will remain with them throughout their lives,” she said.

“The symptoms of mental disorders usually display during the adolescent phase which is very sad but true. Thirteen percent of the global burden of disease is actually part of these mental disorders and that is why is has become more of a public health issue and a concern,” Dr. Sangeeta stated.

“A lot of developments have taken place for the children. New laws have been implemented to protect their rights including the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act, the Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Apart from these, there is the new Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. Moreover, the NEP for the school has emphasized on social and emotional learning of children. If we are able to achieve this then we will be able to witness several developments in the psycho-social aspects,” she added.

Referring to the recent child abuse case in Guwahati involving a renowned psychiatrist and her husband who was also a doctor by profession, Mahanta questioned child activist Miguel Das Queah on how to handle victims who face these kinds of mental trauma and emotional crisis.

Replying to this, Miguel said, “We have witnessed the worst form of child abuse in Guwahati where a doctor couple illegally bought two children from poor families and used them as toys. I have seen their bodies and the videos that the police had shown. The people cannot imagine that such kinds of abuse were going on in an Assamese family. This has happened because of the concept that children are deprived of their rights and we as adults decide what needs to be done to them. If we are able to change this perspective by listening to their voices with respect, trying to be aware of their needs, then I feel we will be able to know the true meaning of child rights.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Gupta adding on the Guwahati child abuse case said, “I had the opportunity to meet the victims of the abuse and it was appalling. Nobody can ever imagine someone doing such an extent of horror to a child who was less than 10 years old. I could sleep the night after meeting the victims. They were so innocent to whom the couple might have done so many unimaginable things. That gave me the thought of whether we can formulate some law by a severe punishment through which the accused can never come out. No lawyer should be defending them. The kind of gruesome activity they have done to those children is unthinkable under the sun. NCPCR works on whether we can redefine and revisit the laws and formulate in a much better manner.”

Furthermore, referring to NEP 2020 which states to send children to school when they reach the age of three, Mahanta asked for the views from Dr. Sangeeta on what she feels about the criticisms by educationists that claim that it to be a violation of child rights as the place of children should be at home in this tender age. To this, the psychologist said, “No doubt the first school is always the home but we also have to consider how many parents can spend time with their children at home because sending them to school does not mean they are moving them away from home. The concept of kindergarten is different, it is more like a play school. It is a gradual transition from home to school and move into to formal system of education.”

The conclave is being held for two days on September 23 and 24 and has been organized in the national capital with the view that voices from the Northeast are heard in the power corridors of the nation.

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