Mumbai: Child Rights and You (CRY), an NGO working for the welfare of children launched a nationwide campaign “Vote for Child Rights” in Mumbai on Wednesday November 14.

A study by CRY has revealed that not even a single target concerning the welfare of children, set by the Union government since 2002 has been fulfilled effectively due to which the campaign is initiated.

The statistical survey done by CRY also states that every second child in India is malnourished; 79% children across the country are anemic; and the child sex ratio is at the lowest ever with 914 girls for every 1000 boys. The national dropout rate at the elementary level is 40% despite the ratification of right to education.

Prompting the campaign CRY demanded, harmonizing the age definition for all child-related legislation, ensuring that right to education is fully implemented, ensuring no child remains malnourished and abolishing all forms of child labor by removing distinction between hazardous and non-hazardous category of work.

After releasing the statistical survey report Puja Marwaha, CRY CEO said, “Children are invisible citizens of this country. We have the largest population of kids in the world and yet there has been no national data to check the nutrition level of children since 2005.”

She further questioned, we are talking about various laws and policies that are being introduced as rights for children but are they availing the same?

The campaign stipulates zero tolerance to any form of violation of child rights. The NGO has approached political leaders with an appeal to give priority to children’s issues in their respective party manifestos.

The campaign was simultaneously launched in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai on Wednesday and CRY has planned a series of events for the next few months.