UNICEF’s report emphasises to make a better world for children

Chief of UNICEF Field Office for Odisha Shairose Mawji, Odisha Governor MC Bhandare and Secretary of HUD, ODisha Saurabh Garg

BHUBANESWAR: “Urbanisation leaves hundreds of millions of children in cities and towns around the world, excluded from vital services, as almost half the world’s children now live in urban areas,” United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) warned in its annual report ‘The State of the World's Children 2012: Children in an Urban World’ which was released by Governor Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare here on Saturday.

The State of the World’s Children report is released globally every year to bring focus on children and women. This year, the report focuses on ‘Children in an Urban World’ was launched on February 28 this year in New York and in some parts of India. State office of UNICEF also launched its first copy in Odisha on Saturday.  

The report called for greater emphasis on identifying and meeting the needs of the children and to make a better world for them as an increasing number of children living in towns and cities, live in poor areas or slums and these children are amongst the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in the world, deprived of the most basic services and denied their rights.

The report has mentioned about the urban challenges like migration, economic crisis, urban violence and disaster risk where children, the most vulnerable group, are affected most of the time. It also emphasised to ensure rights of the children like proper health and nutrition, education, child protection, water, sanitation and hygiene.

Launching the flagship publication of UNICEF, Governor said by 2026 it is expected that forty per cent of the total population in India will live in urban areas. It is expected that growing Odisha and its dominant rural population would have become a part of this rapid urbanisation making up for the forty percent, he added.

“Each child is world of possibilities and we all have to ensure fertile environment so that these possibilities are transformed into reality,” said Bhandare adding, “Our passage towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals would also include our efforts in the urban areas. We need to pledge that each one of us here will work to ensure that every child in our state, in rural and the urban are able to live safe and fulfilled lives.”

Among others, Commissioner-cum-secretary of Odisha Housing and Urban Development Saurabh Garg, Chief of UNICEF Field Office for Odisha Shairose Mawji, Communication for Development Officer Lopamudra Tripathy, social activists and other officials of UNICEF were present.